HOME | BESTSELLERS | NEW RELEASES | PRICE WATCH | FICTION | BIOGRAPHIES | E-BOOKS |
+ PRICE WATCH
* Amazon pricing is not included in price watch
The Banyan Tree Book
The renowned winner of the 1987 Whitbread Award, Christopher Nolan, has fashioned an extraordinary epic set in rural Ireland, spanning three generations of the O'Briens who own a small dairy farm in Westmeath. Minnie O'Brien stubbornly clings on to life, her five fields and her "long-agos" that take root like a banyan tree and feed her lonely old age. Her husband Peter is long dead and her three children scattered in a typical Irish diaspora--Brendan is a priest in Africa, Sheila is a nurse in London and Frankie is a sheep-shearer in Australia and odd-jobber around the globe. Will Frankie return in time to save the farm from the avaricious grasping of the next door neighbour, Jude Fortune, and will Minnie discover the betrayal Peter has kept hidden from her? In many ways, The Banyan Tree is a conventional tale of births, weddings and death set against the land and the lure of emigration. What makes it unusual however is Nolan's flexible, fickle and often fantastical use of the English language. Not only does he use colloquialisms to locate the characters very specifically, but he invents verbs from adjectives, making them come sparklingly alive. The butter churn is a "druidic dark drum" that comes "Sundaying into life". Minnie's memories are noisy things that clutter her mind like "local attaboys" at the races. On the day after her wedding, "morning songed the reading of the streets" as Minnie experienced her "vulved awareness" and "funky heart". Some of Nolan's alliterations and hyphenated words bring the whimsical beauty of Gerald Manley Hopkins to the novel, but occasionally his inventions collapse into the absurd. When he describes a pony drinking for example, he writes, "slurping her grizzled credentials, she effected a long draught". Although these circumlocutions can trip up the meaning, the narrative works up to a moving climax that will have any offspring far from home reaching for the phone or a plane ticket. --Cherry SmythRead More
from£51.95 | RRP: * Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £5.54
- 0385720688
- 9780385720687
- Christopher Nolan
- 1 February 2002
- Anchor Books
- Paperback (Book)
- 384
- Reprint
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.
Would you like your name to appear with the review?
We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
All form fields are required.