Hey, guys!
Pinterest has been a total distraction, but gosh-darnit I am going to write this review if it's the last thing I do!
The semester is over, but I still have a couple of books to review from my English class. The second to last book I read for that course was This Human Season by Louise Dean, which takes place in Northern Ireland.
For those of you who have never been to Ireland (like me), you've probably heard that it's a beautiful country. And from the pictures I've seen, it definitely is. Northern Ireland, however, was ravaged by a brutal civil war in the seventies between the British loyalists and the Irish Republican Army.
Louise Dean, a British author, explores the perspectives of both sides of this war in Belfast during the seventies. One character, Kathleen, is the mother of a young IRA member who has been arrested by the British in a prison known as the Maze. The other character, John Dunn, is a prison officer at the Maze.
With these two characters, Dean weaves an intricate war story in which both perspectives are available to the reader. In this way, the reader can sympathize with the IRA prisoners who endure hunger strikes and who receive abuse at the hands of British officers and the reader can sympathize with a prison officer who disagrees with the harsh treatment of prisoners.
This book may be a bit confusing to those who do not have any background information on the civil war in Northern Ireland from the seventies. Basically, the IRA fought for equal political rights for Irish citizens. When IRA members were arrested, they demanded their rightful status as prisoners of war rather than as common criminals. They were refused this right.
In turn, the prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms, instead wearing blankets around themselves. They also refused to groom themselves, growing out their hair and beards. They even wrote on the walls with their own feces to make a point.
When that didn't work, they went on hunger strikes. The first of these men was actually elected into office to represent Irish citizens - unfortunately, he was also the first to die. Enough of these men died that their mothers took the rest off of the hunger strike. Soon afterwards, though, they were given the prisoner of war status that they deserved.
The events of Dean's novel occur before the hunger strikes, but the descriptions of the poor treatment of prisoners were visual enough.
For those of you interested in the history of Northern Ireland or in prisoners of war stories, I recommend this book. It was a little confusing for me when I first read it, but once I had some background on the actual events that this novel is based on, it was much easier to understand and an interesting read.
Sorry it took so long, guys, but I finally wrote this review. Leave comments below if you have any feedback or any ideas for other books I should read and review. Hope you enjoyed!
Happy reading!
Pinterest has been a total distraction, but gosh-darnit I am going to write this review if it's the last thing I do!
The semester is over, but I still have a couple of books to review from my English class. The second to last book I read for that course was This Human Season by Louise Dean, which takes place in Northern Ireland.
For those of you who have never been to Ireland (like me), you've probably heard that it's a beautiful country. And from the pictures I've seen, it definitely is. Northern Ireland, however, was ravaged by a brutal civil war in the seventies between the British loyalists and the Irish Republican Army.
Louise Dean, a British author, explores the perspectives of both sides of this war in Belfast during the seventies. One character, Kathleen, is the mother of a young IRA member who has been arrested by the British in a prison known as the Maze. The other character, John Dunn, is a prison officer at the Maze.
With these two characters, Dean weaves an intricate war story in which both perspectives are available to the reader. In this way, the reader can sympathize with the IRA prisoners who endure hunger strikes and who receive abuse at the hands of British officers and the reader can sympathize with a prison officer who disagrees with the harsh treatment of prisoners.
This book may be a bit confusing to those who do not have any background information on the civil war in Northern Ireland from the seventies. Basically, the IRA fought for equal political rights for Irish citizens. When IRA members were arrested, they demanded their rightful status as prisoners of war rather than as common criminals. They were refused this right.
In turn, the prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms, instead wearing blankets around themselves. They also refused to groom themselves, growing out their hair and beards. They even wrote on the walls with their own feces to make a point.
When that didn't work, they went on hunger strikes. The first of these men was actually elected into office to represent Irish citizens - unfortunately, he was also the first to die. Enough of these men died that their mothers took the rest off of the hunger strike. Soon afterwards, though, they were given the prisoner of war status that they deserved.
The events of Dean's novel occur before the hunger strikes, but the descriptions of the poor treatment of prisoners were visual enough.
For those of you interested in the history of Northern Ireland or in prisoners of war stories, I recommend this book. It was a little confusing for me when I first read it, but once I had some background on the actual events that this novel is based on, it was much easier to understand and an interesting read.
Sorry it took so long, guys, but I finally wrote this review. Leave comments below if you have any feedback or any ideas for other books I should read and review. Hope you enjoyed!
Happy reading!
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