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Book Reviews of By the Lake

By the Lake
By the Lake
Author: John McGahern
ISBN-13: 9780679744023
ISBN-10: 0679744029
Publication Date: 4/8/2003
Pages: 352
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 11

3.4 stars, based on 11 ratings
Publisher: Vintage
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed By the Lake on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This story was like a beautiful watercolor of the pastoral of Irish country living in 1916. It is a deceptively simple telling of comings and goings of characters over a year in a small farming community that appears barely to be touched by time. There neighbors and friends meet to converse, criticize and gossip; share the trouble and triumphs and tasks of ordinary lives and social occasions. Through the unfolding of personalities as its characters engage in seasonal activities and intertwined social obligations it becomes a tale of transformation. Even in a wild Irish county side, nothing remains as it was.
LeahG avatar reviewed By the Lake on + 320 more book reviews
When I first started reading this book I thought that perhaps it would be boring. I wasn't familiar with some of the Irish expressions and couldn't figure out what the people had to do with each other. But that didn't last long, and pretty soon I was involved in the daily life of people in a small town in Ireland who lived by a lake and I found it fascinating. I hope you do too.