It always amazes me how Jack can extensively promote and talk enthusiastically about a book and makes me very interested in it without ever going into spoilers. That requires some skill!
Indeed! This might be my FAVORITE Jack quality. I want to know about the book, but I also want to read and discover it for myself. Jack allows both. Thank you!
for anyone looking for the film made based on this book that Jack was talking about at the end there, it’s called “An Cailín Ciúin”, or “The Quiet Girl” in English, it was originally produced as an Irish language film and has been translated too
The nuance in this novella is breathtaking. It is like watching the life in a pond from above the water, I think. That last line has haunted me. Pair it with what her uncle told her about women knowing things.
The way you talk about books, Jack, honestly! I can’t wait for your own novel to be published so I can read it! I mean, being a writer myself (and trying to start a booktube channel) I only now realize what an art this is. How did you get to become so mature at such a young age?? Speechless…
I read Foster as part of my final school exams in Ireland 6 years ago it has stuck with me forever since and gets better with every reread! The movie is definitely my favourite movie of all time, a masterpiece and the decision to tell the story as Gaeilge (in the Irish language) was the best decision to have been made as it only serves to enrich the story. It is up for an Oscar today and and I’ve my fingers crossed for it!
"An Cailin Ciuin" -- "The Quiet Girl" -- should have won that Oscar. Not that "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a bad film, but after seeing them both at the cinema this past spring, I know that moments from "The Quiet Girl" are going to remain in my thoughts for a long, long time to come, as the book "Foster" has for you.
Freckles is a brilliant book by Irish author Cecelia Ahern. It revolves around the quote "everyone is the average of the 5 people they spend the most time with". It's incredible!
Given your comment on loving duality of endings that keep you thinking I can see why you loved Home fire so much! Finished it thus week and damn that ending. Like it was good obviously and yes it was the right place to end it but I desperately wanted just 1 more page. Just 1! Rarely so surprised by an ending and that clash of inevitability and shock. Like in hindsight of course but did not expect that moment so suddenly and so dropped. The ending killed me but from your description here sounds exactly like your cup of tea! For everyone that hasn't read it it really is an amazing and unusual book. So emotive but understated and real given the intensity of the subject matter.
I actually just read it, bought it after watching your Irish book haul, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! So thank you so much for all the amazing recommendation you keep giving us
This book was brilliant - I'd read Small Things Like These and picked this up after you showed it on a short or something. Thanks for the rec! As I'm also on an Irish lit journey, I have to recommend The Wonder by Emma Donahue (who wrote Room). It is a real kick in the teeth. Essentially, an English nurse comes to the bedside of an 11-year old girl who hasn't eaten for months, and the locals believe she's living proof of a miracle in their dusty Irish Catholic town. Historical, well-researched, themes of faith and family and how we deal with trauma both in childhood and as adults. It wasn't QUITE 5-star but very much worth the read. Looking forward to reading the rest of Claire Keegan's work with you this year - thanks for all you do!
If you want another 5 star, can I recommend The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas. I think it's the type of book you'd love. There's a scene where I felt like the book was genuinely hypnotising me, it was a singular experience
jack and i have the same taste in books: not plot-heavy but more on character studies !!! that's why i always treasure jack's recommendations because i know for sure that i'll always like it as well
Foster was a book I was made read in school here in Ireland it was a part of our curriculum. I remember it being one of the first books I ever felt deep emotions from it’s so beautifully written
they made a movie based on this book- called “an cailín ciúin”, which is still in Irish cinemas. watched it last weekend, really enjoyed it. pity u didn’t get to watch the movie while in ireland !
Thats so true. Hadn't really twigged panenka as an Irish book specifically as I'd forgotten thar detail but that's my favourite in the last year or so and I loved foster too. I love the books with very little plot but just life. Nothing dramatised. No big plot devices. Nothing about daily life is even exaggerated. They can be profoundly emotional but just so gentle in how it comes together. The type that's hard to put a finger on why it's special or even explain but just gentle and gorgeous.
I've yet to read any Claire Keegan. Now on my TBR. Currently reading and LOVING Panenka. Exquisitely written. I'm savouring every word and re reading so many passages.
I studied Foster for my Leaving Certificate (out version of A- Levels) and I can remember all of us being enthralled by it! It is brilliantly written and I also loved how the ending was open to interpretation. An Cáilín Ciún is amazing!!
I read Foster last month on Kindle. I finished it at work, and shouldn’t have, because I had to keep from blubbering. I immediately bought a physical copy for my wife and sent a cooy to my Mom. Great book.
I read small things like these and had mixed reactions, so I wasn't sure about this one. But, the moment Jack said Anne of green gables, I know I want to pick this ASAP. That book is my life, heart, kidney, etc.
That book sounds so nice! It sounds similar to Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, which is a novella as well and follows this same 'glimpse in someone's life without a specific plot' if that makes sense. But yeah I would definitely recommend it if you're interested💞
Haven’t read the book but watched the movie. It was called “The Quiet Girl” here in Australia and it was just as you described the book. It was a gentle, poignant tale and the ending made me cry and cringe in equal measure! I wanted Cait to go with Sean and I hope that was in her future. Thanks for recommending the book so highly. I’ll seek it out! Catch the movie if you can ❤️
I agree. This short story was beautiful. So simple it was almost an elegy. It reminded of my favourite novella ‘Old man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway. I’m interested in your theory that Irish fiction centres around domestic matters. Rings true from what I read. It could be their filthy weather keeping them inside 😂
Because of you i have read and collected so many books and next month i am immigrating to chicago and i dont know how to bring my whole collection with me😭
Added to my TBR. Have you read The Truth about Sheep and Goats by Joanna Cannon? It’s got that “there’s a secret” element to it. And also reminded me a bit of Anne of Green Gables in the telling. Granted, no one is nearly as brilliant as Montgomery - except of course Alcott - in the storytelling of her genre.
If you love the focus on the everyday and “normal people”, I’d also recommend reading contemporary New Zealand literature! Maybe starting with something like Noelle McCarthy’s “Grand” which actually starts off in Ireland and then follows her journey to NZ would be good (especially as it’s just been nominated for the Ockham awards here!)
Both Foster and small things like these are the best books I've read this year too. How does she fit the whole world into so few pages. So simple and breathtaking and saaaaaaaaad😢😢😢
Such a good book! And the film is gorgeous, so atmospheric and great use of sound to immerse you in the environment. She has a short story called ‘The Forrester’s Daughter’ that I think you’d like as well! It’s in her short story collection ‘Walk the Blue Fields’ but you can also just get the story on its own from the Faber Story collection!
I recently read Antarctica by Claire keegan and I tought it very well written. It is a short story collection with a cottage core vibe with a hint of darkness sprinkled over.
Martin McDonagh is an Irish playwright/screen writer. He was just nominated for some Oscars this year for his movie The Banshees of Inisherin, which was fantastic, but his plays are SO good! The Pillowman is my favorite I’ve read so far, beautiful combination of humor and drama, McDonagh breathes such life into his characters ❤
Thank you for always keeping my tbr full and never finished. I recently finished Pajtim Statovci’s My cat Yugoslavia and I would love to know your opinion about it!
You should read the Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan!!! Another Irish novel with every chapter told from the perspective of a different character in the village where it is set🥰
omg I've been obsessed with Irish contemporary as well, I don't know if you've read The Amusements by Aingela Flannery but it is so good, I would love to know your thoughts on it!
My husband got me ‘Snowflake’ by Louise Nelson which is an Irish novel that gave me real Normal People vibes but it was darkly funny. I loved it. I think you might enjoy it!
Almost everything you said you loved about Foster is also true of The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín, another brilliant Irish writer. It's about an estranged family gathered in a remote Irish home, coming to terms with the fact that the narrator's brother is dying of AIDS. There isn't much plot, but it's all about the characterisation and the conversations between the characters, and the tension of waiting for an inevitable outcome. The ending is super ambiguous, and you sort of have to decide for yourself what happens to the characters afterwards -- the novel is just like a brief window into a period of their lives. It's gorgeous and devastating and hopeful, about nuanced relationships and everyday moments as a family. Please read literally anything by Toíbín, it's all exquisite and it all deals with those little aspects of the mundane (not just a novelist! He's also written poetry, biographies, essays, short stories...).
Jack you should really read the Colony by Audrey Magee! It was another Irish novel nominated for the Booker last year, set on an Irish-speaking island during the Troubles when an Englishman and a Frenchman come to stay for the summer
I saw that book in my Gothic Lit seminar and OH BOY was it great. It surprised me that you didn't mention how this book is also kind of threatening...? Like, part of the suspense is not of time running out, but about how these parents gave away a daughter to almost strangers...
Jack!!! Please read Strong Female Character by Fern Brady!!!!! it’s her memoir and centres around her life as an autistic woman and it’s so insightful and important i LOVE IT
Since you like to review famous people's books sometimes and realized you enjoy books written by Irish authors, have you or do you intend to read any of Graham Norton's books? Three of them are in the setting of Ireland (I am not sure about the novella) and are not comedy books although his show on TV is mainly comedic in nature. Their ratings of them on Goodreads are fairly good.
[SPOILER ALERT] In my opinion, the last half of “Foster” is concerned with the little heroine’s efforts to gain some control of her life, despite her status as a child, and maintain some connection with the Kinsellas, who she realizes are her lifeline to a better future than the one she is likely to have with her own family. She makes it clear to John and Edna where she’d like to stay, and even unknowingly puts her life at risk trying to perform one last service for them, as well as taking the responsibility for lying to her parents to protect them. She renounces her loyalty to her own parents and transfers it to the Kinsellas. I find the story ends on a hopeful note. The little girl takes the initiative to make a public declaration of her feelings in a way that neither her parents nor the Kinsellas can ignore. She uses the most powerful and succinct term she can think of to establish her relationship with John, and addresses him twice using the word. I don’t agree with those who argue that, in some way, the child is talking to her father as well. In addressing John as she does, the little girl also places a tremendous responsibility upon him, one that he cannot easily dismiss or walk away from. To do so, would be a betrayal of the child and everything they have come to mean to each other over the preceding summer. So I think the story ends just at the tipping point, where John-and Edna-realize that, by hook or by crook, they are going to remain part of the little girl’s life. Also, I love "An Cailin Ciuin"---"The Quiet Girl"--and though it's been almost half a year since I read "Foster" and saw the film version, they're both seldom far from my thoughts.
I definitely think that this book encapsulates a certain attitude of 20th century post-independence Ireland and the culture of silence, but it’s not so much to do with the troubles. Both small things like these and foster place such a large emphasis on highlighting the reality of a very repressive catholic Ireland that existed (and still somewhat exists today). The Magdalene Laundries in small things like these are a far more obvious example within the text of the abuses of the Catholic Church against the Irish population. But in foster it’s more so to do with the fact that contraception was illegal up until the 80s for most women. Hence the mother having another child. The entire century, specifically after the writing of our 1937 constitution was very much dominated by fear of stepping outside of the norms cultivated by church and state and hence the silence of the Irish (mostly female) population.
It always amazes me how Jack can extensively promote and talk enthusiastically about a book and makes me very interested in it without ever going into spoilers. That requires some skill!
Indeed! This might be my FAVORITE Jack quality. I want to know about the book, but I also want to read and discover it for myself. Jack allows both. Thank you!
for anyone looking for the film made based on this book that Jack was talking about at the end there, it’s called “An Cailín Ciúin”, or “The Quiet Girl” in English, it was originally produced as an Irish language film and has been translated too
The Quiet Girl is a magnificent movie……and does Justice to the book.
The nuance in this novella is breathtaking. It is like watching the life in a pond from above the water, I think. That last line has haunted me. Pair it with what her uncle told her about women knowing things.
“It’s really beautiful and elegant in its ordinariness.” Sounds like a book for me😊 TFS!
The way you talk about books, Jack, honestly! I can’t wait for your own novel to be published so I can read it! I mean, being a writer myself (and trying to start a booktube channel) I only now realize what an art this is. How did you get to become so mature at such a young age?? Speechless…
I read Foster as part of my final school exams in Ireland 6 years ago it has stuck with me forever since and gets better with every reread! The movie is definitely my favourite movie of all time, a masterpiece and the decision to tell the story as Gaeilge (in the Irish language) was the best decision to have been made as it only serves to enrich the story. It is up for an Oscar today and and I’ve my fingers crossed for it!
"An Cailin Ciuin" -- "The Quiet Girl" -- should have won that Oscar. Not that "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a bad film, but after seeing them both at the cinema this past spring, I know that moments from "The Quiet Girl" are going to remain in my thoughts for a long, long time to come, as the book "Foster" has for you.
Yessir. Much love from Kenya 🇰🇪.
Freckles is a brilliant book by Irish author Cecelia Ahern. It revolves around the quote "everyone is the average of the 5 people they spend the most time with". It's incredible!
It sounds amazing, I never would have thought to pick this up without this video ♡
Given your comment on loving duality of endings that keep you thinking I can see why you loved Home fire so much! Finished it thus week and damn that ending. Like it was good obviously and yes it was the right place to end it but I desperately wanted just 1 more page. Just 1! Rarely so surprised by an ending and that clash of inevitability and shock. Like in hindsight of course but did not expect that moment so suddenly and so dropped. The ending killed me but from your description here sounds exactly like your cup of tea! For everyone that hasn't read it it really is an amazing and unusual book. So emotive but understated and real given the intensity of the subject matter.
I actually just read it, bought it after watching your Irish book haul, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! So thank you so much for all the amazing recommendation you keep giving us
More book reviews please! I loved every second of this vid
I loved small things like these , so I’ll have to read foster. So excited.
I read this book last year and it impressed me so much. Happy you enjoyed it too 😊
ahhhh I recently read this, and I loved it so much. Thank you.
This book was brilliant - I'd read Small Things Like These and picked this up after you showed it on a short or something. Thanks for the rec! As I'm also on an Irish lit journey, I have to recommend The Wonder by Emma Donahue (who wrote Room). It is a real kick in the teeth. Essentially, an English nurse comes to the bedside of an 11-year old girl who hasn't eaten for months, and the locals believe she's living proof of a miracle in their dusty Irish Catholic town. Historical, well-researched, themes of faith and family and how we deal with trauma both in childhood and as adults. It wasn't QUITE 5-star but very much worth the read. Looking forward to reading the rest of Claire Keegan's work with you this year - thanks for all you do!
Thanks to you, I discovered my new favourite read: Small Things Like These :) So grounded and understated, brought me a lot of comfort.
If you want another 5 star, can I recommend The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas. I think it's the type of book you'd love. There's a scene where I felt like the book was genuinely hypnotising me, it was a singular experience
Ohhhh yes, anything by Vesaas is brilliant, really! One of my all-time favourites
Thanks for sharing this with us :)
I just read both of them, and I absolutely loved them! Thanks for the recommendations.
jack and i have the same taste in books: not plot-heavy but more on character studies !!!
that's why i always treasure jack's recommendations because i know for sure that i'll always like it as well
Foster was a book I was made read in school here in Ireland it was a part of our curriculum. I remember it being one of the first books I ever felt deep emotions from it’s so beautifully written
I loved it so much! Please recommend books like Foster!
they made a movie based on this book- called “an cailín ciúin”, which is still in Irish cinemas. watched it last weekend, really enjoyed it. pity u didn’t get to watch the movie while in ireland !
Thats so true. Hadn't really twigged panenka as an Irish book specifically as I'd forgotten thar detail but that's my favourite in the last year or so and I loved foster too. I love the books with very little plot but just life. Nothing dramatised. No big plot devices. Nothing about daily life is even exaggerated. They can be profoundly emotional but just so gentle in how it comes together. The type that's hard to put a finger on why it's special or even explain but just gentle and gorgeous.
I've yet to read any Claire Keegan. Now on my TBR. Currently reading and LOVING Panenka. Exquisitely written. I'm savouring every word and re reading so many passages.
I feel so happy every time Jack posts a video.
I read foster after you showed it in the haul and i am so glad I did.. It was fantastic.
I studied Foster for my Leaving Certificate (out version of A- Levels) and I can remember all of us being enthralled by it! It is brilliantly written and I also loved how the ending was open to interpretation. An Cáilín Ciún is amazing!!
Just the video I was waiting for!
I read Foster last month on Kindle. I finished it at work, and shouldn’t have, because I had to keep from blubbering. I immediately bought a physical copy for my wife and sent a cooy to my Mom. Great book.
I read small things like these and had mixed reactions, so I wasn't sure about this one. But, the moment Jack said Anne of green gables, I know I want to pick this ASAP. That book is my life, heart, kidney, etc.
That book sounds so nice! It sounds similar to Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, which is a novella as well and follows this same 'glimpse in someone's life without a specific plot' if that makes sense. But yeah I would definitely recommend it if you're interested💞
I keep seeing this book float around! Going to have to pick it up!
Haven’t read the book but watched the movie. It was called “The Quiet Girl” here in Australia and it was just as you described the book. It was a gentle, poignant tale and the ending made me cry and cringe in equal measure! I wanted Cait to go with Sean and I hope that was in her future. Thanks for recommending the book so highly. I’ll seek it out! Catch the movie if you can ❤️
I loved it so much. As i did small things like these. Amazing writer
I agree. This short story was beautiful. So simple it was almost an elegy. It reminded of my favourite novella ‘Old man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway. I’m interested in your theory that Irish fiction centres around domestic matters. Rings true from what I read. It could be their filthy weather keeping them inside 😂
Really appreciate this review, as one of your Irish fans
Loved this book and Small Things like These too ❤
I rated this 5 stars as well! Such an incredible story
this man is the reason i read
Sameeeee here
Can’t wait to read this ❤
Because of you i have read and collected so many books and next month i am immigrating to chicago and i dont know how to bring my whole collection with me😭
Added to my TBR. Have you read The Truth about Sheep and Goats by Joanna Cannon? It’s got that “there’s a secret” element to it. And also reminded me a bit of Anne of Green Gables in the telling. Granted, no one is nearly as brilliant as Montgomery - except of course Alcott - in the storytelling of her genre.
About silence in Irish fiction, you should read Milkman by Anna Burns!
If you love the focus on the everyday and “normal people”, I’d also recommend reading contemporary New Zealand literature! Maybe starting with something like Noelle McCarthy’s “Grand” which actually starts off in Ireland and then follows her journey to NZ would be good (especially as it’s just been nominated for the Ockham awards here!)
Or “Greta and Valdin”!
Both Foster and small things like these are the best books I've read this year too. How does she fit the whole world into so few pages. So simple and breathtaking and saaaaaaaaad😢😢😢
I just finished Foster, and at the end when she runs down the road, I started bawling my eyes out.
Such a good book! And the film is gorgeous, so atmospheric and great use of sound to immerse you in the environment.
She has a short story called ‘The Forrester’s Daughter’ that I think you’d like as well! It’s in her short story collection ‘Walk the Blue Fields’ but you can also just get the story on its own from the Faber Story collection!
I recently read Antarctica by Claire keegan and I tought it very well written. It is a short story collection with a cottage core vibe with a hint of darkness sprinkled over.
Martin McDonagh is an Irish playwright/screen writer. He was just nominated for some Oscars this year for his movie The Banshees of Inisherin, which was fantastic, but his plays are SO good! The Pillowman is my favorite I’ve read so far, beautiful combination of humor and drama, McDonagh breathes such life into his characters ❤
Thank you for always keeping my tbr full and never finished. I recently finished Pajtim Statovci’s My cat Yugoslavia and I would love to know your opinion about it!
You should read the Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan!!! Another Irish novel with every chapter told from the perspective of a different character in the village where it is set🥰
Jack please my tbr is getting too long
omg I've been obsessed with Irish contemporary as well, I don't know if you've read The Amusements by Aingela Flannery but it is so good, I would love to know your thoughts on it!
Loved this book❤
Definitely going to read now
My husband got me ‘Snowflake’ by Louise Nelson which is an Irish novel that gave me real Normal People vibes but it was darkly funny. I loved it. I think you might enjoy it!
Jan Carson is another great writer, she’s from northern ireland! Think you’d really enjoy The Raptures, or The Fire Starters!
4:27 The blurb reminded me of ‘Mansfield Park’.
Badly want to read this over the summer
I loved this too it made me cry 😢
Watching another video and changed to this one immediately
Almost everything you said you loved about Foster is also true of The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín, another brilliant Irish writer. It's about an estranged family gathered in a remote Irish home, coming to terms with the fact that the narrator's brother is dying of AIDS. There isn't much plot, but it's all about the characterisation and the conversations between the characters, and the tension of waiting for an inevitable outcome. The ending is super ambiguous, and you sort of have to decide for yourself what happens to the characters afterwards -- the novel is just like a brief window into a period of their lives. It's gorgeous and devastating and hopeful, about nuanced relationships and everyday moments as a family. Please read literally anything by Toíbín, it's all exquisite and it all deals with those little aspects of the mundane (not just a novelist! He's also written poetry, biographies, essays, short stories...).
still haven’t found my five star of the year yet but i’m hopeful, i’ve read some really good books so far
Jack you should really read the Colony by Audrey Magee!
It was another Irish novel nominated for the Booker last year, set on an Irish-speaking island during the Troubles when an Englishman and a Frenchman come to stay for the summer
Love this book, the end made me cry in a hospital waiting room...
I have seen the film! It's so beautiful
I just read this (because it was in one of your other videos) and I agree it has strong Anne of Green Gables vibes.
I saw that book in my Gothic Lit seminar and OH BOY was it great. It surprised me that you didn't mention how this book is also kind of threatening...? Like, part of the suspense is not of time running out, but about how these parents gave away a daughter to almost strangers...
Jack!!! Please read Strong Female Character by Fern Brady!!!!! it’s her memoir and centres around her life as an autistic woman and it’s so insightful and important i LOVE IT
Just finished reading the book, and I loved it so much. It definitely is a 5 star rated book.
another irish book i recommend is Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane :)
Read this in one sitting during my English class, fantastic!
It’s a lovely book
You should check out the poetry of Evan Boland. She really captures the domestic in such a beautiful way.
Will you post a video comparing the book to the movie adaptation?
😺✌️
I should start reading Irish books since I’m Irish myself so I’ll start with this book lol.
“Reminds me of Anne of Green Gables” wow thats all that needed to be said I have already ordered it.
Please read Boys don't cry
It is also a irish book
JACK where’s your t-shirt from???
You have to read "The Famous Magician", by César Aira ;)
Since you like to review famous people's books sometimes and realized you enjoy books written by Irish authors, have you or do you intend to read any of Graham Norton's books? Three of them are in the setting of Ireland (I am not sure about the novella) and are not comedy books although his show on TV is mainly comedic in nature. Their ratings of them on Goodreads are fairly good.
i had no idea what was going on in the book; i had to look it up bc i was so confused
Hiiiiiii Jack I love ur content
I NEED to know what you thought of YOLK!!!!!!!!
Grab the tissues for the movie, Jack!
You might like An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
Not to be that person, but will you ever upload the „every book I read in 2022“ video?🙈
Please read ’when we were fireflies’ by a Nigerian author
If the movie is wonderful, I can’t imagine how beautiful the book is.
[SPOILER ALERT] In my opinion, the last half of “Foster” is concerned with the little heroine’s efforts to gain some control of her life, despite her status as a child, and maintain some connection with the Kinsellas, who she realizes are her lifeline to a better future than the one she is likely to have with her own family. She makes it clear to John and Edna where she’d like to stay, and even unknowingly puts her life at risk trying to perform one last service for them, as well as taking the responsibility for lying to her parents to protect them. She renounces her loyalty to her own parents and transfers it to the Kinsellas.
I find the story ends on a hopeful note. The little girl takes the initiative to make a public declaration of her feelings in a way that neither her parents nor the Kinsellas can ignore. She uses the most powerful and succinct term she can think of to establish her relationship with John, and addresses him twice using the word. I don’t agree with those who argue that, in some way, the child is talking to her father as well. In addressing John as she does, the little girl also places a tremendous responsibility upon him, one that he cannot easily dismiss or walk away from. To do so, would be a betrayal of the child and everything they have come to mean to each other over the preceding summer. So I think the story ends just at the tipping point, where John-and Edna-realize that, by hook or by crook, they are going to remain part of the little girl’s life.
Also, I love "An Cailin Ciuin"---"The Quiet Girl"--and though it's been almost half a year since I read "Foster" and saw the film version, they're both seldom far from my thoughts.
Oh, yes! I saw that this story is included in the school curriculum in Ireland.
Jack said 5 stars….IHAVETOREADIT ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
i havent had a single 5 star read so far this year (ive read 15) this is scary :D
Great pacing and a low page-count is probably the simplest way into my heart ...
Okay
If you enjoy Irish Fiction, you have to give Louise O'Neill try
Jack: I've read 38 books so far this year
Me: wanting to read 40 books total this year and not knowing if I'll succeed😅
I definitely think that this book encapsulates a certain attitude of 20th century post-independence Ireland and the culture of silence, but it’s not so much to do with the troubles. Both small things like these and foster place such a large emphasis on highlighting the reality of a very repressive catholic Ireland that existed (and still somewhat exists today). The Magdalene Laundries in small things like these are a far more obvious example within the text of the abuses of the Catholic Church against the Irish population. But in foster it’s more so to do with the fact that contraception was illegal up until the 80s for most women. Hence the mother having another child. The entire century, specifically after the writing of our 1937 constitution was very much dominated by fear of stepping outside of the norms cultivated by church and state and hence the silence of the Irish (mostly female) population.
You forgot to say the name of the movie ( The Quiet Girl)