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Turlough (Hardcover)

by Brian Keenan (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £16.99
Price: £14.44 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Customers buy this book with An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan

Turlough + An Evil Cradling
Price For Both: £20.40

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  • This item: Turlough by Brian Keenan

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (28 Sep 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0224041517
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224041515
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 789,251 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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

Irish Times

'[Keenan] is aware of the possibilities that the human imagination can hold... an insight into those myriad possibilities’
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Turlough
40% buy the item featured on this page:
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An Evil Cradling
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Torment as Turlough, 17 Jan 2001
By A Customer
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The fascinating story of a man shrouded in legend, 30 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Turlough (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.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Good in parts, but disappointing overall, 24 Oct 2001
By katheyn@aol.com (Warrington, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Turlough (Paperback)
I was looking forward to reading this book, having heard a number of O'Carolan's tunes - I wanted to find out about the composer. The book gives a good general picture of Ireland at this time, and some of the imagery creates vivid pictures of the scenes portrayed, but a lot of the book is devoted to Keenan's musings on art, music and life, which he introduces through letters, recollections, and conversations between characters. I find these devices artificial and crude - they do not sit well within the narrative...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceelnt portrait of a man and his time
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. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2002

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