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utahmomreads's review
5.0
Read my review here : http://utahmomslife.blogspot.com/2013/05/transatlantic-book-review.html
gertymae's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lbarsk's review against another edition
4.0
This book made me way more sad/emotional than I thought it would. Beautiful prose, intricate storytelling, excellently done.
moamo's review
3.0
I had difficulty getting through the first book. I felt the stories were quite disconnected and to be frank, boring. I started to like the book more as it focused on the Ehrlich family.
aust1nz's review against another edition
2.0
I've absolutely loved a few books by Column McCann, especially Let the Great World Turn, but this book totally failed to capture me.
TransAtlantic unfolds in interconnected short stories with conspicuous connections between Northern Ireland and the Americas. A few of the characters are based on real people, and the rest are a fictional family traced across generations.
McCann's prose is poetic but the wistful, elegaic stories provide too little tension or conflict to propel these stories forward.
TransAtlantic unfolds in interconnected short stories with conspicuous connections between Northern Ireland and the Americas. A few of the characters are based on real people, and the rest are a fictional family traced across generations.
McCann's prose is poetic but the wistful, elegaic stories provide too little tension or conflict to propel these stories forward.
timna_wyckoff's review
4.0
Read for book club, and I'm really glad. The writing was lovely and each story was interesting and moving in its own way, but, although I completely understand how they fit together, I'm left feeling like I'm missing some big over arching theme, so I look forward to our discussion. Maybe it's just that I'm not as familiar with Ireland as NY, so am less inherently connected than I was to "Let the Great World Spin"?
dustysummers's review
4.0
The tunnels of our lives connect, coming to daylight at the oddest moments, and then plunge us into the dark again. We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.
ilegnealle's review against another edition
3.0
It's very difficult for me to rate this book because while I found it strangely touching, I would not be able to describe what it is actually about. 3/5 stars then. But the writing is incredibly beautiful, and this was my favourite passage:
"Some days he wishes that he could empty the chambers of the men, fill the halls instead with women: the short sharp shock of three thousand two hundred mothers. The ones who picked through the supermarket debris for pieces of their dead husbands. The ones who still laundered their gone son's bed sheets by hand. The ones who kept an extra teacup at the end of the table, in case of miracles. The elegant ones, the angry ones, the clever ones, the ones in hairnets, the ones exhausted by all the dying. They carried their sorrow - not with photos under their arms, or with public wailing, or by beating their chests, but with a weariness around the eyes. Mothers and daughters and children and grandmothers, too. They never fought the wars, but they suffered them, blood and bone. How many times has he heard it? How often were there two ways to say the one thing? My son died. His name was Seamus. My son died. His name was James. My son died. His name was Peader. My son died. His name was Pete. My son died. His name was Billy. My son died. His name was Liam. My son died. His name was Charles. My son died. His name was Cathal. My son's name is Andrew."
"Some days he wishes that he could empty the chambers of the men, fill the halls instead with women: the short sharp shock of three thousand two hundred mothers. The ones who picked through the supermarket debris for pieces of their dead husbands. The ones who still laundered their gone son's bed sheets by hand. The ones who kept an extra teacup at the end of the table, in case of miracles. The elegant ones, the angry ones, the clever ones, the ones in hairnets, the ones exhausted by all the dying. They carried their sorrow - not with photos under their arms, or with public wailing, or by beating their chests, but with a weariness around the eyes. Mothers and daughters and children and grandmothers, too. They never fought the wars, but they suffered them, blood and bone. How many times has he heard it? How often were there two ways to say the one thing? My son died. His name was Seamus. My son died. His name was James. My son died. His name was Peader. My son died. His name was Pete. My son died. His name was Billy. My son died. His name was Liam. My son died. His name was Charles. My son died. His name was Cathal. My son's name is Andrew."
beka_bear's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
nlgeorge73's review
4.0
Colum McCann has created a highly engaging novel with "TransAtlantic." He was able to masterfully depict the magnitude of a moment in a character's life to such a palpable degree as to transport the reader to be physically present with that person. The lives of all the central characters are interconnected in such an artful manner, yet each figure in each storyline is portrayed in a multidimensional way to portray their own very real humanity.
TransAtlantic is worth a second read and inspires an interest in his other works, including "Let the Great Word Spin", winning the National Book Award in 2009.
TransAtlantic is worth a second read and inspires an interest in his other works, including "Let the Great Word Spin", winning the National Book Award in 2009.