- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: iUniverse (October 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0595447597
- ISBN-13: 978-0595447596
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,721,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
When Ursula Barnett and her husband Jed win the Irish lottery, they think their troubles are over. But they are just beginning.
Ursula coerces her Yank husband to retire in her hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland, hoping to atone for her youthful sins as a collaborator with the IRA in the 1970s. At the first sniff of Ursula's lotto win, however, her chronically greedy sister-in-law Fionnuala Flood rallies the family against Ursula.
Fionnuala's life is a misery. She is married to a boozing fish-packing plant worker and raising seven seedy hooligans, from a convict son to an eight-year-old devil-daughter who will resort to desperate mesaures to secure the perfect Holy Communion gown. Between two part-time jobs, Fionnuala still finds the energy to put into motion plans which pit husbands against wives, daughters against mothers, the lawless against the law and Fionnuala against anyone fool enough to cross her path.
Family saga and black comedy, love story and courtroom drama, An Embarrassment of Riches will take you on a journey to Northern Ireland and beyond, where Protestants and Catholics wage battle daily, and where crossing family with finance leads to heartache and hilarity, passion and tragedy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drugs, Teenaged Pregnacy, Petrol Bombs and First Holy Communion!, Nov 25 2007
By Vince Clarke "Vince C" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: An Embarrassment of Riches (Paperback)
Needless to say, there are many intertwining storylines, each of which is as exciting as the other and kept me up every night way past the hour I should have gone to sleep. I couldn't help it. I kept wondering: Will Urusla's family finally accept her? And what did she DO in 1973 that has the family hating her so much? Will Fionnuala ever get her comeuppance? Will her daughter Siofra ever get her communion gown?
All these questions (and more) were answered in a climax at the church that had me laughing so loud my roommate came into my bedroom to make sure I was okay! Get this book, it'll have you laughing, too!(I found this video for it on youtube.com!)An Embarrassment of Riches
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irish or not, this is a MUST read!, Nov 25 2007
By C. Courtney - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: An Embarrassment of Riches (Paperback)
If the BBC had its version of The Jerry Springer Show, Fionnuala Flood and her family would be the best episode of the season! An Embarrassment of Riches is a non-stop entertaining Irish story that combines a wonderful balance of brilliant hilarity with sneaky greed and gives new meaning to the phrase "survival of the fittest." On the silver screen, this novel, without a doubt, would translate in one of the year's most amusing and compelling movies.The novel is considerably heavy in dialogue, which is excellent in that it achieves two significant points: (1) the dialogue exposes so much of each character's persona and (2) the fact that the Irish are a race of talkers. For the non-Irish reader, who might find the Irish/Derry dialect daunting, Hansen cleverly weaves a "language key" into the story in the form of a Derry-Speak Dictionary early in the book (pg. 10) to help translate unfamiliar vernacular.
The plot is action packed, fast moving and never boring as it takes the reader around the town of Derry, Northern Ireland from a prison to a cathedral; a chip shop to a courtroom; a pub to a hair salon; and from a church confessional to the home of an IRA member (just to name a few). There's never a dull moment as the characters work hard to survive and obtain what they need.
The topics of religion, greed and family are addressed both in a straightforward, uncomplicated manner in An Embarrassment of Riches. And although light is made of many situations, Hansen has captured the affect these topics play in the lives of his characters. If you only have time to read one book this year (or next) look no further ... this is it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is Ireland. Will there ever be a happy ending?, Mar 6 2009
By Joan Husseyrothenberg "Joan Eda HR" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: An Embarrassment of Riches (Paperback)
Richly illustrated in dialogue, Hansen is an artist of the conversation. And whether it had been written with or without the local Derry Speak, the action and dialogue show that An Embarrassment of Riches lends itself easily into a movie. My favorite scene is when Fionnuala, wearing Jackie O-type wee veiled hat, accompanied by daughter, Siofra, who is festooned in rosary beads, enters St. Brigid's Church for confession. This is not Fionnuala's regular church--she needs more anonymity than that provided at her local St. Moluag's. And when the reader soaks up her confession, well then, we know why anonymity was required. Fionnuala's confession scene finishes with wee Siofra's confession. After reading this part, I realized that Hansen's descriptions of these character's behaviors is also fabulous story telling.Throughout the story, I laughed out loud and found myself telling friends, "you won't believe it, but this is what happened when I left off the book." If I had more time, I would have been able to read this in a couple of sittings, but feck, me life's as complicated as some of these characters are also. And, yes, with all the disfunction, we do see ourselves and some aspects of our own families as well.
This is dark humor--please Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino--pay attention here--the characters develop while destroying each other. This is the hard scrapple of life. Hopefully not all of wers, but the plot squirms with all the Satan of greed and jealousy, and Proddies and Catholics, and the violence of an oppressed, colonized society, spitting back the ravages of government, and abject poverty and culture that does not wear well on the faces of its subjects.
Wer characters developed eaten' each anoller up. Wer need the sequel, where the characters grow into a happier place--but then, that's the Yank in me talking.
Hansen's writing makes me feel that we want more from this author of the dark side of life. This is Ireland. Will there ever be a happy ending?
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