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Star of the Sea
In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some optimistic, many more desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith, his wife and children, and a killer stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution.
This journey will see many lives end, others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go.
As urgently contemporary as it is historical, this exciting and compassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.
This journey will see many lives end, others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go.
As urgently contemporary as it is historical, this exciting and compassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Joseph O'Connor
84 books493 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of the novels Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes , The Salesman , Inishowen , Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls , as well as a number of bestselling works of non-fiction.
He was recently voted ‘Irish Writer of the Decade’ by the readers of Hot Press magazine. He broadcasts a popular weekly radio diary on RTE’s Drivetime With Mary Wilson and writes regularly for The Guardian Review and The Sunday Independent. In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York.
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of the novels Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes , The Salesman , Inishowen , Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls , as well as a number of bestselling works of non-fiction.
He was recently voted ‘Irish Writer of the Decade’ by the readers of Hot Press magazine. He broadcasts a popular weekly radio diary on RTE’s Drivetime With Mary Wilson and writes regularly for The Guardian Review and The Sunday Independent. In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 851 reviews
May 15, 2013
MUST READ for all that love good book and Irish literature... :) This book got many awards (for very good reason) and the one that makes me very very very very proud of being its Serbian editor... Among my Top 15 titles I've signed as editor... :) True masterpiece!
June 25, 2013
Although the history of Ireland is rife with dramatic events, there is none more tragic than the Great Famine. In the middle of the 19th century the Emerald Isle was hit by Phytophthora infestans - more commonly known as the potato blight - which also plundered crops across continental Europe, where the 1840's became known as the Hungry Forties. Thousands of people died of starvation as they did not have any other staple food source. But the continental famine is a drop in the ocean when it comes to the effect the blight had on Ireland, where one third of the population depended exclusively on the potato as a sole food source: Approximately 1 million people starved to death, and a million more left Ireland for England, Scotland, Canada, Australia and the United States. Despite many people dying on ships sailing to the New World - mortality rates of 30% were not rare - emigration became almost a rite of passage: Women emigrated in the same numbers as men, and those who made it to the new country started a new life in a new land, and sent money to their families back home, allowing hem to emigrate as well. Landlords evicted the poor tenants en masse to avoid the responsibility of paying the rates for all of those who paid less than four pounds in yearly rent, effectively liquidating the small land plots and letting larger ones for over 4£. Few could afford that in time of such crisis, and during the worst part of the famine as much as 250,000 people left in one year; by the end of Ireland lost approximately one quarter of its inhabitants. Because of the famine and continued emigration the population of Ireland continued to decrease well into the second half of the 20th century.
As tragic as the famine, there were things which made it a thousand times worse. At the time Ireland was in an union with Great Britain, together forming the United Kingdom. Relations between the Irish and the British Crown were strained, heightened by ethnic, religious and political tensions. Colonization and war brought Ireland under the British rule, to great resentment of many of its people who staged several open rebellions, oppressing land confiscation and the enforcement of the reformed Christian faith as practiced by the Anglican Church. Despite uprisings and protests the two nations were merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, and during the famine Ireland remained a net exporter of food despite people dying of starvation. Huge quantities of food continued to be exported to England: the export of livestock, ham, bacon and calves actually increased during the famine. The poor had no money to buy any food and the government did not issue any ban prohibiting the exports and did little to help the starving. The famine was literally the last straw for the people of Ireland as it strengthened Irish Republicanism and campaigns for autonomy and sovereignty, which reached its culmination in the election of 1918 and the overwhelming victory of Sinn Féin, which won over 70% of seats of Irish MP's in the British Parliament. Sinn Féin promptly established a national parliament in Dublin, and declared Ireland's independence as a republic.
What followed was a war of independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army (more commonly known as the IRA) and the British government. The war ended with a truce in July 1921, and in 1922 both sides signed the Anglo-Irish treaty, which in effect partitioned the island between the two powers: it led to the creation of the Irish Free State, an autonomous dominion of the British Empire. The northern counties of the island almost immediately exercised their right to opt out of the new state, and chose to remain in the UK as Northern Ireland. In 1937 Irish citizens voted in a referendum to replace the 1922 constitution with a new one, ending the Irish Free State and declaring Ireland as a sovereign and fully independent from the United Kingdom. Ireland declared itself as a republic in 1949, removing King George VI as the constitutional monarch and severing its ties with the British Commonwealth. Relations between the two countries became strained once again in 1968 when nationalists and unionists crashed in Northern Ireland, beginning a three-decade long conflict known as The Troubles. Although the troubles officially ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, sporadic violence and riots continue to occur to this day, and a series of barrier walls had to have been developed in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland to separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, and keep Irish Nationalists from Ulster Unionists from each other's throats.
Bloody history, eh? Now the two nations enjoy a common travel area without passport controls and sit next to each other in the EU. Despite conflicts and tension still present in Northern Ireland the time to brood over the Great Famine seems to have passed for good. Interestingly enough, for such a defining event it has inspired remarkably little literature, poetry and drama: there exist countless novels and narratives concerned with slavery in the United States, while the number of creative works about the Irish Famine pales in comparison. There's no Beloved, Roots or Huck Finn about the famine, which is especially weird considering the country's rich literary tradition. An event so tragic and full of political, social and religious conflicts, with roles all ready for the suffering Irish poor and the greedy Irish landlords and the greedy British aristocrats just begs for a drama proper.
Which is where Joseph O'Connor enters the scene. Brother to the famous Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor (who infamously ripped up a photo of pope John Paul II on SNL as protest against child abuse in the Church) and author of Star of The Sea. The eponymous Star is a coffin ship sailing for New York from Britain, hosting a whole poor house from Connemara and a couple of big fish, along with an American journalist and aspiring author and a mysterious solitary man on a secret mission. The adjective "Dickensian" gets thrown around a lot but here it fits perfectly, and the good man himself also makes an appearance in the text.
O'Connor self-consciously apes the Victorian novel by presenting the text as written by Grantley Dixon, the American journalist, who in turn created his narrative from a multitude of sources: conversations, ship logs, diaries and letters. The book he wants to write follows the cruise chronologically, but is also filled with separate multiple threads which describe the background stories of the passengers before they left Ireland and England. Chapters are introduced by the title and a short summary of its events beneath - much like in serial novels of the time - and the book is filled with authentic illustrations from the period.
The Star can be seen as a microcosm of Irish - or rather British, as it was at the time - society, but the novel's separate threads offer a vast scope of personal histories which begin way before their heroes boarded the ship. There's material for several separate novels in here, and the work is very consciously epic and manages to pull them all off and have all threads knitted together at the end. Difficult marine life on the ship, shades of Belfast and love in rural Connemara mixed with the corruption and abuse of the Irish aristocrats. The novel's polyphony of voices features people from all roads and classes of life.
One of my favorite novels that I have read this year is Matthew Kneale's English Passengers, which I gave five stars and which earned its place on the shelf of my favorite books. Kneale's work also features a multitude of characters with their own distinctive voices on one ship and a fascinating voyage, destination and time - it's concerned with the English colonization of Australia and really is quite stellar. Similarities between The Star of the Sea and English Passengers end there, but it's a great novel about a tragic part of history which isn't written about very often. I doubt that those even remotely interested in Irish history will be able to resist this charm, but I am also sure that even those who know nothing about the period and country will find themselves picking it up with great interest. Besides being so many things, it's simply a well done yarn. Go ahead and pick it up. Éirinn go Brách!
As tragic as the famine, there were things which made it a thousand times worse. At the time Ireland was in an union with Great Britain, together forming the United Kingdom. Relations between the Irish and the British Crown were strained, heightened by ethnic, religious and political tensions. Colonization and war brought Ireland under the British rule, to great resentment of many of its people who staged several open rebellions, oppressing land confiscation and the enforcement of the reformed Christian faith as practiced by the Anglican Church. Despite uprisings and protests the two nations were merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, and during the famine Ireland remained a net exporter of food despite people dying of starvation. Huge quantities of food continued to be exported to England: the export of livestock, ham, bacon and calves actually increased during the famine. The poor had no money to buy any food and the government did not issue any ban prohibiting the exports and did little to help the starving. The famine was literally the last straw for the people of Ireland as it strengthened Irish Republicanism and campaigns for autonomy and sovereignty, which reached its culmination in the election of 1918 and the overwhelming victory of Sinn Féin, which won over 70% of seats of Irish MP's in the British Parliament. Sinn Féin promptly established a national parliament in Dublin, and declared Ireland's independence as a republic.
What followed was a war of independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army (more commonly known as the IRA) and the British government. The war ended with a truce in July 1921, and in 1922 both sides signed the Anglo-Irish treaty, which in effect partitioned the island between the two powers: it led to the creation of the Irish Free State, an autonomous dominion of the British Empire. The northern counties of the island almost immediately exercised their right to opt out of the new state, and chose to remain in the UK as Northern Ireland. In 1937 Irish citizens voted in a referendum to replace the 1922 constitution with a new one, ending the Irish Free State and declaring Ireland as a sovereign and fully independent from the United Kingdom. Ireland declared itself as a republic in 1949, removing King George VI as the constitutional monarch and severing its ties with the British Commonwealth. Relations between the two countries became strained once again in 1968 when nationalists and unionists crashed in Northern Ireland, beginning a three-decade long conflict known as The Troubles. Although the troubles officially ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, sporadic violence and riots continue to occur to this day, and a series of barrier walls had to have been developed in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland to separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, and keep Irish Nationalists from Ulster Unionists from each other's throats.
Bloody history, eh? Now the two nations enjoy a common travel area without passport controls and sit next to each other in the EU. Despite conflicts and tension still present in Northern Ireland the time to brood over the Great Famine seems to have passed for good. Interestingly enough, for such a defining event it has inspired remarkably little literature, poetry and drama: there exist countless novels and narratives concerned with slavery in the United States, while the number of creative works about the Irish Famine pales in comparison. There's no Beloved, Roots or Huck Finn about the famine, which is especially weird considering the country's rich literary tradition. An event so tragic and full of political, social and religious conflicts, with roles all ready for the suffering Irish poor and the greedy Irish landlords and the greedy British aristocrats just begs for a drama proper.
Which is where Joseph O'Connor enters the scene. Brother to the famous Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor (who infamously ripped up a photo of pope John Paul II on SNL as protest against child abuse in the Church) and author of Star of The Sea. The eponymous Star is a coffin ship sailing for New York from Britain, hosting a whole poor house from Connemara and a couple of big fish, along with an American journalist and aspiring author and a mysterious solitary man on a secret mission. The adjective "Dickensian" gets thrown around a lot but here it fits perfectly, and the good man himself also makes an appearance in the text.
O'Connor self-consciously apes the Victorian novel by presenting the text as written by Grantley Dixon, the American journalist, who in turn created his narrative from a multitude of sources: conversations, ship logs, diaries and letters. The book he wants to write follows the cruise chronologically, but is also filled with separate multiple threads which describe the background stories of the passengers before they left Ireland and England. Chapters are introduced by the title and a short summary of its events beneath - much like in serial novels of the time - and the book is filled with authentic illustrations from the period.
The Star can be seen as a microcosm of Irish - or rather British, as it was at the time - society, but the novel's separate threads offer a vast scope of personal histories which begin way before their heroes boarded the ship. There's material for several separate novels in here, and the work is very consciously epic and manages to pull them all off and have all threads knitted together at the end. Difficult marine life on the ship, shades of Belfast and love in rural Connemara mixed with the corruption and abuse of the Irish aristocrats. The novel's polyphony of voices features people from all roads and classes of life.
One of my favorite novels that I have read this year is Matthew Kneale's English Passengers, which I gave five stars and which earned its place on the shelf of my favorite books. Kneale's work also features a multitude of characters with their own distinctive voices on one ship and a fascinating voyage, destination and time - it's concerned with the English colonization of Australia and really is quite stellar. Similarities between The Star of the Sea and English Passengers end there, but it's a great novel about a tragic part of history which isn't written about very often. I doubt that those even remotely interested in Irish history will be able to resist this charm, but I am also sure that even those who know nothing about the period and country will find themselves picking it up with great interest. Besides being so many things, it's simply a well done yarn. Go ahead and pick it up. Éirinn go Brách!
August 29, 2017
I listened to this book on a long trip recently and once again really enjoyed the experience, The play Star Of The Sea is coming to my local theatre and I am really looking forward to seeing it acted as a play ad was great to refresh my memory in advance of the play. .
Every now and then a book comes along that I feel passionate about and Joseph O Connor's Star of the Sea is one of those books that tells the harrowing and tragic story of the Irish Potato famine of 1840's Ireland and the voyage of the coffin Ship Star of The Sea to America.
I had read this book in 2011 and came across a hard back edition in a second hand book shop and just had to read this wonderful book again, I don't like re-reading books that I have loved as I always fear that I wont have the same experience second time around. But I found this book even better on the second read and perhaps came away getting more from the story.
The story is beautifully layered and dense read, a mystery novel and a well crafted historical thriller, On board the ship hundreds of fleeing refugees and among them a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his family, and aspiring novelist a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. There are likable and dislikable characters and never a dull moment. All this took place in 1840s Ireland that decade in which a million of the Irish underclass died as a consequence of famine.
This is such a realistic novel and depicts the Irish famine so well, the story is told in a series of flashbacks, letters, log entries and reminiscences. It is not a depressing novel and there is plenty of humour. The characters are extremely well drawn and the book has a wonderful sense of time and place. O Connor is a talented writer and this is historical fiction at its best.
Highly recommended for lovers of mystery novels with quality history fiction as the backdrop.
Every now and then a book comes along that I feel passionate about and Joseph O Connor's Star of the Sea is one of those books that tells the harrowing and tragic story of the Irish Potato famine of 1840's Ireland and the voyage of the coffin Ship Star of The Sea to America.
I had read this book in 2011 and came across a hard back edition in a second hand book shop and just had to read this wonderful book again, I don't like re-reading books that I have loved as I always fear that I wont have the same experience second time around. But I found this book even better on the second read and perhaps came away getting more from the story.
The story is beautifully layered and dense read, a mystery novel and a well crafted historical thriller, On board the ship hundreds of fleeing refugees and among them a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his family, and aspiring novelist a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. There are likable and dislikable characters and never a dull moment. All this took place in 1840s Ireland that decade in which a million of the Irish underclass died as a consequence of famine.
This is such a realistic novel and depicts the Irish famine so well, the story is told in a series of flashbacks, letters, log entries and reminiscences. It is not a depressing novel and there is plenty of humour. The characters are extremely well drawn and the book has a wonderful sense of time and place. O Connor is a talented writer and this is historical fiction at its best.
Highly recommended for lovers of mystery novels with quality history fiction as the backdrop.
September 13, 2017
Despite historical fiction not being my thang, there is no doubt that O'Connor is an astonishingly accomplished writer.
A book that will transport you back in time, to a wintry voyage in the mid-1880s, where a vengeful killer hides in plain view...
A book that will transport you back in time, to a wintry voyage in the mid-1880s, where a vengeful killer hides in plain view...
January 7, 2023
Epic but certainly not heroic. This novel means to cover a lot of the story of the Irish potato famine of the mid nineteenth century on Irish soil, in England and on a “coffin ship” called Star of the Sea. Approximately two million Irish people died or were displaced at this time. The author does a very good job with a group of people who represent people and thinking of the time. The ship in question takes on 402 1/2 steerage passengers (children are counted as 1/2 an adult passenger), 15 first class passengers and a crew of 37. Those in steerage are desperate to get to America and that requires a one month trip in horrendous conditions.
The voyage has the feel of a ship of fools (Hieronymous Bosch is mentioned at one point). Dysfunction and delusion is rampant. Many have simplistic ideas about the causes of the famine tragedy, differing ideas on how it should be handled and arrogance about their personal opinions. Different voices tell the story including an American journalist, the captain, an Anglo-Irish aristocratic landowner, the ship’s doctor and a murderer who plays a large part in the story. Some are well meaning, most are angry. The steerage story is told through observations of filth, disease, misery and death.
O’Connor’s story is grim, gritty, long, and unpleasant. Many descriptions and side stories go on far too long, but it is definitely ambitious and well written.
The voyage has the feel of a ship of fools (Hieronymous Bosch is mentioned at one point). Dysfunction and delusion is rampant. Many have simplistic ideas about the causes of the famine tragedy, differing ideas on how it should be handled and arrogance about their personal opinions. Different voices tell the story including an American journalist, the captain, an Anglo-Irish aristocratic landowner, the ship’s doctor and a murderer who plays a large part in the story. Some are well meaning, most are angry. The steerage story is told through observations of filth, disease, misery and death.
O’Connor’s story is grim, gritty, long, and unpleasant. Many descriptions and side stories go on far too long, but it is definitely ambitious and well written.
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August 11, 2020Жила-була і переклала (для "Астролябії").
1847 рік. «Злидні філософії» Маркса. «Макбет» Верді. «Математичний аналіз логіки» Буля. «Грозовий перевал» Емілії Бронте. «Джейн Ейр» Шарлотти Бронте. «Вірші» Ралфа Волдо Емерсона. «Принципи комунізму» Енгельса. Чверть мільйона душ виморюють у нічиїй землі, на безіменних широтах голоду.
Корабель іде з Ірландії у Нью-Йорк. На ньому - скількись бідноти, що намагається еміграцією порятуватися від великого картопляного голоду; граф із родиною - їхній колишній землевласник; американський журналіст, який бризкає слиною праведного гніву, побачивши соціальну несправедливість; індійський махараджа і ще скількись дивного люду з усіх кінців імперії, над якою ніколи не сідає сонце.
Один із них - убивця. Іще один, відповідно, не зійде на сушу у Нью-Йорку.
Абсолютно безнадійне читво про те, що навіть цілком порядні, добрі й чесні люди не можуть вдіяти нічого, крім найницішої підлості, бо всі вони (всі ми) загнані в кут несправедливих, але непохитних владних ієрархій. Хтось народжується англійцем, хтось ірландцем; хтось заможним, хтось бідним; хтось чоловіком, хтось жінкою; якщо в тебе є влада, ти нею зловживатимеш, навіть не помічаючи, а якщо влади в тебе немає, то немає гидоти, на яку ти не пішов би, щоб вижити.
Я суттєво оптимістичніша, ніж цей текст, тому це був дискомфортний ментальний простір, але там дуже впізнавана для мене як українки лють: як можуть представники щасливіших народів просторікувати про свою високу культурку, доки твій народ помирає? Ах, ми не такі чистенькі, не такі гарні, щоб заслужити на ваше співчуття? Тільки для мене це - свіжі спогади 2014-15-го, проведених в Америці, а автор пише про картопляний голод 1847-го, але ж емоції ті самі: як вони сміють не помічати? як сміють мовчати? (з іншого боку, скільки різного не помічаємо ми? чи часто ми прокидаємося серед ночі від жаху з думкою про, я не знаю, становище уйгурів у Китаї? так отож.)
Але чи можна мовчати? Що означає мовчанка? Чи можна собі дозволити нічого не казати про таке? Власне, мовчати — значить рішуче казати: такого не було; ці люди не мають значення. Вони ж не заможні. Не освічені. Не ведуть вишуканих діалогів; власне, багато хто з них узагалі не говорить. Помирає дуже тихо. Помирає в пітьмі. Що ж до того, що змальовують у красному письменстві — щедрої спадщини, великих турне Італією, балів у палацах — то ці люди про таке й не чули. Вони сплачували рахунки своїх зверхників потом свого кріпацтва й одразу переставали бути потрібними. Їхні життя, кохання, родини, боротьба, навіть їхня смерть, їхня страшна смерть — все це не мало ані найменшого значення. Вони не заслуговували на місце на друкованих сторінках, у майстерно написаних романах для освіченої публіки. Вони просто не варті того, щоб про них говорити.
1847 рік. «Злидні філософії» Маркса. «Макбет» Верді. «Математичний аналіз логіки» Буля. «Грозовий перевал» Емілії Бронте. «Джейн Ейр» Шарлотти Бронте. «Вірші» Ралфа Волдо Емерсона. «Принципи комунізму» Енгельса. Чверть мільйона душ виморюють у нічиїй землі, на безіменних широтах голоду.
Корабель іде з Ірландії у Нью-Йорк. На ньому - скількись бідноти, що намагається еміграцією порятуватися від великого картопляного голоду; граф із родиною - їхній колишній землевласник; американський журналіст, який бризкає слиною праведного гніву, побачивши соціальну несправедливість; індійський махараджа і ще скількись дивного люду з усіх кінців імперії, над якою ніколи не сідає сонце.
Один із них - убивця. Іще один, відповідно, не зійде на сушу у Нью-Йорку.
Абсолютно безнадійне читво про те, що навіть цілком порядні, добрі й чесні люди не можуть вдіяти нічого, крім найницішої підлості, бо всі вони (всі ми) загнані в кут несправедливих, але непохитних владних ієрархій. Хтось народжується англійцем, хтось ірландцем; хтось заможним, хтось бідним; хтось чоловіком, хтось жінкою; якщо в тебе є влада, ти нею зловживатимеш, навіть не помічаючи, а якщо влади в тебе немає, то немає гидоти, на яку ти не пішов би, щоб вижити.
Я суттєво оптимістичніша, ніж цей текст, тому це був дискомфортний ментальний простір, але там дуже впізнавана для мене як українки лють: як можуть представники щасливіших народів просторікувати про свою високу культурку, доки твій народ помирає? Ах, ми не такі чистенькі, не такі гарні, щоб заслужити на ваше співчуття? Тільки для мене це - свіжі спогади 2014-15-го, проведених в Америці, а автор пише про картопляний голод 1847-го, але ж емоції ті самі: як вони сміють не помічати? як сміють мовчати? (з іншого боку, скільки різного не помічаємо ми? чи часто ми прокидаємося серед ночі від жаху з думкою про, я не знаю, становище уйгурів у Китаї? так отож.)
Але чи можна мовчати? Що означає мовчанка? Чи можна собі дозволити нічого не казати про таке? Власне, мовчати — значить рішуче казати: такого не було; ці люди не мають значення. Вони ж не заможні. Не освічені. Не ведуть вишуканих діалогів; власне, багато хто з них узагалі не говорить. Помирає дуже тихо. Помирає в пітьмі. Що ж до того, що змальовують у красному письменстві — щедрої спадщини, великих турне Італією, балів у палацах — то ці люди про таке й не чули. Вони сплачували рахунки своїх зверхників потом свого кріпацтва й одразу переставали бути потрібними. Їхні життя, кохання, родини, боротьба, навіть їхня смерть, їхня страшна смерть — все це не мало ані найменшого значення. Вони не заслуговували на місце на друкованих сторінках, у майстерно написаних романах для освіченої публіки. Вони просто не варті того, щоб про них говорити.
August 7, 2021
Star of the sea Joseph O'Connor A crime novel historical fiction, murder at sea but it's flipped on its head, the murderer is exposed early in the story and what follows is historical background leading up to the kill. Set during the 1840s Irish famine it's packed full of historical moments. Joseph O'Connor breaths life into dusty old history books told in a serialised manner which tracks the crisis from the beginning, several attempts to stave of the disaster but ultimately all fails, it burnt a wicked trail with a million dead and million migrating and sowed the seeds for generations of revolution, and giving meaning to a new word terrorism right into the next century. He tells the story from multiple angles financially strapped Lord an American writer, a maid and an evil criminal with a massive chip on his shoulder. Not so up on Irish history has to my first on the famine, knew of it large Irish population here, so has to be pretty right definitely one way to learn history. Clever how Charles Dickens has even been weaved into the stories fabric in a somewhat hardcase picture a bumbling researcher writing about funnily enough about the London criminal underworld. It’s just a brief glimpse of a now gone time.
March 15, 2019
A twenty-six day sea voyage from famine-stricken Ireland to New York. The author provides us with the back stories of several of the passengers with a good deal of emphasis on master and servant and failed romance themes. We soon learn one of the passengers is a murderer and has been ordered to slit the throat of a bankrupt landlord in first class whose father ill-treated his tenants. I preferred this to Redemption Falls because it's a straightforward narrative without all the distracting quirks of his other book, the story is compelling, the characters engaging and the quality of the prose was excellent throughout.
May 1, 2024
Below us the depths which could only be imagined, the gorges and canyons of that unfathomable continent: above us the death-black blue of the sky.
It is the year 1847 and The Star of the Sea is one of what was known at the time as a ‘famine ship’ , transporting hundreds of impoverished Irish peasants to the promised land of America. Aboard are also several well-to-do first class passengers, among them Lord Kingscourt and his family, a doctor, an American journalist and an Indian prince.
Suspended between two desolations in the freezing winter of the North Atlantic, many of these people will not live to see the end of the journey. The sharp divide between he first class people and the dying multitudes in the steerage hold mirrors the tragic events unfolding in Ireland as the potato crops fail and the landlords evict their tenants for being unable to pay the excessive charges levelled against them.
One man seeks to cross the divide, walking all over the derelict wooden ship night after night, cloaked in silence and darkness. He is nicknamed ‘The Ghost’ by fellow passengers and his personal quest of murder is the glue that holds this historical novel together.
At night one sensed the ship as absurdly out of its element, a creaking, leaking, incompetent concoction of oak and pitch and nails and faith, bobbing on a wilderness of viciously black water which could explode at the slightest provocation. People spoke quietly on the decks after dark, as though fearful of awakening the ocean to savagery.
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I’m glad I have come to this story unprepared, knowing nothing of the author or of the plot. Because right from the opening pages I was knocked over by the beauty of the phrasing, by the poetry of the sea voyage, in such stark contrast to the pain and terror experienced by the passengers.
This dynamic, this enchantment with the prose, made for a compelling drive to keep reading, to put aside other projects and to give my full undivided attention to the characters and to the historical context of the journey.
The contention that the one task required of the unemployed aristocracy might be to prevent those on whom it leeches from starving to death, is considered bizarre by My Lords of England and Ireland. Indeed it is de rigueur to chastise the poor for their poverty while regarding one’s own riches as a matter of Divine entitlement. Those who toil the hardest possess the least wealth; those who do nothing but eat have the most.
Millions of impoverished Irish people have died in the Famine of 1847 while the land owners and the politicians were busy to blame the victims for their plight: the Irish were portrayed in the press as lazy, drunkards, unreliable to downright bestial and dangerous for demanding their rights.
Sounds familiar? Probably because the downtrodden who try do escape their doom are still treated as criminals today by politicians and by the press: from the US border to occupied Palestine to civil war Darfur.
The merit of O’Connor here is to concentrate on the lives of the people involved and not on the politics of the situation. Both his vengeful ghost and the abusive lord of Kingscourt are given the benefit of the doubt and a nuanced characterization. Both narrators, the captain and the journalist, are fleshed out as people and not simple mouthpieces for the author’s beliefs.
The novel alternates between the chronological journal of the ship’s captain, a person remarkable for his empathy, who painstakingly puts down in the ship’s log the names of daily crop of victims of hunger and disease, and flashbacks to the lives of the three main characters before the journey.
They had paid their betters’ accounts with the sweat of their servitude but that was the point where their purpose had ended. Their lives, their courtships, their families, their struggles, even their deaths, their terrible deaths – none of it mattered in even the tiniest way. They deserved no place in printed pages, in finely wrought novels intended for the civilised. They were simply not worth saying anything about.
The grotesque cartoons depicting the Irish poor in the English journals began to change. Always previously portraying them as foolish and drunken, now they more frequently showed murderers. Ape-like. Fiendish. Bestial. Untamed. How we draw the enemy, what we fear about the self.
Thus, the true purpose of the novel is revealed: lives instead of statistics, even when millions die in a preventable and manageable food crisis. The end of the journey, the arrival in New York, offers the most painful images of rejection and discrimination, when the ship is put in quarantine and the relatives of the passengers, already settled in the New World, cry out in vain the names of their loved ones from the boats surrounding the ‘Star of the Sea’.
It is an eerie sound, at night especially, to hear all the names being cried out from the darkness.
I believe, like O’Connor, that we should not keep quiet, that these names of the hungry and the dying should be spoken out loud and clear if we want the discrimination and the abuse to end.
As though the act of saying their names – the act of saying they even had names – was to speak the only prayer that can ever begin to matter in a world that turns its eyes from the hungry and the dying. They were real. They existed. They were held in these arms. They were born, and they lived, and they died. And I see myself on the deck in a scream of vengeance, as though it was my own spouse who had been scourged to despair; my own helpless child so cruelly destroyed.
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Most of my comments focus on the politics of the novel, but I feel I should also stress how well the plot holds together, how skillfully the transitions from the present to the past are handled, and how the past lives of the passengers lead to the drama unfolding aboard ship.
David Merridith, who inherits a large estate from his abusive father, would like to improve the lives of his tenants, but he is buried in debts and ridiculed by his peers.
The nanny of his children, Mary Duane, is his former childhood girlfriend, a relationship broken by the difference in status between Lord and peasant. Mary is also the link to the Mulvey brothers, hard-scrabble farmers on a land near the Merridith estate.
The Ghost leaves his farm to escape an unwanted fatherhood and becomes a drifter and an outlaw, heading for the ill-famed neighborhood of Whitechapel in the metropolis. He is haunted by his own crimes, by his youthfull passions and by his contact with revolutionaries who want an independent Ireland.
Maybe we could call Mary a saintly figure [the title of the novel is apparently a reference to one of the Catholic appellations for the Holy Virgin] , but both Merridith and Mulvey qualify as ‘grey’ characters.
Singers were admired by almost everyone; they were annalists, chroniclers, custodians, biographers. In a place where reading was almost unknown they carried the local memory like walking books.
These flashbacks and the way of life they describe are probably my favorite sections of the novel, with cameo appearances and off-beat commentary on the literary scene from references to Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters – contrasting the Victorian primness and inclination towards melodrama with the crossing of the famine ship.
They sailed to America in search of new beginnings.
People are still searching for the promised land in 2024, they are still forced to leave their homes and their countries by natural disasters, poverty, abusive governments and paramilitary goons. Like the passengers of the Star of the Sea, they are rarely received with empathy and kindness, being instead demonized in the press and used in fascist propaganda.
I think we need more writers like O’Connor to give us the right perspective on such issues.
January 9, 2024
Я почав говорити про те, що було би незле обрати якусь особливу книгу, котра стане першою у 2024 році ще кілька місяців тому. І перебрав в уяві чимало кандидатів. Втім зазвичай я обираю книгу для читання в тут-і-зараз, піддавшись миттєвому імпульсу – так було і цього разу.
Ірландський роман Джозефа О'Коннора "Зоря морів. Прощання зі старою Ірландією" приваблює незвичною для українського книжкового ринку обкладинкою, котру, безперечно, ще більше могла б покращити відсутність репліки від Daily Mail прямо під назвою книги, але нехай це залишається на совісті "Астролябії".
Сучасні українці знайдуть тригери та побачать паралелі до власної трагічної історії в будь якому творі мистецтва, але "Зоря морів" в цьому сенсі перевершує багать��х.
Закінчується 1847 рік. В Ірландії панує голод, особливо страждає від того корінне, здебільшого селянське населення. Картоплю, яка складає основний раціон селян, вразила "гнилизна", землевласники піднімають вартість оренди землі для селян, в суспільстві поширюються антибританські настрої, сотні тисяч людей гинуть від бідності та голоду, десятки тисяч наважуються на втечу до Нового Світу на кораблях. Значна частина із них потрапить до лап шахраїв і заплатить останні гроші за подорож, до кінця якої навіть не доживе. Одним із таких суден є і "Зоря ��орів", на якій відбувається більшість подій цього історико-кримінального роману.
Розповідь стилізовано під роман ХІХ століття, створений начебто журналістом з Нью-Йорка, очевидцем плавання на "Зорі морів", який побував в Ірландії, спілкувався з іншими учасниками історії, отримав доступ до щоденника капітана корабля, а також до інших документів, на кшталт публікацій у пресі, приватних листів, карикатурних зображень сценок з життя ірландців і навіть одного доносу.
Колоритні персонажі з різних суспільних класів перетинаються на сторінках роману та зустрічаються в різних куточках корабля, творячи заплутану історію про убивство під час не менш трагічного епізоду в ірландській історії загалом.
Попереду у ірландців буде ще чимало інших трагічних епізодів – і участь в найкривавіших битвах обох (поки що) світових воєн, і власна тривала боротьба за незалежність від Британії. А сьогодні вони допомагають прихистити українців, які змушені рятуватися від нової страшної війни на східних околицях Європи.
Ірландія Джозефа О'Коннора — місце дуже мальовниче, але безкінечно нещасне і навіть втеча на кораблі з красивою назвою – одним із імен Богоматері у стародавній молитві – зовсім не гарантує ані вдалої втечі, ані виживання, ані бодай надії на краще життя.
Ірландський роман Джозефа О'Коннора "Зоря морів. Прощання зі старою Ірландією" приваблює незвичною для українського книжкового ринку обкладинкою, котру, безперечно, ще більше могла б покращити відсутність репліки від Daily Mail прямо під назвою книги, але нехай це залишається на совісті "Астролябії".
Сучасні українці знайдуть тригери та побачать паралелі до власної трагічної історії в будь якому творі мистецтва, але "Зоря морів" в цьому сенсі перевершує багать��х.
Закінчується 1847 рік. В Ірландії панує голод, особливо страждає від того корінне, здебільшого селянське населення. Картоплю, яка складає основний раціон селян, вразила "гнилизна", землевласники піднімають вартість оренди землі для селян, в суспільстві поширюються антибританські настрої, сотні тисяч людей гинуть від бідності та голоду, десятки тисяч наважуються на втечу до Нового Світу на кораблях. Значна частина із них потрапить до лап шахраїв і заплатить останні гроші за подорож, до кінця якої навіть не доживе. Одним із таких суден є і "Зоря ��орів", на якій відбувається більшість подій цього історико-кримінального роману.
Розповідь стилізовано під роман ХІХ століття, створений начебто журналістом з Нью-Йорка, очевидцем плавання на "Зорі морів", який побував в Ірландії, спілкувався з іншими учасниками історії, отримав доступ до щоденника капітана корабля, а також до інших документів, на кшталт публікацій у пресі, приватних листів, карикатурних зображень сценок з життя ірландців і навіть одного доносу.
Колоритні персонажі з різних суспільних класів перетинаються на сторінках роману та зустрічаються в різних куточках корабля, творячи заплутану історію про убивство під час не менш трагічного епізоду в ірландській історії загалом.
Попереду у ірландців буде ще чимало інших трагічних епізодів – і участь в найкривавіших битвах обох (поки що) світових воєн, і власна тривала боротьба за незалежність від Британії. А сьогодні вони допомагають прихистити українців, які змушені рятуватися від нової страшної війни на східних околицях Європи.
Ірландія Джозефа О'Коннора — місце дуже мальовниче, але безкінечно нещасне і навіть втеча на кораблі з красивою назвою – одним із імен Богоматері у стародавній молитві – зовсім не гарантує ані вдалої втечі, ані виживання, ані бодай надії на краще життя.
September 3, 2018
This brought home to me more than any dry history could the extent of and devastating effects of the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s. Through this novel I felt keenly the suffering of the Irish and the devastating effects of the Potato Famine. For many, thrown off their small plots of land by their heartless landlords, the way to escape their poverty and privation was to emigrate to America.
This is the story of the 1847 voyage of a ship filled with emigrants: the "Star of the Sea" and her captain and crew. One man from Connemara, Pius Mulvey, is forced to undertake the murder of impoverished Lord Kingscourt--David Merridith, an Englishman. Those who order him are members of a clandestine group of agitators, the "Hibernian Defenders" who hate how cruelly the landowners have treated their tenant-farmers. They say if Mulvey doesn't do the job, he himself will be killed. The story consists of the captain's log for each day at sea [28] and its events. As the journey progresses it becomes bleaker and more grim. Then various chapters give the backgrounds of Mulvey, Mary Duane whom he seduces, Mirridith and family, and many others. An American newspaperman, Dixon, is on board and writes from his point of view continuing after the ship reaches America, its difficulties with the authorities, until concluding on Easter 1916. When I reread the novel, I noticed the significance of the date, the Easter Uprising Against British Rule.
The writing was gorgeous and amazing. The author waxed poetic on occasion, sometimes excessively so. Sometimes the writing was strong and clipped. The story twisted and turned interweaving all these lives.
A strong, vivid image taken from the description of when the Hibernian Defenders threaten Mulvey:
A poetic description of the ocean:
This is the story of the 1847 voyage of a ship filled with emigrants: the "Star of the Sea" and her captain and crew. One man from Connemara, Pius Mulvey, is forced to undertake the murder of impoverished Lord Kingscourt--David Merridith, an Englishman. Those who order him are members of a clandestine group of agitators, the "Hibernian Defenders" who hate how cruelly the landowners have treated their tenant-farmers. They say if Mulvey doesn't do the job, he himself will be killed. The story consists of the captain's log for each day at sea [28] and its events. As the journey progresses it becomes bleaker and more grim. Then various chapters give the backgrounds of Mulvey, Mary Duane whom he seduces, Mirridith and family, and many others. An American newspaperman, Dixon, is on board and writes from his point of view continuing after the ship reaches America, its difficulties with the authorities, until concluding on Easter 1916. When I reread the novel, I noticed the significance of the date, the Easter Uprising Against British Rule.
The writing was gorgeous and amazing. The author waxed poetic on occasion, sometimes excessively so. Sometimes the writing was strong and clipped. The story twisted and turned interweaving all these lives.
A strong, vivid image taken from the description of when the Hibernian Defenders threaten Mulvey:
"He remembered their eyes, so frightened and convinced. The black stained sackcloth of the hooded masks they wore. The slashed out holes where their mouths appeared. They were wielding the tools of their livelihood, but as weapons -- scythes, mattocks, loys, billhooks. Now they had no livelihood left. Centuries stolen in one stunning moment. Their fathers' labour; their sons' inheritances. At the stroke of a pen, they were gone.
Black and green fields. The green of the banner draped across the table, spattered with ribbons of Mulvey's blood. The glint of the weapon they had made him take, the fisherman's knife pressed to his chest, while they raged at him about freedom and land and thievery. The words SHEFFIELD STEEL etched into the blade. He could feel it now, in the pocket of his greatcoat, nestled to his lacerated thigh. He remembered the things they said they would do with that knife if he didn't stop whingeing about murder being too heavy to put on him. When they held him down and started to cut him, Mulvey screamed to be allowed to kill."
A poetic description of the ocean:
Maritime wreckage. Bone and driftwood. Darker now: the wind blasting and stopping, like exchanges on a battlefield when ammunition is low. Everything had a blue and shadowy look.
Sometimes we "heard" voices of some of the passengers; each was distinct. The plot presented some as contemporaneous interviews, letters [even to misspellings and Gaelic], an excerpt from a novel of the newspaperman, as songs or prayers. One chapter was a litany to the Virgin Mary; I could hear the frightened steerage passengers reciting the words. I could feel the captain was a compassionate Quaker through his writing. I really empathized with the characters and their conditions. I felt the stench and squalor of steerage conditions. I appreciated the long and detailed "Notes & Acknowledgements" at the end; I feel the reality and truth of the novel.
Highly recommended.
January 14, 2010
Star of the Sea is set amid the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century. My personal interpretation is that the book is more of a character study. The characters who make the voyage on the ship Star of the Sea to America. It isn't a story of hopes or dreams. There is no sense that reaching the destination will bring a good change. I guess I'm not entirely sure what the message was in this book which is an illustration of the confusing writing style and changing viewpoints. I was reading this book for the staff book group so I felt I had to finish it.
The story seems to begin several times. The first half of the book tells the story of each character. There is Mary Duane who falls in love with a young David Merridith. There are the brothers Pius and Nicholas Mulvey. Two boys who couldn't be more different in personality. There is Dixon, Laura Markham, and Merridith again. This opening was the most difficult to follow, convoluted and pretentious way to begin a novel that I have ever had the misfortune to read. I felt that Joseph O'Connor was trying to demostrate his brilliance in the genre of literary fiction rather than write an interesting mystery. I should probably mention that the whole way through the book you know there is going to be a murder. Interpersed with all this is the Captain's log of the ship. So every once in a while you learn that more passengers have died in the steerage class from various diseases.
The only part of the book that I actually enjoyed was the story of Pius Mulvey as he travels around nineteenth-century London committing many thefts that become increasingly ingenious and daring. It is his time in Newgate prison that was the most fascinating aspect of the book. During my degree, I specialised in literature of the city during the eighteenth and nineteeth century so I related to this part of the book because it drew on my prior knowledge. Sadly, this part of the book was perhaps only ten pages.
The book, including the highly boring epilogue, was 405 pages long. I enjoyed perhaps ten of those. The only people who I can think will enjoy this book are those who read ridiculously pretentious literacy fiction or have a particular interest in the Irish potato famine. Perhaps you need to be a more serious reader to enjoy this. I'll be intrigued to hear what the rest of the staff in the book group think of this. Without a doubt, this book was not for me. I wonder if I should be concerned that my husband enjoyed reading it...
http://www.thebookette.co.uk/
The story seems to begin several times. The first half of the book tells the story of each character. There is Mary Duane who falls in love with a young David Merridith. There are the brothers Pius and Nicholas Mulvey. Two boys who couldn't be more different in personality. There is Dixon, Laura Markham, and Merridith again. This opening was the most difficult to follow, convoluted and pretentious way to begin a novel that I have ever had the misfortune to read. I felt that Joseph O'Connor was trying to demostrate his brilliance in the genre of literary fiction rather than write an interesting mystery. I should probably mention that the whole way through the book you know there is going to be a murder. Interpersed with all this is the Captain's log of the ship. So every once in a while you learn that more passengers have died in the steerage class from various diseases.
The only part of the book that I actually enjoyed was the story of Pius Mulvey as he travels around nineteenth-century London committing many thefts that become increasingly ingenious and daring. It is his time in Newgate prison that was the most fascinating aspect of the book. During my degree, I specialised in literature of the city during the eighteenth and nineteeth century so I related to this part of the book because it drew on my prior knowledge. Sadly, this part of the book was perhaps only ten pages.
The book, including the highly boring epilogue, was 405 pages long. I enjoyed perhaps ten of those. The only people who I can think will enjoy this book are those who read ridiculously pretentious literacy fiction or have a particular interest in the Irish potato famine. Perhaps you need to be a more serious reader to enjoy this. I'll be intrigued to hear what the rest of the staff in the book group think of this. Without a doubt, this book was not for me. I wonder if I should be concerned that my husband enjoyed reading it...
http://www.thebookette.co.uk/
June 20, 2016
A brilliant novel that roams far beyond the boundaries of the ship upon which it's set, Star of the Sea is a gripping tale of murder, revenge, cruelty and love set against the backdrop of The Famine. It's so well written that the complex structure of the book seems natural and the shifting perspectives of the narrative effortless. The three main characters are so well developed and realized that they command your attention from the first page, and the secondary characters are always more than mere types. I was genuinely moved by this book, which really brought home the awfulness of The Famine, while somehow never becoming sentimental. I loved it.
January 12, 2022
An exhausting, disturbing account of the Irish famine and the perilous journey taken across the Atlantic by those escaping from it. A few years ago, we spent some time in Connemara. Prior to that visit, I thought I knew about the Irish famine but I quickly realised I knew very, very little. The evidence is everywhere and the National Famine Memorial at the foot of Croagh Patrick is a heartbreaking reminder of its dreadful consequences. I recommend Famine: Galway's Darkest Years to anyone who wants to learn more.
Star of the Sea is a rich source of information. It is very well researched and the detail is often shocking. I was absorbed in it for the first half of the book but then I became weary of the main characters, Pius Mulvey and David Meredith, neither of whom it’s possible to feel any compassion for. I found it frustratingly long-winded with many unnecessary diversions from the main story and I found Mulvey’s chance meeting with Dickens during which he gave him the idea for writing Oliver Twist, including the name Fagan, quite ridiculous.
I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this more. It fulfilled my expectations in terms of raising my awareness of historical events I knew little about and I appreciate the thoroughness of the research. Some of the descriptive narrative is wonderful and maybe it would have held my interest if it had been 30% shorter. It’s not a good sign when I find myself reluctant to pick up a book and am so hugely relieved to reach the end. Not a good start to 2022!
Star of the Sea is a rich source of information. It is very well researched and the detail is often shocking. I was absorbed in it for the first half of the book but then I became weary of the main characters, Pius Mulvey and David Meredith, neither of whom it’s possible to feel any compassion for. I found it frustratingly long-winded with many unnecessary diversions from the main story and I found Mulvey’s chance meeting with Dickens during which he gave him the idea for writing Oliver Twist, including the name Fagan, quite ridiculous.
I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this more. It fulfilled my expectations in terms of raising my awareness of historical events I knew little about and I appreciate the thoroughness of the research. Some of the descriptive narrative is wonderful and maybe it would have held my interest if it had been 30% shorter. It’s not a good sign when I find myself reluctant to pick up a book and am so hugely relieved to reach the end. Not a good start to 2022!
March 26, 2021
A powerful, evocative and original account of the Irish famine. O’Connor paints the reader a clear sense of time and place. I loved all the different narratives within the story.
November 17, 2015
Vrhunski roman starog kova pisan u maniru klasičnih britanskih romanopisaca, poput Dickensa. Izvrsno je dočaran duh teškog vremena za Irsku u vrijeme "velike gladi" kada su milioni Iraca umrli od gladi ili bježali u obećanu zemlju Ameriku. Roman se bavi potresnim sudbinama nekolicine Iraca koji putuju brodom Zvijezda mora, ali se retrospektivno upoznajemo sa njihovim tragičnim životima međusobno povezanim neraskidivim vezama. Joseph O'Conor (inače brat slavne pjevačice Sinead) je izvrstan pisac koji vješto plete mrežu radnje u koju vas neosjetno uvuče i na koju ne možete ostati ravnodušni. Namjeravam uskoro pročitati i njegov roman Slapovi spasenja (Redemption Falls) čija radnja se dešava u vrijeme Američkog građanskog rata, ali ponovo se bavi sudbinama Iraca, putnika Zvijezde i njihovih nasljednika. Tema me je zainteresovala nakon nedavne posjete Irskoj gdje sam čula malo više o tom jednom od najtežih perioda u istoriji ove zemlje i zaista sam uživala čitajući ovaj roman. Od mene velika preporuka i čista 5.
September 15, 2007
I have to say that this is a time when I really appreciate my book club. I ended up enjoying this book, but it was very slow going for a long time. If I hadn’t been reading it for my book club, I believe I would have put it down toward the beginning and never gone back to it, but I am so glad that I felt obligated to read it and therefore finished it.
My favorite part was the fictional description of how Charles Dickens got the information that led to his writing the book Oliver Twist. I was smiling through that whole short section of this book. Still smiling thinking about it.
The writing is poetic & beautiful. Obviously well researched historical fiction. There is a mystery but what’s revealed is not what ended up being most important to me. What fascinated me most were the development of the many interesting characters, and especially the impeccable descriptions of what it must have been like in famine stricken Ireland in the mid 1800s.
My favorite part was the fictional description of how Charles Dickens got the information that led to his writing the book Oliver Twist. I was smiling through that whole short section of this book. Still smiling thinking about it.
The writing is poetic & beautiful. Obviously well researched historical fiction. There is a mystery but what’s revealed is not what ended up being most important to me. What fascinated me most were the development of the many interesting characters, and especially the impeccable descriptions of what it must have been like in famine stricken Ireland in the mid 1800s.
October 8, 2021
A definite 5 stars from me. I was surprised this book has a fairly modest overall rating on Goodreads. To me this is seriously high quality writing and storytelling. Historical fiction at its finest. The way Joseph O’Connor weaves in the different lives and fates of many of the passengers on board the Star of the Sea is compelling and gripping. Set in Ireland during the Famine of the 1830s/1840s and of course on board the vessel itself, to be sure we come across considerable poverty, hardship, retribution and some unlikeable characters, but this never brings the tone or mood of the book down in any way. It’s too riveting a tale for that to happen. The narrative is quite involved and detailed and it took me longer than usual to get through the book but I looked forward to picking it up every time and it never disappointed. Highly recommended.
May 3, 2015
I remember this novel being published in 2002, and can only think that I didn't read it at the time as I didn't feel its subject matter would've been of interest to me, my Irish history interest kicking in more in the 20th century. I have been thinking about reading it for a while though, and took the opportunity to pick up a second hand copy to read, as a book group I plan to attend is reading 'Redemption Falls', the novel which follows this one. I have to admit that while I liked the book, I didn't love it.
The novel takes the form of an account of the voyage undertaken by the steamer in 1847, primarily 'written' by American journalist and aspiring novelist, G Grantley Dixon, returning to his homeland after witnessing the horrors of famine and eviction in Ireland. While depicting some of the harrowing scenes of everyday life in steerage on the ,'coffin ship', the novel tells the story of three main characters-Lord Kingscourt, David Merridith, a Galway landlord emigrating with his wife and two sons to USA to set himself up as an architect, Mary Duane, his nanny, and Pius Mulvey, a shady character sent onboard by a secret society to murder Kingscourt in revenge for the treatment of the population at the hands of his recently deceased father. Through testimonies, flashbacks and witness statements, in addition to normal narrative, we piece together the pasts of each of the characters, and their links to each other, while, through the captain's log, follow the progress of the ship with its prevalence of death and disease, as it makes its way toward New York.
There's no doubt that the novel is extremely well crafted, and the narrative is pieced together very well by O'Connor, but I think that for my tastes, it was just a little too intricately done. I've also no doubt that historically speaking, the scenes portrayed both in Ireland and on-board are accurate, and they were upsetting to read at times. I enjoyed many of the small touches, like Mulvey's meeting with Dickens, and found the medical treatments of the time very interesting. I was, however, constantly looking forward to see how many pages I had left to read, wanting to finish the book, without having that feeling of wanting to find out what was going to happen.
Perhaps my initial hunch on the book on publication was right? Go by the main body of positive reviews for this novel, but to be honest, this wasn't really for me.
The novel takes the form of an account of the voyage undertaken by the steamer in 1847, primarily 'written' by American journalist and aspiring novelist, G Grantley Dixon, returning to his homeland after witnessing the horrors of famine and eviction in Ireland. While depicting some of the harrowing scenes of everyday life in steerage on the ,'coffin ship', the novel tells the story of three main characters-Lord Kingscourt, David Merridith, a Galway landlord emigrating with his wife and two sons to USA to set himself up as an architect, Mary Duane, his nanny, and Pius Mulvey, a shady character sent onboard by a secret society to murder Kingscourt in revenge for the treatment of the population at the hands of his recently deceased father. Through testimonies, flashbacks and witness statements, in addition to normal narrative, we piece together the pasts of each of the characters, and their links to each other, while, through the captain's log, follow the progress of the ship with its prevalence of death and disease, as it makes its way toward New York.
There's no doubt that the novel is extremely well crafted, and the narrative is pieced together very well by O'Connor, but I think that for my tastes, it was just a little too intricately done. I've also no doubt that historically speaking, the scenes portrayed both in Ireland and on-board are accurate, and they were upsetting to read at times. I enjoyed many of the small touches, like Mulvey's meeting with Dickens, and found the medical treatments of the time very interesting. I was, however, constantly looking forward to see how many pages I had left to read, wanting to finish the book, without having that feeling of wanting to find out what was going to happen.
Perhaps my initial hunch on the book on publication was right? Go by the main body of positive reviews for this novel, but to be honest, this wasn't really for me.
September 7, 2014
This is "historical fiction" that is historical only in the most general sense. The author creates many footnotes and sources in the text which are fictional. The narrator of the book is Grantley Dixon, an American journalist, albeit, not very successful. The story revolves around David Meredith, Lord Kingscourt, whose estate in Connemara, is bankrupt, Pius Mulvey, a dark character throughout, and Mary Duane, a former tenant of Meredith, and current nanny. The story is set in winter 1847, during the Irish famine. The ship's steerage is filled with impoverished famine victims, many of whom don't survive the voyage. There is also a First Class section, where Meredith, his wife and two sons are traveling.
This novel which came out in 2002 was a world-wide success. Terry Eagleton wrote in his 2003 Guardian review, that aside from Liam O'Flaherty's novel Famine, and a contemporary play by Tom Murphy, the famine has not been a subject in Irish literature. Since Eagleton's review, however, there have been at least three more Irish novels Transatlantic by Colum McCann, The Fall of Light by Niall Williams and Nuala O'Faolain's My Dream of You, not to mention a host of books for young readers. However, O'Connor's novel was ground breaking being the first since O'Flaherty's 1937 novel. Eagleton's review is also interesting for its discussion of Irish reticence to discuss the famine which led to one million dead, and another million fleeing Ireland
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003...
I read this book 10 years ago, but on rereading it was struck again by the writing. O'Connor constructs a compelling and engrossing story. There is foreshadowing from the beginning of the book, as we know the characters include a murderer and a victim. A deftly wrought tale that will leave you wanting to read more.
This novel which came out in 2002 was a world-wide success. Terry Eagleton wrote in his 2003 Guardian review, that aside from Liam O'Flaherty's novel Famine, and a contemporary play by Tom Murphy, the famine has not been a subject in Irish literature. Since Eagleton's review, however, there have been at least three more Irish novels Transatlantic by Colum McCann, The Fall of Light by Niall Williams and Nuala O'Faolain's My Dream of You, not to mention a host of books for young readers. However, O'Connor's novel was ground breaking being the first since O'Flaherty's 1937 novel. Eagleton's review is also interesting for its discussion of Irish reticence to discuss the famine which led to one million dead, and another million fleeing Ireland
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003...
I read this book 10 years ago, but on rereading it was struck again by the writing. O'Connor constructs a compelling and engrossing story. There is foreshadowing from the beginning of the book, as we know the characters include a murderer and a victim. A deftly wrought tale that will leave you wanting to read more.
March 26, 2012
OK, it's official -- I am not a fan of Joseph O'Connor. Granted, Star of the Sea is far and away a much better novel than Redemption Falls, but for me, O'Connor's method of stitching together a narrative by using pieces from supposedly contemporary material (all of which was written by him, of course) just doesn't work. There are bits of this novel which shine, the parts in which O'Connor really focuses on one character and develops him or her thoroughly. Supposedly this book was written by a journalist who had sailed on the Star of the Sea from Ireland to America in the midst of the famine, and as such is full of footnotes and other clarifications. Knowing that this is a novel, that sort of bothered me, and for me, it interrupted whatever flow O'Connor had managed to get going. I think I'd prefer a novel that's told in a more traditional way. Also I was left wondering what the point of the novel was. Sure, it reinforced how terrible the Irish had it at the hands of the landowners, and how many of them died from starvation and disease during the famine, and how terrible the voyage from Ireland to the US was -- at least for those in steerage. The first-class passengers had a much more comfortable journey, of course. But nothing much was resolved by the end, and the epilogue was entirely too long and full of details that just didn't much matter once the book was over. Others may love this book, but it just didn't do it for me.
February 22, 2010
Perhaps the most clichéd book I have read in years. A begorrah tale of Old Ireland. Terrible prose, and even worse dialogue. I've read many Irish novels, but this is the worst. Extremely disappointing, given all the positive reviews I have seen. It may be charming to people who don't have any idea of Irish history, or any idea of good storytelling. Have you ever seen Far and Away, PS I Love You, the Matchmaker, or any of those faux-Irish nonsense films? Well, this is so much worse. I only stayed reading until the end just so I could give a full opinion - and not have people saying "well you never even finished it". I did finish it, and the last few chapters were among the worst of the lot. And somehow he got commissioned to write a follow-up. Another terrible choice from the TV Book Club (formerly Richard & Judy's Book Club).
May 9, 2013
A 400 page grim read that was difficult to penetrate. I would not have persevered were it not that a friend had asked me for my opinion on the book, and I had read that other reviewers had struggled with it initially. All that said, it is well written but takes a very long time to explain how the various characters are linked so reads as if it is jumping from one unrelated story to another for much of the first half. I struggled with the style of writing which, at times tries to reflect that of the period, and uses several contemporary documents. There are no heroes, just humanity at its worst and suffering terribly with almost every character showing the black side of human nature, which is maybe what the author wanted to portray.
If you get beyond half way, you will be compelled to finish the book, so persevere.
Apparently, he has carried out comprehensive research into the period of the Irish famine and into the Coffin Ships, attempts to portray the real horror of the story on both sides of the Atlantic, and succeeds in this as the book is in part, factually accurate.
Who is the real villain? It would appear to be unbridled human nature, but I'm not sure that the author would agree with me.
If you get beyond half way, you will be compelled to finish the book, so persevere.
Apparently, he has carried out comprehensive research into the period of the Irish famine and into the Coffin Ships, attempts to portray the real horror of the story on both sides of the Atlantic, and succeeds in this as the book is in part, factually accurate.
Who is the real villain? It would appear to be unbridled human nature, but I'm not sure that the author would agree with me.
June 11, 2007
this book was amazing! a little difficult to get into at the start, but once the story unravels, it's difficult to put down. you get a great idea of what life was like in famine-stricken ireland in the mid-1800s through the back-stories of several intertwining characters. there's a bit of mystery as you're trying to figure out the reasons behind a murder on a boat full of irish emmigrants bound for new york. i love love loved this book and would love to read it all over again.
May 15, 2018
Nein, dieses Buch hat mich nicht überzeugen können! O'Connor hat mich zwar auf der Stella Maris mitreisen lassen - schließlich habe ich für die Passage genug bezahlt -, aber von einer packenden Reise, wie es der Buchrücken ankündigt, habe ich nichts erfahren. Ich wurde pflichtbewusst auf nordamerikanischen Boden abgesetzt, aber mehr auch nicht.
Mir bleibt die Motivation des Autors, dieses Buch so zu schreiben, völlig schleierhaft. Ging es ihm um eine einfühlsame Reportage über die Auswirkungen der Irischen Hungerjahre und dem Elend der Auswanderer? Wieso stellt er dann eine derartig unsinnige Mördergeschichte ins Zentrum? Vom ersten Kapitel an weiß ich, dass es zum Mord kommen wird; ich erfahre sogar schon Opfer und Täter. Was soll das? Statt diesen Mordplan wenigstens gekonnt in Szene zu setzen, einen Spannungsbogen aufzubauen, zu fesseln und zu überraschen, - was macht er? Er verlässt gedanklich das Schiff und lässt von einzelnen Personen im Rückblick deren Vergangenheit in Irland erzählen. Die Elenden aus dem Zwischendeck sind stattdessen vielmehr Zierde, um als Roman über die Irische Hungersnot zu gelten.
Diese einzelnen Biographien waren darüber hinaus richtig schlecht dargestellt. O'Connor verlor sich regelrecht darin, statt die wichtigsten Eckdaten zu bündeln und im Zeitraffer die Handlung spannend voranzutreiben. Letztlich interessierten mich allein der Kapitän und seine Einträge im Logbuch. Alle anderen Charaktere blieben für mich Phantome. Ja, mir war sogar völlig egal, dass die Person ermordet wurde, die bereits angekündigt wurde, zumal ihr auch noch eine Syphilis im Endstadium verpasst worden war und somit sein vorzeitiger Tod sowieso feststand. Ich spürte noch nicht einmal das Verlangen, im Epilog zu erfahren, was mit ihnen nach der Überfahrt geschah. Stattdessen war ich erleichtert, sie ENDLICH verlassen zu können.
Der Autor hat zu viel in die Geschichte gepackt. Es fehlt an Struktur, dramaturgischen Elementen und aber auch an einer angemessenen Sprache. Die Dialoge, besonders zwischen dem adeligen Ehepaar sind einfach nur haarsträubend. Die Beschreibungen von Liebesszenen, in denen die Zunge zum Marshmallow wird, ließen mich verzweifeln.
Wer wirklich einmal einen literarisch hochwertigen Roman lesen möchte, dessen Handlung in Irland während der Kartoffelpest spielt, empfehle ich Liam O'Flahertys "Zornige grüne Insel". Dessen Darstellung hatte mich wirklich emotional gepackt und aufgewühlt. O'Connors Überfahrt verbuche ich stattdessen unter misslungener Unterhaltung.
Mir bleibt die Motivation des Autors, dieses Buch so zu schreiben, völlig schleierhaft. Ging es ihm um eine einfühlsame Reportage über die Auswirkungen der Irischen Hungerjahre und dem Elend der Auswanderer? Wieso stellt er dann eine derartig unsinnige Mördergeschichte ins Zentrum? Vom ersten Kapitel an weiß ich, dass es zum Mord kommen wird; ich erfahre sogar schon Opfer und Täter. Was soll das? Statt diesen Mordplan wenigstens gekonnt in Szene zu setzen, einen Spannungsbogen aufzubauen, zu fesseln und zu überraschen, - was macht er? Er verlässt gedanklich das Schiff und lässt von einzelnen Personen im Rückblick deren Vergangenheit in Irland erzählen. Die Elenden aus dem Zwischendeck sind stattdessen vielmehr Zierde, um als Roman über die Irische Hungersnot zu gelten.
Diese einzelnen Biographien waren darüber hinaus richtig schlecht dargestellt. O'Connor verlor sich regelrecht darin, statt die wichtigsten Eckdaten zu bündeln und im Zeitraffer die Handlung spannend voranzutreiben. Letztlich interessierten mich allein der Kapitän und seine Einträge im Logbuch. Alle anderen Charaktere blieben für mich Phantome. Ja, mir war sogar völlig egal, dass die Person ermordet wurde, die bereits angekündigt wurde, zumal ihr auch noch eine Syphilis im Endstadium verpasst worden war und somit sein vorzeitiger Tod sowieso feststand. Ich spürte noch nicht einmal das Verlangen, im Epilog zu erfahren, was mit ihnen nach der Überfahrt geschah. Stattdessen war ich erleichtert, sie ENDLICH verlassen zu können.
Der Autor hat zu viel in die Geschichte gepackt. Es fehlt an Struktur, dramaturgischen Elementen und aber auch an einer angemessenen Sprache. Die Dialoge, besonders zwischen dem adeligen Ehepaar sind einfach nur haarsträubend. Die Beschreibungen von Liebesszenen, in denen die Zunge zum Marshmallow wird, ließen mich verzweifeln.
Wer wirklich einmal einen literarisch hochwertigen Roman lesen möchte, dessen Handlung in Irland während der Kartoffelpest spielt, empfehle ich Liam O'Flahertys "Zornige grüne Insel". Dessen Darstellung hatte mich wirklich emotional gepackt und aufgewühlt. O'Connors Überfahrt verbuche ich stattdessen unter misslungener Unterhaltung.
September 13, 2019
I got this book when my local library was having a sale to make room in its shelves. After I've been wondering why I took it as I didn't particularly want to read it, and it's been sitting in my shelves for years. Man oh man was I wrong! I don't know where to start about why I loved this book!
I read historical novels because it's a great way to trick myself into learning about history. Of course I've heard about the great famine in Ireland, I've even been to the memorial in NY. But reading the Star of the Sea makes it real to me. This wasn't just an historic event, this happened. To real people. And it was absolutely horrible and completely avoidable. Just like all the humanitarian catastrophes happening right now.
A deal breaker for me is if the writer can't manage to make me believe in or care about the characters he or she writes about. No danger of that here! Every character I came across seemed real and fleshed out, with complex personalities and life stories.
The language was also beautiful. Listen to this: "Every night ended in Hangman's Quarter. He never went near the women now; he watched from the ruins as they fought and touted. And he drew those mastered women like a knife draws blod."
I read historical novels because it's a great way to trick myself into learning about history. Of course I've heard about the great famine in Ireland, I've even been to the memorial in NY. But reading the Star of the Sea makes it real to me. This wasn't just an historic event, this happened. To real people. And it was absolutely horrible and completely avoidable. Just like all the humanitarian catastrophes happening right now.
A deal breaker for me is if the writer can't manage to make me believe in or care about the characters he or she writes about. No danger of that here! Every character I came across seemed real and fleshed out, with complex personalities and life stories.
The language was also beautiful. Listen to this: "Every night ended in Hangman's Quarter. He never went near the women now; he watched from the ruins as they fought and touted. And he drew those mastered women like a knife draws blod."
May 31, 2019
The great potato famine and a handful of people on a ship headed to America. It's the story of how their lives, both steerage and first class passengers, are interwoven and what happens on the voyage.
August 31, 2017
This book is amazing - masterful storytelling - it just blew me away! Not to be missed!
July 13, 2021
Трагічна історія ірландців у всій її красі. Окремий респект перекладачці. Повірте, вона тут добре попрацювала заради українського читача.
November 16, 2012
From my International Fiction Book Club blog:
It was a cold, blustery, rainy evening. No, that’s not the beginning of a novel, just the weather report from the International Fiction Book Club meeting of October 17, 2012. Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor took center stage. Even though it was nasty outside, inside we had a pleasant conversation about a most horrible time in Irish history - the Great Famine. The seeming “present” of the novel takes place on the ship, The Star of the Sea, a freighter that is carrying 5,000 lbs. of mercury for the Alabama Mining Co. in 1847. Also on board are hundreds of would-be emigrants fleeing eviction and ruin for the promise of a better life in America. But the present tense is a misnomer. As one member commented, this is a sort of meta-fiction with various narrators including an omniscient voice, the Captain’s log, various letters and passages from an unfinished novel by a character aboard the ship. This character is Grantley Dixon, an American journalist who puts together all of these pieces of the puzzle that make up the final voyage of what becomes a “coffin” ship. He publishes this novel with the aid of an epilogue that clues in readers to the answers of some of the ship’s mysteries on Easter Sunday, 1916, when he is in his nineties. So, we have a book within a book just as the ship’s passengers could be said to comprise a microcosm of the Irish cataclysm in the mid nineteenth century.
Coffin ship, since many die on the voyage. Puzzle, because as the ship moves closer to its destination we gradually find out more and more about the relationships that haunt the group of passengers to which we become familiar. David Meredith has been disinherited twice by his father, Lord Meredith, even though the estate has been sold to sheep herders. David’s position in the House of Lords is no help in this matter and as we discover more about this man we see the embodiment of hypocrisy. Perhaps he represents English guilt. Only when he finds out he has six months to live does he attempt to help the sickly. His first love, Mary Duane, is now his maid and unaware of their true familial bond. Pius Mulvey, referred to as the “ghost”, because of his habitual lurking about the deck, is the central character that ties together the disintegrating threads of both Irish families and society in general. He can be said to embody evil but he also absorbs evil. We know early on that a murder is about to take place. O’Connor deftly fuses Dickensian style intrigue with parodies of both the Romance novel and Gothic suspense while adhering to the principle espoused by David Meredith, “Everything is in the way the material is composed.” History of the subject matter is gained through osmosis when the characters are delineated through their passions and fears. Everyone agreed that the form of this novel fit the subject matter and the epilogue only added to the nineteenth century feel. Thumbs up unanimously.
It was a cold, blustery, rainy evening. No, that’s not the beginning of a novel, just the weather report from the International Fiction Book Club meeting of October 17, 2012. Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor took center stage. Even though it was nasty outside, inside we had a pleasant conversation about a most horrible time in Irish history - the Great Famine. The seeming “present” of the novel takes place on the ship, The Star of the Sea, a freighter that is carrying 5,000 lbs. of mercury for the Alabama Mining Co. in 1847. Also on board are hundreds of would-be emigrants fleeing eviction and ruin for the promise of a better life in America. But the present tense is a misnomer. As one member commented, this is a sort of meta-fiction with various narrators including an omniscient voice, the Captain’s log, various letters and passages from an unfinished novel by a character aboard the ship. This character is Grantley Dixon, an American journalist who puts together all of these pieces of the puzzle that make up the final voyage of what becomes a “coffin” ship. He publishes this novel with the aid of an epilogue that clues in readers to the answers of some of the ship’s mysteries on Easter Sunday, 1916, when he is in his nineties. So, we have a book within a book just as the ship’s passengers could be said to comprise a microcosm of the Irish cataclysm in the mid nineteenth century.
Coffin ship, since many die on the voyage. Puzzle, because as the ship moves closer to its destination we gradually find out more and more about the relationships that haunt the group of passengers to which we become familiar. David Meredith has been disinherited twice by his father, Lord Meredith, even though the estate has been sold to sheep herders. David’s position in the House of Lords is no help in this matter and as we discover more about this man we see the embodiment of hypocrisy. Perhaps he represents English guilt. Only when he finds out he has six months to live does he attempt to help the sickly. His first love, Mary Duane, is now his maid and unaware of their true familial bond. Pius Mulvey, referred to as the “ghost”, because of his habitual lurking about the deck, is the central character that ties together the disintegrating threads of both Irish families and society in general. He can be said to embody evil but he also absorbs evil. We know early on that a murder is about to take place. O’Connor deftly fuses Dickensian style intrigue with parodies of both the Romance novel and Gothic suspense while adhering to the principle espoused by David Meredith, “Everything is in the way the material is composed.” History of the subject matter is gained through osmosis when the characters are delineated through their passions and fears. Everyone agreed that the form of this novel fit the subject matter and the epilogue only added to the nineteenth century feel. Thumbs up unanimously.
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