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Top of the pile
76
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
62/100Critics
91/100Scholars
Author:
Gabriel Byrne
Publisher:
Grove Press
Date:
January 12, 2021
A memoir by Gabriel Byrne, the award-winning star of over 80 films, Walking with Ghosts is a portrait of an Irish childhood and a journey to Hollywood and Broadway success.
What The Reviewers Say
His book is rare as an Irish memoir for the lack of rancour about his upbringing. Byrne’s parents emerge as loving, decent people. He doesn’t dwell on this, which makes it all the more convincing. His description of the decline and death of a loved sister is one of the most moving parts of the book. He takes religion seriously and writes vividly about being an altar boy – including his interest in altar wine – and memorably, about deciding, aged 11, that he had a vocation for the priesthood.
... a remarkably intimate new memoir.
Sure, Byrne shares a few Hollywood tidbits...But Byrne, who turned 70 last year, has written something more introspective and literary: an elegiac memoir that explores the interior life of a Dublin boy who finds himself almost accidentally — and incidentally — famous. It’s a story about Ireland and exile and carrying the ghosts of family and home through time.
... his style, though lyrical, is also characterised by the marked shifts in tone that his nonlinear narrative demands.
