Read any good books lately?

[Jim]

Just been reading Christopher Koch's novel 'The Many-Coloured Land' which I picked up in the bargain bin in BookCity in Hobart for the princely sum of $5.00.
Really interesting read in my Celtic-tinted eyes, it starts off with him telling the tale of his Irish ancestors who originally came to Tasmania  from two very different worlds in Irish society. One of these ancestors was Jane Devereux, an impoverished  daughter of the Anglo-Norman-Irish aristocracy, who came as a free settler seeking a husband; the other was Margaret O'Meara, illiterate Irish peasant girl from Limerick, who had been transported for petty theft.

This ancestral revelation takes up about the first third of the book. As we'd expect he learns much more about his convict ancestors than the free-settlers due to the records available. He then reveals something of his upbringing in Hobart in the 30's and 40's and how the Irish influences in his family impacted on him (both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds), but also those non-Irish influences which also had a great impact on him.. 
Thereafter he heads towards Ireland with a mate called Brian Mooney from Launceston, who incidentally busks regularly in the mall up there singing Irish & Australian folk songs.

Koch first visited Ireland in the 50's as a young man and finds little similarity between the Ireland that is today & what was then.
With his friend Brian as his guide, Koch re-discovers Ireland, it's " Irishness",  as it is evidenced now,  but also with his own family's past, the Anglo-Norman-Protestant ghosts and the echoes of the great famine that still rebound in rural communities. He also draws parallels between "Irishness" and aspects of the Australian character.
I really enjoyed this book despite the melancholic aspects, it left me grieving to a degree and wishing that I could return there myself before it finally loses it's character and soul, and God willing I'll get back in 2008.

In all, a good read for anyone, but particularly those with Irish ancestry.