- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (2 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 009947431X
- ISBN-13: 978-0099474319
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 513,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Turlough
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
As famine and plague sweep across Ireland, and foreign oppressors drive the people from their land, one man spreads a message of hope and courage. Through his words and music, the 17th-century bard Turlough Carolan bewitches, shocks and delights all who hear him, winning fame and notoriety throughout the land. A complex man, Turlough's musical skills are matched only by his capacity for hell-raising and strong drink. Blind from an early age, his life is a protest against darkness, in all its forms. As Turlough and those who have loved him take stock of his life, it becomes apparent that this was no drunken troubadour, but a troubled saint.
Turlough represents a bold leap from the factual-journalistic world of Keenan's previous book, An Evil Cradling. But the two worlds are curiously entwined--for while he was held hostage in Beirut, Keenan was visited by a spiritual presence whom he believes to have been the real-life Turlough Carolan. This fictional account of the bard's life is a personal homage--steeped in powerful imagery and vibrant with historical colour, the ghostly presence of its hero can be felt on every page. Mysticism has never been so entertaining. --Matthew Baylis --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Imaginative and lovingly executed...There is something profound going on in this novel..." -"Times Literary Supplement"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Turlough was Keenan's shadow companion in captivity. But the author shuns the connection, choosing instead to attempt only a fictional biography of the famous bard. No matter how much Keenan borrows from the historical record--smallpox, blindness, fame, death, and legend--his Turlough remains a figment of a captive's imagination. The book has a single focus; all characters play audience to the harpist. And the reader is confined within a single stream of consciousness. "An Evil Cradling" now has its Janus-like bookends: "Between Extremes," facing a positive future and "Turlough," examining a troubled past.
True to Keenan's talent, there are passages rich enough to transport the reader to a specific time and place. You are on that pilgrimage or inside that hovel, inn, or garden. Less entertaining and more intrusive are patches of self-conscious dialogue, lectures, and gossipy letters. Much of this is reminiscent of those early interviews with and reports about the newly-released hostage. What pertains to the historic 17th century figure comes off as a masque.
Interestingly enough, there was another blind harpist of the same period who turns up in the two-volume biography of Carolan by Donal O'Sullivan. His name was John Keenan. And perhaps the source of Brian Keenan's compelling mental image is a different manifestation of paternal protection.
True to Keenan's talent, there are passages rich enough to transport the reader to a specific time and place. You are on that pilgrimage or inside that hovel, inn, or garden. Less entertaining and more intrusive are patches of self-conscious dialogue, lectures, and gossipy letters. Much of this is reminiscent of those early interviews with and reports about the newly-released hostage. What pertains to the historic 17th century figure comes off as a masque.
Interestingly enough, there was another blind harpist of the same period who turns up in the two-volume biography of Carolan by Donal O'Sullivan. His name was John Keenan. And perhaps the source of Brian Keenan's compelling mental image is a different manifestation of paternal protection.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Turlough Carolan may be a name familiar to those aquainted with the literature and history of Ireland but the man himself is a shadowy figure; known but not known. With "Turlough" however, Brian Keenan takes the reader into the life of this legendary harpist: through the narration of Carolan's friends and acquaintances he explores the mind behind the renowned musician yet never allows it to be forgotten that Turlough was also a man; susceptible to all the passion and vulnerability of humanity and one whom, despite the early loss of his sight, retained both his fascination with light and his fear of the dark.
As the novel progresses the story spreads out around Carolan himself and begins to explore the effect this man had upon the people he belonged to; how his ability to reach all levels of society taught an impoverished and oppressed race to step out of their darkness into the light of emerging nationhood.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
Brian Keenan's book was written as a result of his captivity in Beirut when Carolan came to him as a 'guide' and soulmate in his hours of darkness and solitude.
The novel tells the story of Turlough Carolan, who lost his sight as a result of smallpox. He was strange and solitary even as a boy and the loss of his sight compounded his dark nature.
He became a harpist of great renown and travelled the length and breadth of Ireland playing for the wealthy and in the taverns.
The tale is narrated by his friends and acquaintances and describes in great detail not only his life but the conditions in Ireland at the end of the 17th/ beginning of the 18th centuries - a time of great poverty, famine and oppression.
'Turlough' is a fascinating story and an extremely good read, I found it difficult to put down.
The novel tells the story of Turlough Carolan, who lost his sight as a result of smallpox. He was strange and solitary even as a boy and the loss of his sight compounded his dark nature.
He became a harpist of great renown and travelled the length and breadth of Ireland playing for the wealthy and in the taverns.
The tale is narrated by his friends and acquaintances and describes in great detail not only his life but the conditions in Ireland at the end of the 17th/ beginning of the 18th centuries - a time of great poverty, famine and oppression.
'Turlough' is a fascinating story and an extremely good read, I found it difficult to put down.
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