National Book Award finalist Thomas Lynch was born in the United States, but like so many Irish Americans, his roots are back in the Old Sod. Thirty-five years ago, he returned to the oceanside cottage in West Clare from which his great-grandfather, another Thomas Lynch, had departed nearly a century before. In the decades since, Lynch has returned to Ireland dozens of times, sharing stories and gaining wisdom from common (and quite uncommon) folk. Part memoir and part cultural study, Booking Passage is a tribute to a world we should never leave behind.
Undertaker-cum-poet Lynch (Bodies in Motion and at Rest) recalls his long romance with Eire and how it has affected his life in this compelling memoir. He takes off for the Emerald Isle early in 1970 to meet his people, who live on the edge of the Atlantic in County Clare. He stays with his elderly cousins, Nora and Tommy, a brother and sister who never married. The humble cottage has no water and is heated by a turf fire. Here the young Yank absorbs his culture shock and learns how life is lived without television, cars and other modern distractions. After Tommy's death, Lynch and Nora become closer, and he begins to bring the 20th century into the house in the form of running water. Along the way he tells the story of the Lynches of County Clare: how they survived "starvation, eviction and emigration-the three-headed scourge of English racism"-and the pain of diaspora as they emigrated to the U.S. Along the way Lynch examines his own life: his love-hate relationship with the misogynist Catholic Church and pedophilic priests; his battle with alcoholism; the breakup of his marriage and remarriage; and his unusual love of the undertaking trade. This is a deeply thought-out book filled with poetry, pathos, triumph and lots of Irish laughter. Agent, Richard McDonough. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
You might think that revisiting Ireland has been done to death in the rush to publish following Angela's Ashes, but think again- poet/essayist Lynch is always excellent. With a seven-city tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"[Lynch] draws an enticing picture of his home away from home: the dreamlike environs of Moveen, County Clare."
"Those of us with Irish ancestry will find this an appealing account of family, faith, destiny, and why so many Americans wish they were Irish, too."
Dallas Morning News - Dan R. Barber
"In Booking Passage , Thomas Lynch’s ‘romance with words,’ realized as an altar boy responding in Latin, becomes a full-blown love affair in his prose about Ireland and fellow poets and what he thinks of the Church. His style has energy that takes my breath away it’s so fresh and unexpected."
"A master of the contemplative amble…There is enough poetry in the writing of it, both in verse and in prose, that a reader cannot come away from it without knowing what Lynch is about…Hearing Lynch’s story…one can gain wisdom for one’s own journey, Irish or not."
Detroit Free Press - Marta Salij
"He’s no mere tourist but a man who’s made a deep personal commitment to the land from which his forebears came and who has a sensitive, nuanced understanding of the place and its people…It’s a lovely book."
"The best writing in the book evolves from the sound of voices, from memory crammed into voice…[Booking Passage ] becomes a layered hymn of gratitude to having family left on the other side…Spectacular."
"Thomas Lynch is one of our indispensable essayists, a master of skeptical realism and tragicomic relief. The true subject of this generous, rowdy book is Lynch’s own wonderful mind, as it bobs and weaves, making connections between the personal and the tribal, history and the present moment, in language that is gorgeous and consistently apt."
"Thomas Lynch is an original…If there were more Thomas Lynches in the world, it might be a little less full of hatred and have a little more room in it."
Times Literary Supplement - George Bornstein
