VENETIA KELLY'S TRAVELING SHOW

VENETIA KELLY'S TRAVELING SHOW by Frank Delaney was read for the Ireland Reading Challenge 2011.

From the book jacket:

January 1932:  While Ireland roils in the run-up to the most important national election in the Republic's short history, Ben MacCarthy and his father watch a vagabond variety revue making a stop in the Irish countryside.  After a two-hour kaleidoscope of low comedy, Shakespearean recitations, juggling, tumbling, and other entertainments, Ben's father, mesmerized by Venetia Kelly, the troupe's magnetic headliner, makes a fateful decision:  to abandon his family and set off on the road with Miss Kelly and her caravan.  Ben's mother, shattered by the desertion, exhorts, "Find him and bring him back," thereby sending the boy on a Homeric voyage into manhood, a quest that transverses the churning currents of Ireland's fractious society and splinters the MacCarthy family.

Interweaving historical figures including W. B. Yeats and a host of unforgettable creations - "King" Kelly, Venetia's violent, Mephistophelean grandfather; Sarah Kelly, Venetia's mysterious, amoral mother; and even a truth-telling ventriloquist's dummy names Blarney - Frank Delaney unfurls a splendid narrative that spans half the world and a tumultuous, eventful decade.

Teeming with intrigue, pathos, and humor, VENETIAL KELLY'S TRAVELING SHOW explores two of Ireland's great national passions:  theater and politics.  Writing with this signature mastery and lyrical prose, Frank Delaney once again delivers an unforgettable story as big and boisterous as the people and events it chronicles.

I loved this book!  Narrated by Ben many years after 1932, the book begins with introductions to the main characters in the story.  It is written in a conversational tone, as though Ben were across the table from the reader, telling his story.  Throughout the story, the narrator frequently digresses:

"Important Digression, which will usually be something to do with factual history; Relatively Important Digression, where a clarification needs facts and I will ferry them in from a side road; and - my favorite - Unimportant Digression, which can be about anything."

These digressions flow easily with the story and give quite a bit of back history of the situation in Ireland at an earlier time, especially regarding the political climate.

The book ends with an unfinished story, and the reader is left to ponder the fate of some of the characters, although it isn't the type of ending that leads to a sequel.

I read and enjoyed an earlier book by Mr. Delaney - he is quite the storyteller.  And I have two more of his books sitting on my bookshelves, waiting to be read.