Book Reviews - A selection of recently published books of Irish and Irish-American interest

Andrew Greeley’s Home for Christmas follows the lives of two young students in Poplar Grove, Chicago, through the eyes of their friend and teacher, Father Jimmy. As fate would have it, these students – “Petey Pat” Kane and Mariana Pellegrino – are
destined to be together. The problem is that everyone knows it except them. Greeley’s modern-day love story is ultimately not just about Peter and Mariana’s reunion but also about facing one’s  fears: the lovers struggle with mutual loss and are burdened with separation as Peter leaves to fight in the Iraq War. This is one situation that is not romanticized: indeed, one of the most interesting aspects of the book is Peter’s subtle dissent to a war in which he is the unflappable hero. At the crux of the story is Peter’s near-death experience (or what Greeley calls a transcendent experience “with a capital T”) while fighting to protect his soldiers in combat. In less than ten minutes, Peter meets someone who is finally able to wade through his witticisms to bring out the fears of love, forgiveness, and rejection that lay beneath. Here, Greeley does not disappoint, with a God who is naturally not without a hearty sense of humor.
While Home for Christmas is a story about a love secured, it is Peter’s wartime reflections, seemingly ripped straight from today’s headlines, which are left open to the reader’s interpretation.                                             – Aliah O’Neill
($14.99 / 192 pages / Forge)

Folklore and Mythology
Bill Price’s exploration of the mythology and folklore of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in his new book Celtic Myths is well-rounded, concise, accessible and packed with fascinating details. Beginning with an overview of the function of myths in culture and their relationship to the history of Celtic peoples, including an excellent exposition on the import of oral tradition, Price goes on to outline and analyze the most prominent stories from Ireland, Wales, and the rest of the Celtic world.
In the section on the Irish cycles, he examines the ways that the stories changed in their transition from oral histories in pre-Christian Ireland to transcriptions by monastic scribes with edits that reflect a Christian era. Price’s book is an absorbing introduction to the Ulster Cycle, including a separate chapter on the Táin, the Fenian Cycle, the Mythological Cycle, and the Cycles of the Kings, among other myths and legends. The colorful characters of Cúchulainn, Queen Medb of Connacht, Deirdre and Fionn mac Cumhaill come alive in Price’s pages.            – Kara Rota
($19.95 / 160 pages / Pocket Essentials, an imprint of Oldcastle Books)

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