Just a Parcel Fit for Kings (In the Castle of the Flynns - Michael Raleigh)

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	In the Castle of the Flynns - Michael Raleigh
Date:	08/10/03 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters, funny

Disadvantages: None

I rarely come across a book that makes me laugh out loud but this novel did just that. However, more than this I found myself reading out sections to my other half and his response, instead of being the expected tolerant smile normally engendered by the reading of out-of-context book snippets, was to join me in my laughter. This novel was truly funny and also a comforting gentle read.

Daniel Dorsey is an Irish American living in Chicago. His life is shattered at the age of seven when both his parents are killed in a car crash. He is brought up by his maternal grandparents with the help of his two uncles. This book tells the tale of his childhood, a story of love and loss and ties that bind.

The humour of the book is without question. Some of this is gathered from a young child?s reactions to the adult world, to the way a boy interprets adult relationships with the naivety of the young. The real laughs, however, are provided by amusing incidents scattered throughout the book.

In the household Daniel?s Grandma definitely rules the roost, putting the fear of god into her husband. When his Grandpa accidentally burns a large hole in her sofa both he and Daniel take it in turns to sit almost constantly over the offending mark for weeks until Grandma?s desire to turn the cushions results in the discovery they had been dreading!

Daniel?s Grandpa causes further amusement when he decides to play a trick on his wife after being sent out to get a chicken for dinner. He and Daniel attempt to make the journey home with a LIVE chicken by public transport. The bird?s numerous attempts to escape result in hilarity and the picture of a sleeping traveller aboard a bus who awakes to find an out of breath old man landing in his lap and a screeching bird in his face will stay with me for a long time.

The comic aspects of the novel are balanced by the pathos generated by the down moments of life. Daniel has felt loss at an early age
and is worried that he will be abandoned again. One uncle marries and leaves home, does this mean that his other uncle will do the same and he will be left with fewer people in his life to take care of him? We feel for a young boy beset by tragedy at an early age and made insecure by life?s cruelties.

It is a fact that life is not a bed of roses and is filled with both good moments and bad. This book reflects that perfectly. The sad moments are not dwelled upon and are not written in such a way as to make the reader maudlin. They serve more to provide a contrast with the humorous moments, thus enhancing these episodes and making the laughter seem all the more real.

I would never have chosen to read this book; the title is not inspiring and descriptions on the back cover such as ?A hymn to the love, nourishment and the healing of a wonderful extended family? (Peter Sheridan) and ?An amazing book, a troika of laughter, love and loss? (Malachy McCourt), did nothing to whet my appetite. However, I was lent the book with high recommendations and felt honour bound to read it. What a treasure the novel turned out to be, what a gem I had discovered that otherwise would have remained hidden from me.

This book was a really enjoyable, gentle and funny read. Now it is my turn to pass on the recommendation to others.



FURTHER INFO
Publisher: Harper Collins, Fulham Palace Road, London
Price: £6.99
ISBN: 0-00-713446-0

Summary: