The Islandman (Oxford Paperbacks)

I wanted to know more about life in Ireland in the 19th century. This book seemed to offer that opportunity. I'm glad that I bought and read the book. The author took me from his childhood to his old age. He made sure that his parents, siblings, neighbors and others played roles in the Island man's story.His story has fishing, funerals, weddings, turf cutting, and more. He provides a clear keyed picture of his relatives, neighbors and acquaintances. Consequently, these people came to life for me. I noted that people frequently emigrated to America. I was surprised at how often they returned and their experiences in America didn't seem positive.The loss of children and spouses seemed to occur regularly. Heartbreak was part of the Island man's life and that of the lives of those who lived on Great Blasket Island. On page 243 of the paperback that I have, he says: "We are poor, simple people living from hand to mouth." It was one of the last Irish repealing corners of Ireland, which fact played a particular role in the author's life.I appreciated the author's efforts. I got a sense of Ireland that I wanted. I recommend the book highly.

Five stars because this is such a valuable and vivid record of another culture, another time, another people. The Blasket islanders were already strongly differentiated from the mainland Irish at the turn of the last century, insulated as they were by their isolation at the edge of the western world. I greatly enjoyed reading this book, and having a window on the humor, struggles, successes, sorrows and viewpoints of the islanders. I found myself at times strongly drawn to the Tomas O'Crohan's worldview, and at other times baffled and bemused. There is a cultural gulf which it takes imagination and sympathy to traverse, and I did my best. The rhythm of the Gaelic, everyone says, comes through in the translation, and I believe it. It makes the text seem all the more authentic.Most of all, this book is real. It is not a romantic or polished recreation of the past. I am tired of the historical novel with all its distortions, and of the fake 'history' laboriously 'reproduced' in films and television series. In the worst cases, these 'recreations' are little more than modern ideas and plots with period costumes and hair arrangements plastered on top. This is the actual article, a glittering, deep and honest rendering of a way of life that now exists for the main part only on paper. Thank you, Tomas O'Crohan.

I tried to buy this at Tig Slea Head in Coumeenole, just across the water from the Great Blasket Island, but the copy I was fingering belonged to the shop owner. I saw her copy was underlined and dog-eared. I found the copy I read at the pottery shop up the road.This book is not so much a 'great work of literature' as much as it's a detailed view of not only a different time but a different kind of place and lifestyle altogether. Unlike before or after. The book begins with O'Crohan's boyhood stories which are sufficiently interesting, but as I progressed past the middle of the book his perspective grew ever more insightful. His way of relating, for example, the deaths of several of his children, who are not even named. Today children represent "play." Then, in the austere unforgiving world of drying turf and fishing for a living, they represented "work" and some measure of relief from the unrelenting toils.The austerity of island life only becomes fully apparent at the end where he waxes philosophical about all he's seen and been through. I was moved by the last few chapters.

This was wonderful......a glimpse into another age. Tomas' writing is simple, moving and filled with humor, sadness, tragedy and the wonderfully interesting mundane of life. Do not expect a towering epic, smoothly flowing narrative. It jumps around a bit and frustratingly leaves out bits of stories you want to know more about but in the end the overall experience is to be able to feel a life lived and a life lived in a world that has just about gone from living memory. Very highly recommended but be prepared for a small, quiet read whose depths are often in the unsaid and in the whole of Tomas' remarkable story.Visited the Blaskets before reading this......that enhanced the experience tremendously.....but I wish I had read it before going AND after.

This is the autobiographical account of a simple fisherman, Thomas O' Crohan, who lived on Great Blasket island in the second half of the 19th century and beginning of 20th century. It was originally written in Irish Gaelic and is translated by Robin Flower. The English version is both poetic and obscure as Flower tried to translate the original language as closely as possible thus giving us an odd form of Hiberno-English which is redolent of The Playboy of the Western World (and of the way my own grand parents spoke).Of course one is reminded strongly of Peig while reading this, and the stories are as fascinating and poignant as Peig's are. I was particularly amused by the the recounting of the group of fishermen rowing out to catch up with a burning ship (they were hoping to benefit from the cargo they might salvage). However, they were surprised to find that, although the ship was very obviously on fire, it continued in a straight and determined path; other fishing boats joind in the trail following this peculiar ship. The author then reveals that it was their first time to encounter a steamship.

I read this book as a follow up to a boat trip to the Blaskett Islands, Ireland

I read this memoir for research. It contains a chronological biography of a Blasket islander who like many, grew up poor living off the land, but who developed a thick skin of courage while dealing with hardship, strife, and grief. In this book famine, death, and poverty are explored by this man who never lost his empathy, humour, or love for his fellow humans. There are quotes which I've written down about those in The New World not understanding fully the lives of those who left the island to seek their fortune there. And snippets of wisdom for those who wish to understand the lives of The Blasket's inhabitants. A tale of woe and happiness, equally explored.

The Islandman gives a great insight into the life and times of the Irish speaking people of the Blaskets - na Blascaodaí - off the West coast of Kerry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows the ups and downs of everyday life in the remote islands including how the people made a living and their customs. There are some fantastic stories in the book from shark attacks to the arrival of tea on the island.If I have one complaint, it is that the translation while trying to keep a flavour of the original Irish actually makes the Irish seem old-fashioned and clumsy to the extent that it sometimes makes the meaning unclear. As a speaker of Scottish Gaelic who knows some Irish, I often found the Irish original easier to follow than the translation.

really enjoyed this book. finished it overnight. just couldnt put it down. theres happiness, getting drunk, the pig that legged it into the sea rather than go to market, being chased by some..ladies of the nite? while out trying to sell pigs on the mainland, almost getting drowned in the seal cave, happy tales, sad tales too, this man lost about 6 of his kids.theres funny moments, mad moments, the wake he went to on the mainland and a drunk man fell on to 2 women who wished him they would see him at his wake! the phrases they come out with have you chuckling. its spellbinding from start to finish. first time someone came on the island wearing glasses and the kids in school thought he had 4 eyes! sometimes theyd have school and then the teacher would disappear to the mainland and the school would close, and then it'd open a year later! gosh! this book is so so interesting. absolute 5 stars xxx

A wonderful, autobiographical tale of a life caught between the old world and the new: a recollection of an individual's place in a traditional island community built around fishing, farming and folklore. This short book should be read by people fascinated by the 'old ways' of the wild, west coast of Ireland but also by those interested in building new communities in the modern world in villages, towns and cities. Love your family, friends and neighbours - but be kind and generous to strangers: they are part of the community to come.