(28) This was an unsolicited lend from a friend that caught my eye - there is something about long perilous ocean voyages that make for great reading. This is set during the mid 1800's during the worst of the potato famine in Ireland. A novel within a novel frame - the author, Grantley, is an American writer on board the ship who is incensed by the outrages of the famine and also harbors secrets of his own. The ship contains desperately poor Irish in steerage attempting to save their lives by immigrating to America. In first class, Lord David Meredith and his family are also immigrating - an English protestant noble born and raised in Ireland and much maligned in the current political climate, he is marked for death. An Pius Mulvey, a mysterious man who walks the deck all night long dragging an injured leg behind him - he is often referred to by Grantley as 'The Monster.'

So the plot is intriguing and thickens as the novel progresses. It has almost a gothic feel to it as recollections about each character are mysterious, melancholy, and filled with dreadful secrets. The writing is quite good and feels authentically of the times. In addition to questions about the veracity of the narration, there is a lot to think about. I very much enjoyed at least 3/4 of this novel but thought it ended a bit weak aesthetically. I do not want to spoil but I think O'Connor over explained. Let your writing speak for itself - it was quite good! Lord Kingscourt was ready to welcome what was coming for him and he got it - but maybe was surprised at the identity of his executioner...

I will read this author again (In part because there are more books by him in the stack given to me by my friend) He is a great story-teller and builds an authentic sense of place and time. If you like Victorian sensationalist yarns like Dickens and Wilkie Collins, then you should read this, old thing. ( )

It certainly passes the time if you need to listen to tales of never ending misery, though I don’t think I could stomach it in print form. I dozed off somewhere toward the middle so am somewhat confused. Did Mary nearly marry her half brother, and was she the same Mary whose husband and child were killed by the murderer? If so, seeing as her husband was the brother of the priest, how come she had earlier married this priest and was the brother/priest Nicholas one and the same as the Nicholas who died in a mad episode of self harm outside their family cottage?

A rollicking yarn or a melodrama? Both I guess, though I think it could be much improved by leaving off the last three chapters. ( )

A very clever historical novel set in 1847 aboard a ship of Irish immigrants bound for America. The book moves between the characters on the ship and what happened to bring them there. At the center of the story is a mystery and a murder, actually more than one.

I would have given it more stars, but although all the characters were interesting, I felt emotionally distant from them.

You'll like this book if you like:
*19th century historical fiction
*mystery with a touch of horror
*tales from the sea
*immigrant's stories ( )

Picked for my reading group and I really didn't think I'd like it. But I did. The writing is very dense and certainly at first I was needing a dictionary at times to look up words. But I was never bored or wanting to stop reading. It's done in a dense Dickens imitation style. I usually dislike "literary" fiction but occasionally it can work. But no wonder the Irish hate the British! Ironically the person who selected the book disliked it on his reread. Most of the rest of the group also disliked it or couldn't finish it. One even suggested it was a "piss take" based on the author foreword - which I didn't read until the end (he does have a point actually). ( )

What a fantastic read this was, and whatever you do read right to the end. There's a bombshell on the second-to-last page that I certainly didn't see coming. Beautifully written, superb characterisation with hints of Dickens (indeed Dickens himself makes a brief appearance). I now, also, know a lot more about the Irish potato famine. ( )

The Star of the Sea coffin ship leaving Ireland with hundreds of famine refugees along with a few passengers in upper class is the main setting for this story. Lord Meredith along with his wife, Laura, their two sons, and a nanny are in the upper deck. Lord Meredith is basically destitute and carries with him a family history of greed and selfishness. Mary Duane, the nanny, has known the family throughout her life and their connection isn't unveiled until near the end. An American journalist, Grantley Dixon, is also on board.

In steerage is a strange man named Pius Mulvey but has been known to go by many names. He and his brother Nicholas took far different paths; Nicholas becoming a priest and Pius a thief, swindler, and murderer.

The book is basically told from the annuals of the Captain, but there are intervening chapters giving the lives of these characters.

At times the story got a bit confusing, but the overall plot is interesting and all the characters are products of their environment and the decisions they have made. I especially liked the final chapters which told what happened to them. Good read. ( )

This is the best book I read all year. I couldn't put it down. It was thoroughly engaging... and never predictable. I highly recommend it. ( )

Forget that this was published in 2004 – this is a Dickensian novel, full of complex characters, vivid storytelling, biting social commentary, Victorian literary experimentation, and bitter wit, all overlaid by a seemingly infinite empathy and compassion for humanity – even those whose bitter lives shape them into monsters. Though the events of the novel are claustrophobically confined to the decks of Star of the Sea, a rotting hulk making one final transatlantic run from Ireland to the U.S. bearing a cargo of tainted coal, toxic mercury, a scattering of first class passengers, and a seething stew of steerage passengers, character backstories drag us across fragrant green Irish fields littered with heather, through cruel workhouses, sordid brothels and corrupt jails, inside bleak British boarding schools, down roads lined with emaciated Irish dead, then back again through the villages poor in wealth but rich in love and generosity. All the things that Dickens did so heart-breakingly well.

This is also a very Irish novel, bleak and beautiful, couched in lyric language and imagery, full of characters who might have just stepped out of Irish ballads – hard drinking laborers, cruel landlords, wily thieves, wastrel balladeers, doomed lovers, wronged servant girls – and set in 1847, the great potato famine. Except that, in O’Connor’s adept hands, these archetypes gain flesh (so that we feel their pain), hearts (so that we experience their sorrows) and souls (making it impossible for us to deny their humanity).

Reading these past two paragraphs, I realize there’s a risk of scaring people away with all the sorrow and despair stuff. While I can’t pretend anyone actually ends up living happily ever after at the culmination of this tale, I can reassure potential readers that if you enjoy Dickens, you’ll enjoy this for many of the same reasons. Aside from memorably multi-faceted characters, period ambiance, and bracing satire, a significant enticement is the choice O’Connor has made to let the story unfold through a variety of different literary forms – captain’s logs, newspaper articles, bits of letters and diary entries, police interviews, etc. This literary device not only allows the story to be told through multiple perspectives, but provides ample range to for the author to showcase his formidable narrative creativity and dexterous storytelling.

For this is, above all, a story about stories, and especially storytelling. This is O’Connor reminding us that two million Irish dead of famine isn’t a statistic – it’s two million separate stories, each one tragic in its own unique way. And it’s about the power that all of us possess to shape our own narratives, especially the decisions we make about how we to cast ourselves in the stories we tell to ourselves and others: whether we see ourselves (or wish to be seen by others) as protagonists or antagonists, dissemblers or truth-tellers, victims or villains. Just in case we as a society begin to forget that what we think of as “reality” will always be relative, as long as history continues to be fashioned by the narratives of the survivors, and the narratives of those who do not survive fade gradually away. ( )

In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for NewYork. On board are hundreds of refugees, some optimistic, many more desperate. 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. SOFT

A little purple in places but very cleverly written. More properly a 9/10 and probably suffers coming hard on the heels of Cormac McCarthy... ( )

Really spendid from the beginnng to the very moving end. ( )

Review: Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor.

This was a remarkable well written book. The story begins in Ireland at the time of famine. The poverty surrounding these people and the injustices they have to endure only pushes a lot of them to think of other means to survive.

Some were upper class people losing their admiration, approval from their people, homes, and land mixed among unfortunate poor, sick, disturbed, even criminal’s who were thriving for some kind of hope.

Then comes along this massive passenger ship, “Star of the Sea” offering the long voyage across the ocean to the Promise Land… America! It would take over a month and many would die along the way from malnutrition, deceases, over-crowding, murder and the ship’s abundance of infectious rats.

After landing on the American waters the ship was ordered to inhabit the waters in the harbor with many other ships waiting to be processed and medically clear for the people to depart from the ships. As they sat in the American harbor for many days more deaths were reported. Some people got frustrated and abandoned ship on life boats but many never made it to shore.

There was a pack of events in this book to enhance the story and compel the reader enough to follow along with the contents of homeland Ireland, the voyage, the murderer, the poverty, and the different characters and titles. I found the book profoundly filled with suspense, mystery, and character…..
( )

This was a very quick read due to O’Connor’s engaging and eclectic writing style and ability to construct some very strong characters and bring them together in creative ways.

Star of the Sea leaves Ireland for New York weighed down with a cargo of impoverished emigrants fleeing the Irish famine. Floating atop the seething masses bedding down with enormous vermin, cholera and typhus below deck is a small group of the wealthy elite who comprise, among others, the journalist who relates the tale that we read.

After the voyage begins, the narrator uses various devices to bring us up to speed on who each of the key characters are and the figurative baggage they have embarked with. As your awareness grows, you realise that the ship is the backdrop for a growing crisis which must come to a climax before the ship reaches its destination. O’Connor maintains this pace as well as he maintains your interest in the characters.

What O’Connor also skilfully does is to enlarge your understanding of the issues of the day, particularly those associated with the abominable and probably preventable Irish famine of the mid-19th century. This is something I didn’t have much awareness of, despite ancestors on my grandmother’s side coming from the counties of Roscommon and Connemara. He’s piqued my interest and has reminded me how the novel is a perfect medium for delivering non-fiction in the medium of fiction.

The ending disappointed me a little. The twist was predictable because O’Connor did his best to conceal that there wasn’t going to be a twist by building up a facade to distract you from it. This shows the difference between a good read and crafted literature where the writing itself is as much (or even more) a part of the joy of the novel than the plot. I’m not sure O’Connor is bothered though; it’s clear that his agenda is to communicate the plight of the Irish in history. I’m not sure he’s achieved it fully here but it’s definitely a good attempt and one which engaged me and caused me to want to know more. ( )

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. Upon rereading, 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 interviews, letters [even to misspellings and Irish dialect], 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. ( )

The general view was that, although there was often a wonderful use of language, the structure and plot were overly complicated, and the constant change of names was both confusing and distracting. Despite these perceived flaws, most of us managed to finish it and the book did stimulate an interesting discussion on the history of the Irish famine. Summary from my book group ( )

recommended for: historical fiction fans, especially patient readers, as this book improves as it progresses

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. ( )

unhappy people, murder mystery, interesting backstories ( )

In the mid-1800's, thousands of Irish people fled from hopeless poverty and the devastating effects of the potato famine. This book examines the voyagers on one such ship from the perspective of an American wirter. Passengers on the Star of the Sea range from the very poor to the titled nobility who bore much of history's blame for the horrific effects of the famine. These people, their motives and their obsessions, are examined both in terms of their individual experiences and the interactions they have had with one another. O'Connor has dealt with the subject most even-handedly and with a restraint that makes the facts all the harder to bear. The book is illlustrated with excerpts from contemporaneous writers and news articles, some so blistering in their hatried and ignorance that they are shocking. All this is wrapped around a first class thriller that keeps the reader in suspense throughout the book. Highly recommended. ( )

It’s 1847 and the ship Star of the Sea is making its last voyage from Ireland to the United States. The reader is soon alerted that there will be a murder on board. This mystery acts as background for Irish author Joseph O’Connor to narrate through various points of view the Potato Famine that caused over a million deaths and a million more Irish to emigrate.

The book mimics a late Victorian style with contents of each chapter posted underneath their title. Presumably Mr. O’Connor intended irony but I found it coy. Through stylistically anachronistic flashbacks, the reader gets to know the various passengers of this tired old vessel. There’s plenty of “local colour” in their language and attitudes. Still, I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters.

Star of the Sea has received almost unanimously favourable reviews and I can understand why. I don’t know why I found it so flat and wordy….but I did.

7.5 out of 10 Recommended to readers who enjoy literary fiction and Irish history. ( )

I had once before started reading Star of the Sea. Farewell to Old Ireland by the Irish author Joseph O'Connor, but abandoned it, and this summer resolved to give it a final try. Not regretted.

The reason I abandoned the book the first time, was its peculiar density and postmodern styling, including mock engravings and text printed in columns, etc which turned me off, thinking I would have to struggle through another tedious postmodern novel. Upon second reading, however, I found that the book is obviously very well-researched, perhaps a bit too much, as the five pages of dense printed "sources & acknowledgements" at the end of the book testify. The book itself consisted of 400+ pages of dense, and somewhat small print, and there were times I felt the book could have gained from terseness.

The novel presents the adventures, or rather life, death and agony, on board the vessel Star of the Sea of a cross section of Irish society fleeing famine-stricken Ireland for hope of a better future in the New World. The book chronicles their 31-days voyage. However, the 34 chapters plus an epilogue describe much more than the events on board the ship. The novel portrays the lives of a few main characters into detail, their interactions and their socio-economic, and cultural family backgrounds at the time. The authors gaily winks at history, making one of the villainous characters claim to have told Charles Dickens all about thievery and pick-pocketing, serving him an entirely fictional account, and taking revenge on an associate by slipping Dickens the name of "Fagin" as a particularly vicious character.

As the characters carry their past, and present feuds aboard ship, the "Farewell to Old Ireland" does not come about until after disembarkation, and we lose sight of them. Interesting, but demanding a lot of attention. ( )

Although this book was written in 2002 it uses the style and language of a book written in Victorian times. It tells the story of the "Star of the Sea" - a ship travelling from Ireland to America full of people escaping the Irish famine. It is the historical details which I enjoyed the most - details about the famine and the workhouses, the class distinctions, the view of the English toward the Irish at this time etc. I was also most interested to read of medical treatments of the time and fascinated to discover that doctors recommended that opium be injected as it was impossible to develop an addiction in that way. Fascinating book - not all of the characters are sympathetic and there are loose ends which I would have preferred to see tied off (although in life there are always loose ends) - definitely a book for historical fiction fans. ( )

It is 1847. There is a devastating famine in Ireland. People are dying at an insanely high rate. The rich delight in their social affluence, while the poor suffer deplorable conditions of disease, hunger, and filth. With hopes of reaching America, the fortunate (or not so fortunate) board the Star of the Sea for a journey across the Atlantic that only a percentage of the passengers will even survive.

The depth of writing employed by Joseph O'Connor in Star of the Sea is not something to which I am accustomed, but I am left spellbound nonetheless. It was published in 2002, but it read more like a classic. The language was lovely, and if I was a more competent book reviewer I would be able to present you with several lovely quotes to exemplify this language of which I speak... but you will have to simply discover it for youself! :)

In the first chapter, the reader is informed of the murder that will take place on board the Star, but divulging this seemingly large detail in the opening pages gives absolutely nothing away. The ending was still surprising, and I venture to say there are still several plotlines and complexities that I do not fully understand (I need a book club for discussion!). What I most loved was O'Connor's ability to illuminate the atrocities of famine and poverty while maintaining a moving, engaging plot.

Final thoughts: If you prefer quick plot twists and lots of action, this one might be a bit drawn out for you. Otherwise, I highly recommend Star of the Sea. ( )

Some books transport you into another world that becomes very convincing. This book did that for me. It portrays a time when life was cheap for Irish folk escaping the potato famines by emmigrating to America. The apalling conditions on the boats lends a claustrophobic atmosphere to this murder mystery. ( )

I read this book lately while on vacation in the countryside. A boat leaves Ireland in 1847 during the Great Famine bound for America with a diverse set of passengers all with different reasons for undertaking the voyage. Joseph O'Connor presents the reader with a murder mystery against the background of famine ,land evictions and vengeance. A superb story which enlightens the reader of the horrific conditions pertaining in Ireland that Famine year while setting up the background for the murder at sea and then leading us to a startling denouement. Very highly recommended. ( )

I was not sure about this book to begin with, it took me a while to get into it and work out who was who! I found it confusing when the author kept calling Lord Kingscourt, David Merridith sometimes and Kingscourt at others, it was a while before I realised that they were one and the same! But when I had worked out who was who and what part they played in the story I did started to understand it better!!
The Star of the Sea is a ship sailing to America from Ireland at the time of the famine. The Steerage passangers had pawned, stolen and done all manor of things to get the fare together and leave the hideous privations that had taken hold in Ireland when the potato crops failed, three or four years in a row. They had NOTHING and dreamed of finding a paradise across the Atlantic in America.
In steerage we hear the story of a murderer, and why he had to commit this terrible crime. In first class were Lord Kingscourt and his wife and two young sons who were also fleeing Ireland,(Kingscourt was perceived as one of the despicable landlords, evicting the poor, starving, sick tenants who could not pay their rents) along with their maid Mary Duane, who features quite significantly in the story. And there was also a newspaper reporter who happened to be Laura Kingscourt's lover. And is a very uncomfortable character.
The story jumps back and forth from the ship taking this volitile mixture of passengers to America, and Connemara in Ireland highlighting the terrible living conditions for the people there.
I thought the book thought provoking but entirely predictable. Uncomfortable at times for the unfairness of it all, and the misery that the English caused these people. It wasn't for me entirely enjoyable, but was compelling nonetheless ( )