Diane webber thrush9/4/2023 ![]() If you can overlook the sometimes harsh language, I think you'll appreciate this story that takes you from one side of the Atlantic to the other, down beneath the streets of New York City and back, and leaves you pining for an Irish home that you never even had. I think that for a debut novel, The Walking People is pretty darn amazing, even if the end left me feeling somewhat hanging. Even though I knew that certain people would end up being together, I was thrilled to discover how it all happened. ![]() But somehow, in the Walking People, this devise just completely intrigued me. ![]() Typically, I am annoyed when we start at the end and then move backwards, because I feel like it rips out the footing from under the plot to already know how the story ended. One unique thing about this novel that I appreciated, was its use of time periods. I think I liked reading about the family Greta grew up in more than I liked reading about the family she raised, but maybe that's because I just liked reading about life in Ireland more. She's an interesting character, this Greta, naive and yet wise - thoughtful and stubborn, and I think Keane did an excellent job of rounding out all her characters. I was sometimes frustrated by the choices she made while at the same time I was sympathetic to why she made those choices. Greta's very close relationship with her mother and sister, and how that relationship changed, influenced so much of the way she lived her life. What we do for them and what we inadvertently do to them - and not just the children we raise, but the family we were raised by. The Walking People is about, first and foremost, family. Greta's early interactions with these Traveling People will reverberate and result in relationships that last her lifetime. 'Tinkers" or "Traveling People" walked the highways and made a living by doing odd jobs, staying in camps along the way. ![]() Life during Greta's childhood was much the same way it had been for hundreds of years, they were warmed by a turf fire and ate by candlelight. Greta's family lives in a tiny, nearly abandoned town in Western Ireland, near the sea and not much else. While I've read a host of books about early 1900s immigration, The Walking People is a story about a different generation of immigrants -the Irish who came to America in the early 60s. This is an engaging and thought provoking historical family drama, of struggle, challenges, emotional heartbreaks, friendship, love, and with insights into the Irish immigrant experiences. In this character driven read, it is the children who reconnect old lives with the new, with an Ireland that has changed beyond recognition, bringing the possibilities of resolution into play. Keane captures the great Irish migration wave to the United States, becoming the 'walking people', helping in the construction of the American water tunnels by the sandhogs, along with the details of Irish life that motivated so many to embark on new lives across the Atlantic. Whilst the yearning for Ireland and home never fades, the ties weaken considerably through time. She and Michael settle down as a family, and with the belief that she needs to protect the children, buries the secrets that have the potential to threaten them. Surprisingly Greta adjusts to the American challenges facing her remarkably well, carving out a strong sense of identity, becoming an independent woman. Greta and Johanna are like chalk and cheese, as can be observed by the different path that Johanna chooses to follow in the United States. The youngest, she is teased and regarded as different by her family, we learn of the hardships and tragedies of Irish life, Johanna's attraction to the travellers, the walking people, who have seen far more of the world and with greater life experiences. The young Greta 'Goose' Cahill could never have imagined getting on a ship sailing for New York with her older sister, Johanna and 'tinker' Michael Ward but that is exactly what she does with dreams of greater security and a better life ahead of her. This is set in the 1950s and 1960s, providing a detailed and well researched picture of the rural isolation, and impoverishment in a small village in West of Ireland's Galway, juxtaposed with the contrasting bustling, colourful cultural melting pot of New York City. Having enjoyed Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, I decided to read this, her historical fiction debut first published back in 2009, and which covers similar themes, although there is a marked development in the author's writing in the later novel.
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