What do you think?
Rate this book
The Visitors
A lyrical novel set in America and Ireland from the Story Prize-winning author of
The Hill Road
As he did so masterfully in the connected novellas of The Hill Road, Patrick O’Keeffe’s first novel moves back and forth in time and place to weave the story of two Irish families forever linked by love, secrets, and their heritage.
James Dwyer was born in rural county Limerick before moving to Dublin as a teenager and ultimately settling in Ann Arbor. One night James’s past appears in the form of a down-and-out man named Walter, who issues an invitation for James to come to Upstate New York to visit his old childhood neighbor, Kevin Lyons. Although neither James nor Kevin particularly cares for each other, there’s no denying their complicated past. Kevin and James’s sister, Tess, were lovers while James fell hard for Kevin’s sister, Una.
Illuminating the precarious balance of family intimacies and how stories can carry over from one generation to the next, O’Keeffe’s The Visitors further delivers on the elegant prose and plotting that earned him critical acclaim and the Story Prize for The Hill Road.
As he did so masterfully in the connected novellas of The Hill Road, Patrick O’Keeffe’s first novel moves back and forth in time and place to weave the story of two Irish families forever linked by love, secrets, and their heritage.
James Dwyer was born in rural county Limerick before moving to Dublin as a teenager and ultimately settling in Ann Arbor. One night James’s past appears in the form of a down-and-out man named Walter, who issues an invitation for James to come to Upstate New York to visit his old childhood neighbor, Kevin Lyons. Although neither James nor Kevin particularly cares for each other, there’s no denying their complicated past. Kevin and James’s sister, Tess, were lovers while James fell hard for Kevin’s sister, Una.
Illuminating the precarious balance of family intimacies and how stories can carry over from one generation to the next, O’Keeffe’s The Visitors further delivers on the elegant prose and plotting that earned him critical acclaim and the Story Prize for The Hill Road.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 2014
6 people are currently reading
1027 people want to read
About the author
Patrick O'Keeffe
11 books7 followersPatrick O’Keeffe is the author of “The Hill Road”, which won the 2005 Story Prize (which has the largest cash prize for any fiction award in the US - $20,000.00). The book is a collection of 4 novellas set in a fictional Irish dairy farming village. This setting would appear to be one that is especially close to Patrick O’Keeffe’s heart, as he himself was born on an Irish dairy farm in County Limerick in the 60s. He first started writing in his 20s. Patrick O’Keeffe initially went to the US as an illegal immigrant in 1986, where he did casual labour, such as bar work and building. In 1989, Patrick O’Keeffe was fortunate enough to win a Green Card in a lottery, and so he returned to the US, where he studied English at the University of Kentucky. In 1998, Patrick O’Keeffe was accepted onto the University of Michigan MFA writing program, where he studied with Nicholas DelBanco, Eileen Pollack, and Charles Baxter. In 2000, Patrick O’Keefe was one of the recipients of the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship, and won the Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing. After his graduation in 2000, Patrick O’Keefe joined the University of Michigan as a popular lecturer in their creative writing department. Patrick O’Keeffe is currently working on his debut novel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
April 24, 2014
3.5 The Lyons and the Dwyer families have been in and out of each other lives for a long time. Neighbors in rural country Limerick, their children are often thrown together, sometimes for good sometimes not. James Dwyer want nothing more than to get away, which he does first to Dublin and then to America. In America, he seldom calls home and wants nothing more than to forget everything that came before. This, he finds, is not so easy, and the novel goes back and forth from the past to the present.
Home often is not the place we left but the place we take with us. We take the past and our family without for better or worse. Memories are often unreliable, and secrets have a way of coming out at the least opportune times.
In elegant prose, and wonderful dialogue the author takes us into the heart of these two families, whose members were often more entwined than most members know. James will find himself keeper of a big secret which will lead him to question his view of his childhood memories and how he interpreted them.
This is a quiet introspective book, no great action happens, but it is a novel that has a subtle impact on the reader. Makes one think about their own memories and how maybe what we remember isn't the whole story.
Home often is not the place we left but the place we take with us. We take the past and our family without for better or worse. Memories are often unreliable, and secrets have a way of coming out at the least opportune times.
In elegant prose, and wonderful dialogue the author takes us into the heart of these two families, whose members were often more entwined than most members know. James will find himself keeper of a big secret which will lead him to question his view of his childhood memories and how he interpreted them.
This is a quiet introspective book, no great action happens, but it is a novel that has a subtle impact on the reader. Makes one think about their own memories and how maybe what we remember isn't the whole story.
May 14, 2018
At first I had to get used to the style of the book since it can be vague at times but especially the continuous jumping from memories to current events and future events. At first I found it irritating but I got used to it. There are some really beautiful written sections in the book such when our main character reads the notes of his fathers best friend or when he calls his family members. These sections are also the most interesting since it gives you more insight and background to the family and the why's of their current situation.
The book starts with a strange visitor (Walter) for our main character (James) hence the title. It is a recurring theme throughout the book especially given our main character who never feels at home it seems. However it is for somewhat twisted reasons that he does this: he 'flees' his family and country. He wants to live his own life and is reluctant to keep in touch with his family especially his father. It is clear that James has issues but this is also true for most of our characters but it is not always explored. It seems that James sees that everyone he meets are just visitors in his life and life will continue without them at a given time. He seems reluctance to bond since this explains a part of the ending in which he is unfaithful to his current love in order to relive a old love which ended sourly for him in the past. Although it is left unsure if it will continue it seems fitting of his character but it leaves you with more questions than answers. Maybe that is the point.
There is some foreboding in the book such as with the whippoorwill bird about a future parting soul but besides that not much.
The story is quite jumbled by the jumps backward, forward and interrupted by mentions of future events. Not sure what the overall point of the story was but reading this book wasn't too shabby especially those better sections which were not detracted by the jumbling of other past/current/future events.
The book starts with a strange visitor (Walter) for our main character (James) hence the title. It is a recurring theme throughout the book especially given our main character who never feels at home it seems. However it is for somewhat twisted reasons that he does this: he 'flees' his family and country. He wants to live his own life and is reluctant to keep in touch with his family especially his father. It is clear that James has issues but this is also true for most of our characters but it is not always explored. It seems that James sees that everyone he meets are just visitors in his life and life will continue without them at a given time. He seems reluctance to bond since this explains a part of the ending in which he is unfaithful to his current love in order to relive a old love which ended sourly for him in the past. Although it is left unsure if it will continue it seems fitting of his character but it leaves you with more questions than answers. Maybe that is the point.
There is some foreboding in the book such as with the whippoorwill bird about a future parting soul but besides that not much.
The story is quite jumbled by the jumps backward, forward and interrupted by mentions of future events. Not sure what the overall point of the story was but reading this book wasn't too shabby especially those better sections which were not detracted by the jumbling of other past/current/future events.
July 22, 2016
Two families in 1980's Ireland are bound together by the fathers' friendship,and by much, much more, we learn ,as the novel unfolds their secrets.
The story is told from Jimmy Dwyer's perspective through flashbacks and
conversations. Early on, we discover that this is not just Jimmy's story.
It is the story of his father and mother and his siblings. It's the story of
his father's friend Michael and his sons and daughters .
Some of them leave Limmerick believing they can escape their pasts, find something better, but even thousands of miles can't take them away and sometimes the past is not exactly as they thought it was . Some of them fall in love with each other and some of them die. Some of them move forward, but never can release their past.
Wonderful writing.
4 stars
The story is told from Jimmy Dwyer's perspective through flashbacks and
conversations. Early on, we discover that this is not just Jimmy's story.
It is the story of his father and mother and his siblings. It's the story of
his father's friend Michael and his sons and daughters .
Some of them leave Limmerick believing they can escape their pasts, find something better, but even thousands of miles can't take them away and sometimes the past is not exactly as they thought it was . Some of them fall in love with each other and some of them die. Some of them move forward, but never can release their past.
Wonderful writing.
4 stars
April 7, 2014
THIS IS A VERY GOOD NOVEL, MOVING IN AND OUT OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF AN IRISH IMMIGRANT TO THE US, JIMMY DWYER.
THE WRITING IS MESMERIZING IN ITS DETAIL, BRINGING THE READER VISUALLY INTO CONCRETE SCENES, MANY OF WHICH ARE REFRACTED IN DIFFERENT TIMES AND FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. THE SENSE OF CONSTRICTION IN IRISH CULTURE AND ITS LINGERING EFFECTS, SOMETIMES MELANCHOLY, SOMETIMES TRAGIC, EMANATES FROM THE SURFACE LIVES OF THE CHARACTERS AS REVEALED IN THE NOTEBOOK OF MICHAEL LYONS, FATHER OF JIMMY'S ANTAGONIST KEVIN, LOVER OF JIMMY'S SISTER TESS. OLD MICHAEL WAS DIFFERENT, REJECTED AUTHORITY WHILE THE DWYERS TRIED, UNSUCCESSFULLY, TO BEAT OBEDIENCE INTO THEIR CHILDREN.
THE STYLE MANAGES TO CAPTURE THE LILT OF THE IRISH ACCENT, A MELODIC COUNTERPOINT TO THE WASTE OF LIFE THAT, THROUGH CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCE, WINDS ITS WAY THROUGHOUT THE NOVEL: MICHAEL AMD HANNA, KEVIN AND TESS, JIMMY AND UNA, AND AGAIN KEVIN AND WIVES, JIMMY AND WOMEN. SUICIDE AND MURDER, STAPLES IN LIVES IN WHICH THERE IS NO EXIT, PLAY THEIR ROLE. A CENTRAL CHARACTER IS WALTER WHO OPENS THE NOVEL, COMING TO JIMMY'S APARTMENT DOOR TALKING OF AN OLD WOMAN LYING IN THE STREET. NEVER SEEN, HER STORY DEVELOPS LATER WHEN A SON COMES TO EMPTY OUT AND SELL OFF HER HOUSE AS SHE NOW IS IN ASSISTED LIVING IN CHICAGO, AND IT IS A STORY WITH RAMIFICATIONS. WALTER, LIKE MICHAEL, HAS A SAD BACK STORY, SUGGESTING
THAT LIFE DIFFERS VERY LITTLE NO MATTER WHERE ONE GOES, A FINAL LESSON JIMMY SEEMS TO HAVE LEARNED. IN THE MEANTIME, KEVIN HAS HAD SUCCESS, NOW OWNS A PLACE NOT UNLIKE THE ONE HE CAME FROM, THOUGH FAR GRANDER, SET IN THE COUNTRY, ON A HILL, NEAR A STREAM AND WOODS. EVEN JIMMY'S HOUSE SHARES CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS CHILDHOOD HOUSE. THERE SEEMS TO BE NO ESCAPE; THE LIVES OF THE OLD ARE PLAYED OUT AGAIN IN THE LIVES OF THE YOUNG.
IT IS A VERY GOOD NOVEL IN ALL ASPECTS; I RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY.
THE WRITING IS MESMERIZING IN ITS DETAIL, BRINGING THE READER VISUALLY INTO CONCRETE SCENES, MANY OF WHICH ARE REFRACTED IN DIFFERENT TIMES AND FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. THE SENSE OF CONSTRICTION IN IRISH CULTURE AND ITS LINGERING EFFECTS, SOMETIMES MELANCHOLY, SOMETIMES TRAGIC, EMANATES FROM THE SURFACE LIVES OF THE CHARACTERS AS REVEALED IN THE NOTEBOOK OF MICHAEL LYONS, FATHER OF JIMMY'S ANTAGONIST KEVIN, LOVER OF JIMMY'S SISTER TESS. OLD MICHAEL WAS DIFFERENT, REJECTED AUTHORITY WHILE THE DWYERS TRIED, UNSUCCESSFULLY, TO BEAT OBEDIENCE INTO THEIR CHILDREN.
THE STYLE MANAGES TO CAPTURE THE LILT OF THE IRISH ACCENT, A MELODIC COUNTERPOINT TO THE WASTE OF LIFE THAT, THROUGH CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCE, WINDS ITS WAY THROUGHOUT THE NOVEL: MICHAEL AMD HANNA, KEVIN AND TESS, JIMMY AND UNA, AND AGAIN KEVIN AND WIVES, JIMMY AND WOMEN. SUICIDE AND MURDER, STAPLES IN LIVES IN WHICH THERE IS NO EXIT, PLAY THEIR ROLE. A CENTRAL CHARACTER IS WALTER WHO OPENS THE NOVEL, COMING TO JIMMY'S APARTMENT DOOR TALKING OF AN OLD WOMAN LYING IN THE STREET. NEVER SEEN, HER STORY DEVELOPS LATER WHEN A SON COMES TO EMPTY OUT AND SELL OFF HER HOUSE AS SHE NOW IS IN ASSISTED LIVING IN CHICAGO, AND IT IS A STORY WITH RAMIFICATIONS. WALTER, LIKE MICHAEL, HAS A SAD BACK STORY, SUGGESTING
THAT LIFE DIFFERS VERY LITTLE NO MATTER WHERE ONE GOES, A FINAL LESSON JIMMY SEEMS TO HAVE LEARNED. IN THE MEANTIME, KEVIN HAS HAD SUCCESS, NOW OWNS A PLACE NOT UNLIKE THE ONE HE CAME FROM, THOUGH FAR GRANDER, SET IN THE COUNTRY, ON A HILL, NEAR A STREAM AND WOODS. EVEN JIMMY'S HOUSE SHARES CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS CHILDHOOD HOUSE. THERE SEEMS TO BE NO ESCAPE; THE LIVES OF THE OLD ARE PLAYED OUT AGAIN IN THE LIVES OF THE YOUNG.
IT IS A VERY GOOD NOVEL IN ALL ASPECTS; I RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY.
June 22, 2015
Young Irishman James Dwyer has emigrated from his native country to the States and narrates his story to the reader in a haunting and mesmerising voice. The novel opens when he is visited by a rather mysterious down-and-out who brings a message from someone in Jimmy’s past. Kevin Lyons needs to see him. With that message the past reverberates into the present and a flood of memories threatens to overwhelm him. Spanning generations and continents, the book explores the inextricable bonds between the Lyons and the Dwyers from County Limerick, bonds that have been tested by love, loss, loyalty and longing. Jimmy feels that he has put that complicated past behind him but soon realises that it is still ever present. In a series of flashbacks the reader gradually learns the whole story.
It’s an impressive piece of work and I don’t understand why the novel is not better known. It deserves to be. It has its weaknesses, admittedly. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the timeline, and O’Keeffe has some linguistic quirks that can irritate at times. But overall it’s a thoughtful exploration of emigration and the ties that bind, family bonds and the difficulty of escaping them, and is an immersive and compelling story of the tumultuous lives of two Irish families.
It’s an impressive piece of work and I don’t understand why the novel is not better known. It deserves to be. It has its weaknesses, admittedly. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the timeline, and O’Keeffe has some linguistic quirks that can irritate at times. But overall it’s a thoughtful exploration of emigration and the ties that bind, family bonds and the difficulty of escaping them, and is an immersive and compelling story of the tumultuous lives of two Irish families.
March 30, 2014
The Visitors was a quick read, because you want to know what is going on with this strange fellow who shows up at the narrator's door, and because the little stories that come up about the narrator's past are equally interesting.
Like in O'Keeffe's stories in The Hill Road, the secrets that are revealed about his family's past are the most exciting, along with the sad love stories. But I also loved some of the more random stories about the people the narrator has met throughout his life -- the old men at the Dublin pub where he bartended; the immigrants, some of them undocumented, who worked alongside him in Boston.
O'Keeffe's dialogue is brilliant, especially when his narrator speaks with his siblings. You get the complicated feelings of having left your home and family far behind but still being tied to them against your will, the guilt that comes along with relief, something many people can relate to.
Like in O'Keeffe's stories in The Hill Road, the secrets that are revealed about his family's past are the most exciting, along with the sad love stories. But I also loved some of the more random stories about the people the narrator has met throughout his life -- the old men at the Dublin pub where he bartended; the immigrants, some of them undocumented, who worked alongside him in Boston.
O'Keeffe's dialogue is brilliant, especially when his narrator speaks with his siblings. You get the complicated feelings of having left your home and family far behind but still being tied to them against your will, the guilt that comes along with relief, something many people can relate to.
April 16, 2014
The Visitors is a profoundly lyrical and beautiful novel, but not necesary an easy read. The novel is told by Jimmy Dwyer, an Immigrant from Ireland, and it is variable in time and place and Jimmy's thoughts and memories shift their focus, interweaving the past and the present, as he constantly remembers, relives, and rediscovers his past through the refracting lens of time and changing relationships. It is a novel that is, at times tragic, and certainly melancholy in how history plays itself out and repeats itself, how Jimmy learns that the past is always with us, no matter how much one wishes to escape it. O'keefe's prose is breathtakingly beautiful. He captures Jimmy's voice perfectly and he is fully and complexly realized. The interleaving of time and place is expertly and subtly maintained and captured in the nuances of voice that define different places and relationships. This was an exquisite book that I will not soon forget.
June 25, 2014
Beautiful and authentic. I love the style, though I see some reviewers found it hard to follow. It's best not to try too hard; rather, let it sort of wash over you, in the same way your mind wanders but follows a thread. I found this novel dreamlike, and poignant, and it makes me think of all the ways we tell and retell our stories, how we make sense of our lives and the people that were in them.
January 31, 2019
A unique conversational writing style plus a thought-provokingly real blend of human/family interactions makes this a worthwhile read. Not a light or necessarily happy tale, but definitely a true-to-life one. Hangs on even after that final page is read...
March 12, 2014
James (Jimmy) Dwyer was born and raised in County Limerick on a small farm surrounded by other small farms. It seemed everyone knew one another and yet, as this tale reveals, some things were secrets known only by a select few. Jimmy leaves his home going first to Dublin and then on to America, but his memories of the people that shaped his early life do not diminish, but instead continue to reach out and effect the way he lives his life. Dwyer seems to roll through life like a pool ball after the break, colliding with and being redirected by collisions. His path is controlled as much by outside forces as by his own will.
I found THE VISITORS to be rather slow paced and far too introspective for my taste. That said, I did enjoy the many humorous passages and the occasional glimpses of why we are tied to an identity only partly created by ourselves. This sense of identity of who we are and how other people and their actions make us change and by changing us link one to the other, is at the heart of the novel. This is a good book, but it takes a lot of perseverance on the part of the reader to reach its’ conclusion.
I found THE VISITORS to be rather slow paced and far too introspective for my taste. That said, I did enjoy the many humorous passages and the occasional glimpses of why we are tied to an identity only partly created by ourselves. This sense of identity of who we are and how other people and their actions make us change and by changing us link one to the other, is at the heart of the novel. This is a good book, but it takes a lot of perseverance on the part of the reader to reach its’ conclusion.
June 26, 2014
3.5 stars. The themes are familiar: home, emigration, intertwined family complexities, memory and its pitfalls, love and its pitfalls, rural parochialism. The writing is, for the most part, smooth and impressive, but the protagonist, James Lyons, engages with one fairly important character in which their dialogues repeatedly utilize the direct address "my dear"; I found that tedious. O'Keeffe is particularly skilled in rendering the different time periods, different settings, different skeins of the intertwined stories, and different visitors. James Dwyer delivers the novel from 2007, recalling seminal events that began with a mysterious visitor in 2007 but quickly harking back throughout his entire life and the history of his family and the neighboring Lyons family. James hails from rural Limerick, makes his initial move as a young man to Dublin, emigrates to the US, settling first in Boston, then in Ann Arbor, and the rest, as they say, is history. I have problems rectifying the credibility of some aspects of that visitor that James meets in 2000, but the other characters are all well drawn. Some engage my sympathy.
July 23, 2016
I enjoy modern Irish authors who try to connect with the literary heritage of some of the giants of Ireland who contributed so much to English language literature. O'Keefe's style was challenging for me, and I had to pay close attention to his blends of memory, dialogue, narration, and viewpoints. His style brought depth to what is really a simple story--two neighboring families in rural Ireland, children growing up in the 1960s and 70s, some of them emigrating for work and some of them remaining. A "typical" Irish story. As adults they try to reconnect with one another, and we learn that the silence of emotion they grew up with hides their full stories. After one of the "visitors" brings conflict to the reunion of James and his old neighbor Kevin, James faces his present life and love in America clearly and perhaps has crossed that immigrant divide, where memories pleasant and painful no longer will pull him.
July 21, 2014
Well written Irish slant on neighbor's, and families, inter actions thru two generations.
Present day relationships of the grown-up children are based on their childhood remembrances.
Both good and bad experiences are magnified, from a child's point of view, which lingered and have carried on into adulthood.
Misrembering, overheard, adult conversations, result, as is to be expected, in hurt feelings and animosity.
Inner feelings, guarded throughout the years, erupt as parents, brothers/sisters and relatives die; the 'what really happened' stories shatter cherished memories that are more fragile than realized.
A diary styled journal, if true, adds confusion to the biased Irish personalities. Familes, in love with love and personal hurts that smolder as the years pass on.
Present day relationships of the grown-up children are based on their childhood remembrances.
Both good and bad experiences are magnified, from a child's point of view, which lingered and have carried on into adulthood.
Misrembering, overheard, adult conversations, result, as is to be expected, in hurt feelings and animosity.
Inner feelings, guarded throughout the years, erupt as parents, brothers/sisters and relatives die; the 'what really happened' stories shatter cherished memories that are more fragile than realized.
A diary styled journal, if true, adds confusion to the biased Irish personalities. Familes, in love with love and personal hurts that smolder as the years pass on.
November 2, 2014
Lrical????? hardly the seance structure in the first quarto of the novel was abysmal, short statements were portrayed as sentences often starting ith Sand and But which made reading difficult. The conversations between Jimmy and Zoe where every other word was "my dear" grated on the reader. Who were the visitors, who were they visiting? It amazes me that not only do these books get published but that they re described as "lyrical, masterful and weaving a story. There was no story (or not that i could find. This book will find its way into my absolute drivel pile - don't waste your time. If i could rate it 0 stars then i would. Goodreads you have to allow a zero rating, i have no idea what this book was about.
July 10, 2016
I got through it just! I get that the hero had issues but he was a pretty maudlin character which made the book kind of depressing rather than uplifting. Compared to something like Goldfinch which was also full of angst but also uplifting The Visitors is trite. The writing style appeared to be an attempt to induce atmosphere and feeling into the writing but from my perspective, this wasn't successful. I doubt that any Irish person would be able to read this book all the way through. Not a recommended read. I might try one of the short stories by this author in his award-winning collection.
May 2, 2014
I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
This book is really different from what i would usually go for, however i am very glad i have read this book.
It is written in a beautiful way which makes the book hard to put down once you have started to read it, the storylines are amazing but sometimes i found them confusing but this book is a overall very good read i would recommend giving this book a read.
This book is really different from what i would usually go for, however i am very glad i have read this book.
It is written in a beautiful way which makes the book hard to put down once you have started to read it, the storylines are amazing but sometimes i found them confusing but this book is a overall very good read i would recommend giving this book a read.
May 5, 2014
At first, this book didn't catch my attention and was about to give up reading it because of the different time settings and some repetitive words/phrases. I gave it another shot and finished it. The way two families are connected in their homeland come to connect outside of it is remarkable. It shows how close knit families can be and should be, always looking out for each other. Towards the end is when everything made sense and with a surprising ending that no one expected.
June 3, 2014
I've received this book from the Goodreads first read, thank you!
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would.
Patrick O''Keeffe can clearly write but the style made it drag a bit and difficult to follow..I found myself going back to the beginning of various conversation as the profuse use of "ha said, she said, I said" made me lose the plot several times.
I'm glad I did finish it though: I did enjoy the twist at the end!
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would.
Patrick O''Keeffe can clearly write but the style made it drag a bit and difficult to follow..I found myself going back to the beginning of various conversation as the profuse use of "ha said, she said, I said" made me lose the plot several times.
I'm glad I did finish it though: I did enjoy the twist at the end!
December 14, 2014
The Visitors" is a story of two families from ireland and the inteweaving of the lives ofboth over decades. Some go to other countries; some stay home; there is heartbreak and triumph; secrets and emotiomal dramaa throughout. I liked the book very much, howeveer, at times it is dificult to follow wwho is the narrator and which decade they are speaking about. i recommend this if the reader can keep time changes and character voice changes separate. as they read
January 23, 2014
4.5/5
Patrick O'Keeffe's upcoming release, The Visitors is positively exquisite. From the expertly woven storylines to his amazingly beautiful prose, I was transported to another time and place. I will be keeping a close watch for future releases by Patrick O'Keeffe and cannot give high enough praise to The Visitors.
April 20, 2014
This was such a tedious read. I found this book challenging to get through. It was all over the place as far as the timelines went. At times I had to reread chapters because suddenly the author was referring to "He" and I couldn't follow who "He" was.
The over use of the word "dear" in conversations drove me to distraction. In short, this book was not for me!
The over use of the word "dear" in conversations drove me to distraction. In short, this book was not for me!
May 20, 2014
Too obtuse for me both in what I was supposed to get out of it and what was really happening. It was like seeing half of a person and trying to figure out the whole. Dialogue felt very stilted to me (maybe intentional, but if it was, I couldn't figure out why). Maybe overall too much work and not enough reward.
September 16, 2014
This was a book club selection and for that reason only did I finish the book. I found the dialogues difficult to follow and the narrator often used the pronoun you to refer to himself. The main character was self-absorbed and generally all the characters made decisions that ultimately made them unhappy. Maybe the book club discussion will enlighten better aspects of this novel.
March 11, 2015
Parts of this book are so beautifully written that they took my breath away. But the plot twists and turns in on itself so insistently that I'm not sure what happened when, or what was real and what was a dream. The more I think about it, though, I'm not sure that matters.
July 5, 2015
In the beginning, it really confused me with the dialogue but I ended up getting it in no time. It's really well written and I really felt like I was talking to this Irish narrator. I loved the story and can't wait to read more of his books.``
August 10, 2015
This book wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great either. It was a bit too melodramatic for me, but I did like most of the characters and how interconnected all of them were. I'd say give the book a shot and see how you like it.
September 24, 2015
Can someone please explain to me why the dialogue was so repetitive, always ending with "my dear", etc? I have clearly missed something. I only finished this book because I kept thinking it would get better. I finished it on the beach & nearly chucked it into the Gulf.
August 11, 2016
I received a copy from First Reads.
Couldn't put it down - beautifully written.
Couldn't put it down - beautifully written.
June 2, 2014
Different style...interesting, thought provoking, but sometimes confusing as the narrator switches past and present, first person and third person. I did enjoy it.
July 1, 2014
THE VISITORS
Patrick O'Keeffe
Patrick O'Keeffe
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews