Stella Maris.

Stella Maris.

My head is wandering these days, but the one place it can settle happily is into a good book. I have been reading many but the book I am currently enjoying, and becomes better the more into it I get is 'The Star of the Sea' by Joseph O'Connor.

I don't normally do book reviews, but this author's astounding imagination leaves one breathless in it's versatility.

 Set during the famine circa 1847 on a ship heading for the America's, the character development is sublime and the plot thickens effortlessly, (though I am sure effort was put into it), in contrast to the thin gruel the passengers in steerage had no choice but to eat. What strikes me most about this book is it's believability. Though a work of fiction, the choice of subject and the attention to detail,

leaves one wondering if it is not a true life account. He brings the dark heart of the famine to a place my own imagination could never have dared to adventure. There is a sensitivity to both sides of the cultural gap which only an intelligent and broad mind could dally into, recounting the trials and tribulations of all spectrums of society in that particular time and space.

It is a dark book, brought into the light through the medium of humour, the sometime subtlety of which can leave one reeling in a space between laughter and tears.

Here is a lighter extract from my last night's reading session which is one of the lighter moments in the book.

"And the cockney's talked as though talking in colours. Brash, browsy banners of words. He listened for hours as they nattered in the markets, as they dandered in the carnival in Paternoster Square. How he wished he could talk with such brio and bite. He practiced in the evenings over and over, made reverend translations into their tongue.

our old guv'nor

which dosses in Lewisham

swelled be thy moniker.

Thy racket become;

in Bow as it is in Lewisham.

Scalp us this day our lump of lead

and let us be bailed for our dodges;

as we backslaps the pox-hounds and Berkshire Hunts

what dodges agin us. (The bumsuckers.)

And Jemmy us not into bushes or lurks

but send us skedaddling from blaggery.

For thine in the manner the flash and the bovver.

Till mother breaks out of the clink. Amen.

The lexicon of crime became his favourite contemplation..."  

Some may think this irreverend. In the right context though, it is well placed.

and so on... his love of the written word is the key, to this incredible work.

I can only show a small part of it. In another life, I would wish to able to write like this.  

All aside, this is a serious book, and I would recommend it to anybody, anywhere to read. It is well researched and puts the social history of that period into a clear perspective, in a palpable manner

NB. Cockney - is the 'secret 'slang language of the native Londoner.

My nod to synchronicity here, something I like to do, is that I owned a house called: 'Stella Maris' - Star of the Sea, back in the nineties. They were good years, of which I have a multitude of fond memories. But also some not-so-good ones.  Everything is in the balance.