Twenty Years A-Growing [L0119]

1998 PB in Gift-Worthy condition. This is the story of a boy's growing up on the Great Blasket, a sparsely inhabited, Gaelic-speaking island off the coast of Ireland. It tells of the simple life of a society that no longer exists, with a humor and poetry refreshingly remote from the modern world that replaced it. Originally published in Gaelic

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "So many of the stories which come to us out of Ireland are, quite simply, sad. From Joyce's "The Dead" to McCourt's Angela's Ashes, we read of people who are, if not figuratively, then literally, impoverished. It is a lovely surprise, then, to come across Twenty Years A-Growing by Maurice O'Sullivan. In this memoir of his childhood and coming of age on the Great Blasket Island off the Southwest coast of Ireland, the only reason a reader might be inclined to put the book down is to board the jet to go there."; " What sets this apart from other Irish stories is that this memoir was written in Irish and then painstakingly translated by Moya Davies and George Thomson for the English reader. This is a hard to find book that reflects a bygone era of growing up on the Great Blasket, an island off the West coast of Ireland. Brilliantly translated, this work is a piece of creative non-fiction. O'Sullivan has told his story so well that these people will remain equally embedded in readers' minds."; "Wonderful, wonderful read. From the opening paragraph to the last page. Many memorable passages--it resonated with me." ; "If you've read Irish history you know it is a most complicated affair, never more so during the time of these native writings. English landlords, WWI, the Uprising, Civil War, yet the Blaskets stood apart from all that. Each day, each year unfolding upon the next. Rich in culture, imagination, and wit. While the beauty of the area will leave you breathless, knowing the people who lived here, on these rocks, scratching out a life for themselves, will transform you.

Enjoy.".