My all-time favourite read (Trinity - Leon Uris)

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Product:	Trinity - Leon Uris
Date:	27/10/00 (2674 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought provoking and informative

Disadvantages: VERY hard to put down

I remember many years ago, oh it must have been around 1981 when I was but a nipper, hearing mention of a book called Trinity. The Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands had stated that Trinity was his favourite book of all time. Now, you may or may not sypathise with Sands' politics etc. but what is apparent is that he was a very intelligent man, and a great poet and scholar. During his time in the Maze prison he had almost memorised the entire book word for word. In the evenings after lights-out he used to recite chapters of the book from memory for his fellow inmates. I was far too young at that time (about 10 or 11) even to consider reading something like Trinity, but I was curious to know why this book had apparently made such a big impact on someone like Sands. About ten years later I was browsing the shelves in a bookshop looking for some reading material to take on holiday, when Trinity caught my eye. I remembered the story about Sands and immediately bought the book.

So off I went on holiday to Malta (oh, I feel another opinion coming on!), and on the second day I lay by the pool and started to read. I have suffered from sunburn only once in my life - it was that day. I started to read the book and got so engrossed that before I knew it I had been lying there for about three hours.

The reason that I became so engrossed was that the book begins with the death in 1885 of Kilty Larkin, the oldest of a family of native Irish living in a fictional village in County Donegal, Ireland. The depth of research on the part of Uris was staggering. I am of Irish descent and know of many of the superstitions surrounding death. Uris had captured the scene perfectly. "Be sure to go to the byres and the beehives and let the cattle and bees know that Kilty Larkin is gone", the salt in the pockets to ward of evil spirits, the appearance of a banshee and a new pair of boots laid at the feet of the deceased to help his walk through purgatory. Well, all
that was enough to get me hooked straight away.

The story of the death was 'told' through the eyes of 11 year old Seamus O'Neill, best friend of Kilty's grandson Conor. The book then goes on to follow the fortunes of both Conor and Seamus, and indeed the lives of both families O'Neill and Larkin. The 'Trinity' comes from the introduction of a third family to the story, the somewhat more 'fortunate' Hubble's. The Hubble family were at the opposite end of the social spectrum from the O'Neill's and Larkin's, being rich Protestant Industrialists. Although starting off as seperate 'stories' the lives of the families are eventually intertwined, not least through a mutual respect built up between Conor Larkin and Caroline Hubble.

In Trinity, Uris has managed the seemingly impossible task of tackling such a large subject in a fictional work, yet he also manages to build-in many areas of fact. Around 30 years of the most turbulant times in Irish history are mixed through the fictional lives of the three families. The seamless and matter-of-fact way in which real events are mentioned sometimes makes it difficult to believe that the main characters are indeed fictitious.

I won't go into any more of the actual story for now, well apart from anything else 800 pages of small print is a bit difficult to sum up in a short opinion such as this. I will finish off by saying that this is a book that really does have something for everyone. The mix of drama, suspense, romance and action liberally sprinkled with gems of historical fact will keep you intrigued from cover to cover. I can wholeheartedly say that this is my favourite book of all time, and I would recommend that anyone who likes a serious bit of reading should not miss Trinity.

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