A review by rhubarbguru
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin

Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.

DNF about 50% of the way through. What an absolute slog. Books are subjective to every individual so what someone might find great, someone else might find dreadful, but this was just straight up “let me make this sad” over and over and over again. The author just goes out of her way to constantly hammer home “see! This is SAD! Cry darn you! CRY!” - but it just comes off cheesy and cringey. Also, there was just way too much of an attempt to make this book “feel Irish”. The problem with that though is the author gave the main character and narrator a voice of an educated poet, not a farmer who dropped out of school at age 10 to go work the fields. It’s just too lyrical for this guy. I’ve spent plenty of time in Ireland to know that farmers do NOT talk like this guy in real life, only in movies that romanticize Irish life. 

It was pretty clear how the book was headed too. I didn’t cry, but I found it sad until I realized that the author is just trying to hammer that point home. 

0/5 stars for me. Boring, and insulting