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Trinity and Redemption #1
Trinity
Leon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market.
From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom. It is the electrifying story of an idealistic young Catholic rebel and the valiant and beautiful Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join his cause. It is a tale of love and danger, of triumph at an unthinkable cost—a magnificent portrait of a people divided by class, faith, and prejudice—an unforgettable saga of the fires that devastated a majestic land... and the unquenchable flames that burn in the human heart.
From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom. It is the electrifying story of an idealistic young Catholic rebel and the valiant and beautiful Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join his cause. It is a tale of love and danger, of triumph at an unthinkable cost—a magnificent portrait of a people divided by class, faith, and prejudice—an unforgettable saga of the fires that devastated a majestic land... and the unquenchable flames that burn in the human heart.
898 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
1559 people are currently reading
17666 people want to read
About the author
Leon Uris
88 books1,640 followersLeon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 - June 21, 2003) was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,335 reviews
November 11, 2009
This is one of the select few on my bookshelves that I've bothered to read more than once (quite a feat, as the book is roughly 800 pages or so) and has got to be one of my top five, if not my absolute favorite book of all time. This is the first Uris book I read, and I became an instant fan. Leon Uris is a masterful story-teller who irrevokably draws you in to his tales, and this one is about 19th century Ireland in which several decades of Irish history are woven into the stories of three families seamlessly. The only minor "negative" I can think of is that the story is a bit one-sided, but as you read, you find yourself believing that the rebels' cause is a righteous one. Action, drama, suspense, romance, history, this book has a bit of everything! I'm also not one to get all that emotional when reading books, but the last chapter... Oh my. Keep the kleenex handy! Make sure you read the sequel, Redemption to find out what happens to the characters! I don't recommend it as highly, but it brings the story line in Trinity to a close.
January 22, 2010
I loved this book and have read probably six times. Great love story and great historical fiction at the same time.
The first review on Goodreads really panned this book and all of Leon Uris' books in general-- do NOT believe that review or his comments about other Uris books, in particular Exodus. This person's comments were basically that the situation was presented one-sided, without any shades of gray, and the book was little more than propaganda.
I disagree with that assessment, but also want to ask the question-- how can there be another side to either the Irish Catholic situation in Northern Ireland or certainly, the Jewish exodus to Israel after WWII? Is it not an established fact that the English treated the native Irish population horribly, as they did with the native population in all of their colonies? And it is also established fact, I believe, that they blockaded Palestine after the war to prevent Jewish immigration.
So, I don't see what "other side" could be presented. To try and show Britain in a positive light is revisionist history. There is no other side (and I'm an anglophile big time). His book about the Berlin airlift is another example-- the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin and left the civilian German population to starve. Where is the other side to that?
Uris did present some characters on the "other side" as being conflicted about the choices their government was making. I think the moral of his books would be that all individuals cannot control the actions of their governments, but they can control their own actions. Maybe that is simplistic, but I would rather read a book that is passionate about its position-- sometimes you have to take a side; there is not always shades of gray.
The first review on Goodreads really panned this book and all of Leon Uris' books in general-- do NOT believe that review or his comments about other Uris books, in particular Exodus. This person's comments were basically that the situation was presented one-sided, without any shades of gray, and the book was little more than propaganda.
I disagree with that assessment, but also want to ask the question-- how can there be another side to either the Irish Catholic situation in Northern Ireland or certainly, the Jewish exodus to Israel after WWII? Is it not an established fact that the English treated the native Irish population horribly, as they did with the native population in all of their colonies? And it is also established fact, I believe, that they blockaded Palestine after the war to prevent Jewish immigration.
So, I don't see what "other side" could be presented. To try and show Britain in a positive light is revisionist history. There is no other side (and I'm an anglophile big time). His book about the Berlin airlift is another example-- the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin and left the civilian German population to starve. Where is the other side to that?
Uris did present some characters on the "other side" as being conflicted about the choices their government was making. I think the moral of his books would be that all individuals cannot control the actions of their governments, but they can control their own actions. Maybe that is simplistic, but I would rather read a book that is passionate about its position-- sometimes you have to take a side; there is not always shades of gray.
March 21, 2013
Jedna od meni najdrazih knjiga o Irskoj a Leon Uris je jedan od deset meni najdrazih "engleskih/americkih" pisaca... imala sam cast da pre nekoliko godina u Londonu budem pozvana na veceru s njegovom nekadasnjom agentkinjom i prijateljicom... i s njom podelim svoju ljubav prema njegovim knjigama... Mislim da svako treba da procita barem jednu od njegovih knjiga (a najbolje sve)
December 2, 2008
In all of Leon Uris's books, the schema is very simple. There are good guys, and there are bad guys, and nowhere is there room for even a shade of ambiguity. This kind of cartoonish view of the world leads to books which might be better classified as propaganda than as historical fiction.
This was certainly the case for "Exodus", which amounted to thinly disguised propaganda. "Armageddon", dealing with the Berlin airlift, also tended toward crude 'good guy/bad guy' categorizations, but didn't bother me quite as much. However, I found Uris's heavyhanded, reductionist approach to writing about the situation in my own country supremely offensive from start to finish. In addition to grossly oversimplifying political events and allegiances throughout, Uris is sure to include every lazy, faith-and-begorrah, bogtrotting cliche about the noble, bibulous, freedom-fighting sons of Erin (and the pretty colleens that love them).
The best that can be said about Uris is that he probably believed his own reductionist, 3rd grade view of history and world politics. But be warned - it's not just his thinking is at the 3rd grade level - much of the writing is as well. Uris's dictionary is stuffed with cliches, heavy on adjectives, but the word "nuance" is obviously missing.
But why would we expect anything else? Uris was a hack. The man was in the business of churning out bestsellers. Apparently most readers like their historical fiction in black and white - the reviews of "Trinity" on Amazon.com are even more creepily adulatory than the Amazon norm. (Though I really would like to send the Bookmobile round to the caves of all those readers who claimed this was their "favorite book ever"!)
Well, I disagree with all of those Amazon acolytes. I thought this was a dreadful book, an insult to the intelligence, and I would recommend it to nobody.
Your mileage may vary.
This was certainly the case for "Exodus", which amounted to thinly disguised propaganda. "Armageddon", dealing with the Berlin airlift, also tended toward crude 'good guy/bad guy' categorizations, but didn't bother me quite as much. However, I found Uris's heavyhanded, reductionist approach to writing about the situation in my own country supremely offensive from start to finish. In addition to grossly oversimplifying political events and allegiances throughout, Uris is sure to include every lazy, faith-and-begorrah, bogtrotting cliche about the noble, bibulous, freedom-fighting sons of Erin (and the pretty colleens that love them).
The best that can be said about Uris is that he probably believed his own reductionist, 3rd grade view of history and world politics. But be warned - it's not just his thinking is at the 3rd grade level - much of the writing is as well. Uris's dictionary is stuffed with cliches, heavy on adjectives, but the word "nuance" is obviously missing.
But why would we expect anything else? Uris was a hack. The man was in the business of churning out bestsellers. Apparently most readers like their historical fiction in black and white - the reviews of "Trinity" on Amazon.com are even more creepily adulatory than the Amazon norm. (Though I really would like to send the Bookmobile round to the caves of all those readers who claimed this was their "favorite book ever"!)
Well, I disagree with all of those Amazon acolytes. I thought this was a dreadful book, an insult to the intelligence, and I would recommend it to nobody.
Your mileage may vary.
April 23, 2020
A great book from Leon Uris. Trinity is a bit long, and perhaps a bit one sided in telling the tale of the struggles in Northern Ireland. It is a tale well told. The characters are rich and memorable. Memorable enough for me for a name to stick in naming our son many years later.
Though the writing might seem a bit dated in 2020 it is well worth a read, both for the skill of the writer and a view of The Troubles that pervaded between the Irish and the English.
A must read for historical fiction fans.
Though the writing might seem a bit dated in 2020 it is well worth a read, both for the skill of the writer and a view of The Troubles that pervaded between the Irish and the English.
A must read for historical fiction fans.
August 22, 2010
Let's begin by stipulating that Uris is a pulp fiction writer and should be read and reviewed on those terms. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pulp fiction - it's a great and wonderful genre full of entertainment value.
With Uris' books the formula is pretty simple: Our hero is noble, well-read, and self-sacrificing. He's closed himself off, but is waiting for the right woman. The right woman is also noble and self-sacrificing, but strong-willed and beautiful. He sets these folks down in the middle of some big historical conflict and then uses them to give readers a bit of a history lesson. He's typically got a bias, but most history does. These are good solid historical epics.
I really like Mila 18, his book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It inspired me to read a lot of actual history of the event including a number of diaries that were recovered from there. Likewise with Trinity, which I read once before, I will most likely go read more Irish history.
Trinity is a decent vehicle for imparting quite a bit of history from the Irish perspective. It's a good read for making you think about the impact of imperialism and industrialization. There's an excellent set of chapters on early twentieth century factories and a factory fire that will remind you why unions came about in a really visceral way.
This is a dense read, but it's entertaining and interesting in parts and is probably a good gateway to other more substantive reads on the subject matter.
With Uris' books the formula is pretty simple: Our hero is noble, well-read, and self-sacrificing. He's closed himself off, but is waiting for the right woman. The right woman is also noble and self-sacrificing, but strong-willed and beautiful. He sets these folks down in the middle of some big historical conflict and then uses them to give readers a bit of a history lesson. He's typically got a bias, but most history does. These are good solid historical epics.
I really like Mila 18, his book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It inspired me to read a lot of actual history of the event including a number of diaries that were recovered from there. Likewise with Trinity, which I read once before, I will most likely go read more Irish history.
Trinity is a decent vehicle for imparting quite a bit of history from the Irish perspective. It's a good read for making you think about the impact of imperialism and industrialization. There's an excellent set of chapters on early twentieth century factories and a factory fire that will remind you why unions came about in a really visceral way.
This is a dense read, but it's entertaining and interesting in parts and is probably a good gateway to other more substantive reads on the subject matter.
March 19, 2022
When I first read this book over twenty years ago, I knew very little of the history of the Home Rule conflict between Ireland and England, and found it to be a moving and often shocking history lesson.
Reading it this time, I found that even though I remembered many of the main events, the book had lost none of its impact, and I quickly became immersed once again in this powerful story.
It's difficult not to become emotionally affected by the characters in this novel, especially when you realise that so many real people experienced the same things in their own lives.
There are many memorable characters, but Connor was, for me, totally unforgettable.
His destiny was shaped from early childhood, not only by what he himself observed, but also by a Father and Grandfather who believed passionatly in home rule, and told him the old stories of the struggles, and of the men who became folk heroes fighting for a better life for those who were oppressed by the colonisers.
Connor and his fellows believed that their people had the right to decide on their own destiny, and felt that anything else was a compromise.....a selling out to the enemy which was totally unacceptable .
Like so many others in the history of the world, they felt compelled to give up any possibility of a pleasant and settled life for themselves, and continued to fight for justice, no matter what the cost.
They saw oppression, misery and injustice, and couldn't pass by on the other side....but they paid a terrible price.
This is a book which is rich in the history, traditions and culture of Ireland....at times it's almost unbearably sad and difficult to read, but it's well worth the effort.
Reading it this time, I found that even though I remembered many of the main events, the book had lost none of its impact, and I quickly became immersed once again in this powerful story.
It's difficult not to become emotionally affected by the characters in this novel, especially when you realise that so many real people experienced the same things in their own lives.
There are many memorable characters, but Connor was, for me, totally unforgettable.
His destiny was shaped from early childhood, not only by what he himself observed, but also by a Father and Grandfather who believed passionatly in home rule, and told him the old stories of the struggles, and of the men who became folk heroes fighting for a better life for those who were oppressed by the colonisers.
Connor and his fellows believed that their people had the right to decide on their own destiny, and felt that anything else was a compromise.....a selling out to the enemy which was totally unacceptable .
Like so many others in the history of the world, they felt compelled to give up any possibility of a pleasant and settled life for themselves, and continued to fight for justice, no matter what the cost.
They saw oppression, misery and injustice, and couldn't pass by on the other side....but they paid a terrible price.
This is a book which is rich in the history, traditions and culture of Ireland....at times it's almost unbearably sad and difficult to read, but it's well worth the effort.
January 25, 2013
This book was a very hard read at times... filled with so little hope, but I learned so much. I knew very little about the Protestant/Catholic struggle in Ireland in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Another tragic time in history where ignorance caused hatred fueled by religious fervor. One of my favorite quotes came from my favorite character in the book, Conor Larkin. He is an Irish Catholic rebel who spends his life fighting for his implausible cause.
....They sat across from one another and Atty waited until he opened his own door and let it all pour out.
"If there's a God," he whispered at last, "and I surely think there is, He will have looked down on the Catholics and Protestants of this province and shaken His head sadly in realization it is the one place the Devil has beaten Him thoroughly."
There were parts of the story that were exciting and page-turning, and others that read more like a history lesson. The story was written in a way that left the reader feeling like there was definitely a "good" side and a "bad" side, with so little crossover as to be a bit unrealistic. Thankfully there were some very beautiful love stories, albeit sad, to offset some of the horrible ordeals.
I wish I wasn't left with such a feeling of despair. I'm really glad I finally read this book even though it was extremely sobering.
....They sat across from one another and Atty waited until he opened his own door and let it all pour out.
"If there's a God," he whispered at last, "and I surely think there is, He will have looked down on the Catholics and Protestants of this province and shaken His head sadly in realization it is the one place the Devil has beaten Him thoroughly."
There were parts of the story that were exciting and page-turning, and others that read more like a history lesson. The story was written in a way that left the reader feeling like there was definitely a "good" side and a "bad" side, with so little crossover as to be a bit unrealistic. Thankfully there were some very beautiful love stories, albeit sad, to offset some of the horrible ordeals.
I wish I wasn't left with such a feeling of despair. I'm really glad I finally read this book even though it was extremely sobering.
July 29, 2012
Having come to "Trinity" after a break of some twenty years since reading the Uris classics "Exodus," "Mila 18" and "Armageddon," it was a very pleasant surprise to be able to discover that old zest for life, that lusty undercurrent which marks his work and fills it with an unmistakable energy. At the same time, "Trinity" enabled me to discover something about my own Irish background, and put the perspective of history into a new position for me altogether. In fact, so tainted were we, some of us, by the version of the other protagonists in that ghastly story, that we had a curious emotion, verging on shame, when it came to being part-Irish and perhaps more importantly, not sufficiently English. I imagine that a great many people know what I mean. It is through books like "Trinity," Keneally's "The Great Shame" and McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," that we are starting, many of us who were not born in Ireland but who have solid links of former ownership (however tenuous they might have appeared), to finally get the gist. I know one person who really had almost a prejudice against their own Irish family of last century, who came away from "Trinity" with a very different perspective indeed.
It's really an awful story, and if you wonder any longer why the troubles have continued so long and so bitterly into the last century and, quite possibly, into this one, you must be reading it upside down. At the same time, it's a great Uris yarn, if one may be permitted to say so. And it doesn't make me ashamed at all, after reading this, to be doing some proper wearing of the green.
It's really an awful story, and if you wonder any longer why the troubles have continued so long and so bitterly into the last century and, quite possibly, into this one, you must be reading it upside down. At the same time, it's a great Uris yarn, if one may be permitted to say so. And it doesn't make me ashamed at all, after reading this, to be doing some proper wearing of the green.
March 14, 2009
I don't know how I forgot to record this book...I just found it in my garage, one of the few that escaped garage sales or Goodwill! I keep it around hoping to one day re-read it. I recall running late for work, or returning from lunch, during the time that I read this book because I simply had to wrench myself away from the story (often making a bathroom stop to dry my eyes and reapply mascara). My dull review could never do it justice.
It's a story about a family in Ireland, following their lives through 3(?) generations. The day-to-day lives of the family is intertwined with the decades of cultural, political turmoil, famine; and incredible violence and hatred between the Protestants and Catholics that evolved through British occupation and colonialism. I've always been drawn to everything Irish, but the way the story unfolds, by focusing on one family, through generations, sucks the reader in on such a personal level that you feel as if you've lived the modern history of Ireland... all the joys and sorrows of being there. When I finally finished I promised myself I would seek out more of Leon Uris, who authored other historical fiction books.
It's a story about a family in Ireland, following their lives through 3(?) generations. The day-to-day lives of the family is intertwined with the decades of cultural, political turmoil, famine; and incredible violence and hatred between the Protestants and Catholics that evolved through British occupation and colonialism. I've always been drawn to everything Irish, but the way the story unfolds, by focusing on one family, through generations, sucks the reader in on such a personal level that you feel as if you've lived the modern history of Ireland... all the joys and sorrows of being there. When I finally finished I promised myself I would seek out more of Leon Uris, who authored other historical fiction books.
March 10, 2016
I'm going to try and keep this real simple.
What I liked: the well-executed compression of Irish history into a thirty-year period from 1885 to 1915, with echoes of the prior thousand years. The whole theme of no present, no future, only the past happening over and over again. The ultimately fatalistic message, that the best Irish Republicans could hope for was a "glorious" defeat. The quality of Uris' writing which I've come to expect, in that he can seamlessly weave together scene and summary. The unabashed tenderness in the romantic scenes, the appeal of the 'vulnerable' masculine hero Conor Larkin. Lastly: the invention of the word "oilylike," used in place of the awkward "oilily."
What I didn't like so much: the occasionally exclamatory prose. I'm not sure that this ever works well-- when an author throws down exclamation points outside of dialogue. The unorthodox usage of certain verbs that never really caught on-- most notably "spiraled" to describe, for instance, climbing the social ladder. The reversion to first-person perspective when the action focuses on Seamus O'Neill, the writer. This was an interesting choice but I don't think it worked. In fact it seems to accomplish little more than drawing attention to the author's artifice. The overlong section of Seamus' newspaper articles.
In conclusion: stirring, sweeping, mostly effective historical fiction with a realistic (i.e., pessimistic) viewpoint on the whole Irish debacle. Pretty unsparing in its critiques of all involved: the Catholic church, Protestant propaganda, and, above all, imperial English meddling. An unholy trinity.
What I liked: the well-executed compression of Irish history into a thirty-year period from 1885 to 1915, with echoes of the prior thousand years. The whole theme of no present, no future, only the past happening over and over again. The ultimately fatalistic message, that the best Irish Republicans could hope for was a "glorious" defeat. The quality of Uris' writing which I've come to expect, in that he can seamlessly weave together scene and summary. The unabashed tenderness in the romantic scenes, the appeal of the 'vulnerable' masculine hero Conor Larkin. Lastly: the invention of the word "oilylike," used in place of the awkward "oilily."
What I didn't like so much: the occasionally exclamatory prose. I'm not sure that this ever works well-- when an author throws down exclamation points outside of dialogue. The unorthodox usage of certain verbs that never really caught on-- most notably "spiraled" to describe, for instance, climbing the social ladder. The reversion to first-person perspective when the action focuses on Seamus O'Neill, the writer. This was an interesting choice but I don't think it worked. In fact it seems to accomplish little more than drawing attention to the author's artifice. The overlong section of Seamus' newspaper articles.
In conclusion: stirring, sweeping, mostly effective historical fiction with a realistic (i.e., pessimistic) viewpoint on the whole Irish debacle. Pretty unsparing in its critiques of all involved: the Catholic church, Protestant propaganda, and, above all, imperial English meddling. An unholy trinity.
February 3, 2010
STILL NO SPOILERS!
Done. Not one of my favorite books. I think lots of other people might like it. The history clearly chronicled in ythe last 100 pages was a plus. For me the characters had no depth. What you get is a story of Ireland's history through the 1800s and up to the beginning of the Great War. The tone is negative from start to finsih. The troubles will not end, the battles will continue forever. That is the message. I DO understand Irish history better after reading the book. That is why historical fiction is good - if the story doesn't grab you well then you can at least learn something.
Through page 528 of 751:I feel like I am the odd-ball. I can see why so many like this book. You come to understand the plight of the Irish situation. However this wasn't news to me when I started. For me the main character is just too GOOD. Nothing can deter him. When he falters, his friends are there to quickly nudge him back. I do not believe in PATRIOTISM. I know Irish feel a great love for their country. Russians too, but me I see good and bad things in all countries. I could never say I must live in just THAT one country. There are countries I might NOT choose to live in, at least not for more than a short time, but there are lots of countries where I would be happy. This all encompassing adoration for the country of your birth is hard for me to understand. On a lighter note - I really need the character Caroline in this book. She gives a breath of fresh air. She laughs, thinks and is practical. You do get to really know several characters in this book, the same characters return time and time again. I don't think anybody should avoid this book if you want a long, gripping story of the Irish experience. IF you think what is bothering me would also bother you, then maybe think twice.
Through page 458: Actually my previous comment is wrong. I do care about these people. The whole situation is so horrible. Even the strongest of the Irish themselves say that part of the probelem is the Irish themselves. They have been misstreated so long and so terribly that they have no will any more. It is hard to watch. It is so depressing when the strongest of them "fills up his friend's glass with ale", when they give up, when they accept defeat, when all that is enjoyable is another drink, when the two buddies accept to never see each other again. I have a hard time accepting such defeat. I know enough history to know that others too have gone through equally hard times and they have not succumbed to liquor. They have not accepted defeat. Maybe it is necessary to die fighting, but at least you go on fighting. This is so depressing. OK, maybe I am suppose to feel the horror so I can accept how some of the Irish have resorted to terrorism and violence. And the humor in thiz book is only sarcastic; there is no joy visible ever in these poor people's lives.
Throgugh page 410: What is happening is simply horrible. I ought to care more. I don't know whose fault that is - the author's or mine! But we all know what has happened to the Irish people is horrendous.
Through page 375: If you like a good, long epic story about a family I recommend this book. I have no trouble understanding why lots of people like it. Escape into that family and time and place. But I find it rather predictable. No, I don't know EVERYTHING that is going to happen, but when something happens I just think: OK, fine,that happened. I don't really care terribly much. I do not want to discourage people who like this kind of STORY. It is simply a GOOD story. Somehow that isn't enough for me.
"In the ensuing half hour Brigid made full disclosures (to Father Cluny), which included rolling in the grass and hay with him(her boy friend), pressing her body to his deliberately and enjoying it to the point of allowing further liberties on her breasts and three times between her legs, however with clothing in between.
Since the death of Father Lynch, Father Cluny had been receiving a great number of retroactive confessions. Some were more serious than this, some were better. He was thinking in terms of declaring a general amnesty rather than have half the parish serve penance. Their crops might rot what with all that praying."
Through page 250: I AM learning Irish history. I DO like some of the characters. Here is another book where the antics of the church make me happy I am NOT religious. BUT, when you start looking at how many pages you have read and how many are left AND when I keep going back to GR to check out other books rather than reading this - well then there is something wrong. It is a good story, but I am simply not emotionally engaged.
Through page 124: I wouldn't say the characters are terribly nuanced. Some, partucularly Caroline Weed, are amusing. She is so outspoken. The relationship between her and her father is as direct as it could be. Would a daughter act as she acts in the 1880s? I think it is possible, although not usual. It IS amusing. On a completely different issue, that of how the British viewed the Irish, I cannot help but make a comparison to how, today, the Jews in Israel look upon the Palestinians. Both the British and the Israelites see the indigenous people as being lazy, good-for-nothing scoundrels. They feel they have brought prgress and knowledge to the uncultivated, uneducated and lazy people from whom they took their land. Of course I am generalizing here; not every one behaves so badly. I personally have heard this view from a woman I know currently living in Israel, so the comparison just smacked me in the face.
Through page 60: I had mixed feelings when I started this book. First of all I HAD to read it and that is not a good way to start a book. I am getting into the book, and I am enjoying it. It follows two struggling Catholic families living in the small village Ballyutogue situated on Lough Foyle in Ulster. You learn about the family ancestors and their role in Northern Ireland's history starting at the beginning of the 19th century. The reader clearly understands the antagonism between the Scotts who were Presbyterian, the Irish Catholics and the ruling English(Anglicans). The Scotts were kicked out of England and came to get a better life in Ireland, but there they never had the high status of the English. The English encouraged the Catholics and Scotts to see each other as enemies. The winner was of course the English. Then the potatoe famine of the 1840s brought terrible suffering to the peasants, both the Catholics and the Presbyterians. Uris does a vey good job of allowing the reader to understand the horror of the potatoe famine. It is September and all the stored potatoes turn black. This is the peasants ONLY source of food through the coming winter and how could next year's crop be owed if all was destroyed. These people had nothing to begin with and then also no food. How do you feed your children. Can you imagine the horror? Then of course those who should help don't. This is a scenario we see that continues today. The history is clear. Some may say it is black and white, but this is a general description of what happened. Obviously some Englsih did try and help, but they were in any case few and far between, and not enough to turn the tide of disaster. On another issue, you learn alot about Irish customs, superstitions and village life. The wake at a funeral was fun to read about - the importance of spirits and fairies, the partying and lamenting are all rolled together. Another plus are the wonderful maps all throughout the book.
Xmas present from my Mom who is Scotch - Irish. She says that is where we got our tempers from.
Done. Not one of my favorite books. I think lots of other people might like it. The history clearly chronicled in ythe last 100 pages was a plus. For me the characters had no depth. What you get is a story of Ireland's history through the 1800s and up to the beginning of the Great War. The tone is negative from start to finsih. The troubles will not end, the battles will continue forever. That is the message. I DO understand Irish history better after reading the book. That is why historical fiction is good - if the story doesn't grab you well then you can at least learn something.
Through page 528 of 751:I feel like I am the odd-ball. I can see why so many like this book. You come to understand the plight of the Irish situation. However this wasn't news to me when I started. For me the main character is just too GOOD. Nothing can deter him. When he falters, his friends are there to quickly nudge him back. I do not believe in PATRIOTISM. I know Irish feel a great love for their country. Russians too, but me I see good and bad things in all countries. I could never say I must live in just THAT one country. There are countries I might NOT choose to live in, at least not for more than a short time, but there are lots of countries where I would be happy. This all encompassing adoration for the country of your birth is hard for me to understand. On a lighter note - I really need the character Caroline in this book. She gives a breath of fresh air. She laughs, thinks and is practical. You do get to really know several characters in this book, the same characters return time and time again. I don't think anybody should avoid this book if you want a long, gripping story of the Irish experience. IF you think what is bothering me would also bother you, then maybe think twice.
Through page 458: Actually my previous comment is wrong. I do care about these people. The whole situation is so horrible. Even the strongest of the Irish themselves say that part of the probelem is the Irish themselves. They have been misstreated so long and so terribly that they have no will any more. It is hard to watch. It is so depressing when the strongest of them "fills up his friend's glass with ale", when they give up, when they accept defeat, when all that is enjoyable is another drink, when the two buddies accept to never see each other again. I have a hard time accepting such defeat. I know enough history to know that others too have gone through equally hard times and they have not succumbed to liquor. They have not accepted defeat. Maybe it is necessary to die fighting, but at least you go on fighting. This is so depressing. OK, maybe I am suppose to feel the horror so I can accept how some of the Irish have resorted to terrorism and violence. And the humor in thiz book is only sarcastic; there is no joy visible ever in these poor people's lives.
Throgugh page 410: What is happening is simply horrible. I ought to care more. I don't know whose fault that is - the author's or mine! But we all know what has happened to the Irish people is horrendous.
Through page 375: If you like a good, long epic story about a family I recommend this book. I have no trouble understanding why lots of people like it. Escape into that family and time and place. But I find it rather predictable. No, I don't know EVERYTHING that is going to happen, but when something happens I just think: OK, fine,that happened. I don't really care terribly much. I do not want to discourage people who like this kind of STORY. It is simply a GOOD story. Somehow that isn't enough for me.
"In the ensuing half hour Brigid made full disclosures (to Father Cluny), which included rolling in the grass and hay with him(her boy friend), pressing her body to his deliberately and enjoying it to the point of allowing further liberties on her breasts and three times between her legs, however with clothing in between.
Since the death of Father Lynch, Father Cluny had been receiving a great number of retroactive confessions. Some were more serious than this, some were better. He was thinking in terms of declaring a general amnesty rather than have half the parish serve penance. Their crops might rot what with all that praying."
Through page 250: I AM learning Irish history. I DO like some of the characters. Here is another book where the antics of the church make me happy I am NOT religious. BUT, when you start looking at how many pages you have read and how many are left AND when I keep going back to GR to check out other books rather than reading this - well then there is something wrong. It is a good story, but I am simply not emotionally engaged.
Through page 124: I wouldn't say the characters are terribly nuanced. Some, partucularly Caroline Weed, are amusing. She is so outspoken. The relationship between her and her father is as direct as it could be. Would a daughter act as she acts in the 1880s? I think it is possible, although not usual. It IS amusing. On a completely different issue, that of how the British viewed the Irish, I cannot help but make a comparison to how, today, the Jews in Israel look upon the Palestinians. Both the British and the Israelites see the indigenous people as being lazy, good-for-nothing scoundrels. They feel they have brought prgress and knowledge to the uncultivated, uneducated and lazy people from whom they took their land. Of course I am generalizing here; not every one behaves so badly. I personally have heard this view from a woman I know currently living in Israel, so the comparison just smacked me in the face.
Through page 60: I had mixed feelings when I started this book. First of all I HAD to read it and that is not a good way to start a book. I am getting into the book, and I am enjoying it. It follows two struggling Catholic families living in the small village Ballyutogue situated on Lough Foyle in Ulster. You learn about the family ancestors and their role in Northern Ireland's history starting at the beginning of the 19th century. The reader clearly understands the antagonism between the Scotts who were Presbyterian, the Irish Catholics and the ruling English(Anglicans). The Scotts were kicked out of England and came to get a better life in Ireland, but there they never had the high status of the English. The English encouraged the Catholics and Scotts to see each other as enemies. The winner was of course the English. Then the potatoe famine of the 1840s brought terrible suffering to the peasants, both the Catholics and the Presbyterians. Uris does a vey good job of allowing the reader to understand the horror of the potatoe famine. It is September and all the stored potatoes turn black. This is the peasants ONLY source of food through the coming winter and how could next year's crop be owed if all was destroyed. These people had nothing to begin with and then also no food. How do you feed your children. Can you imagine the horror? Then of course those who should help don't. This is a scenario we see that continues today. The history is clear. Some may say it is black and white, but this is a general description of what happened. Obviously some Englsih did try and help, but they were in any case few and far between, and not enough to turn the tide of disaster. On another issue, you learn alot about Irish customs, superstitions and village life. The wake at a funeral was fun to read about - the importance of spirits and fairies, the partying and lamenting are all rolled together. Another plus are the wonderful maps all throughout the book.
Xmas present from my Mom who is Scotch - Irish. She says that is where we got our tempers from.
December 29, 2009
Uris is a Jewish author who gets the Irish perfectly. This book is essential reading to understand the Irish culture- Uris creates characters that travel through the famine, works with the Fenians, and into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who become the IRA of the Easter Rising, Michael Collins, etc. I was handed the book and ordered to read it at 13 by my father. I will refrain from typing about this book ad nauseum, and say only these two things: 1) there is a literary device used in this book I have never seen anywhere else, and 2) approximately 75% of every boy named Conor was so named because their mothers (and sometimes fathers) read this book. And, if my own mother had known one more salient family detail, I would have the same sobriquet.
March 20, 2021
I’m a bit embarrassed that it’s taken me so long to read this incredible story, a modern classic by one of the 20th century’s most notable authors. I read Exodus over 30 years ago and it’s still one of my favourite books of all time. And it’s hard to believe that any of Leon Uris’ other works could meet the extraordinary heights of near perfection where Exodus belongs. But that’s not true. Trinity is a very different story but equally compelling, engrossing and just as masterfully written. I’m saddened that Leon Uris is no longer alive to gift us with more of his storytelling genius. And I’m also sad that the vast amount of historical research so expertly woven into the story of Trinity doesn’t seem to be the norm in many historical fiction books published in the 21st century.
I suspect that the impact of reading Trinity will have me recalling snippets of the story in the decades to come in the same way Exodus has never left my memory.
I suspect that the impact of reading Trinity will have me recalling snippets of the story in the decades to come in the same way Exodus has never left my memory.
February 10, 2017
Written during a time of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster forces, Leon Uris sought to portray and define the history behind the strife. The complexity of the hatred between the two groups, the Protestant Ulster Orangemen, the Roman Catholic Irish (green) and the British crown (White) can be rivaled by the violence in the Balkans in the 1990's after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The tension between the groups dates back to 1690 and the Battle of the Boyne where the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange (of William and Mary fame) defeated the Catholic English King James II. James was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. During his reign he attempted to give equality to Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters and foster religious tolerance, but this was adamantly opposed by the Anglican Protestants. After the Battle of the Boyne, James fled to France and died in exile in 1701.
Catholics in Ireland were under the domination of the Protestant minority in Northern Ireland and of course, Britain. Over the centuries attempts were made to free the Irish and were always crushed. This books begins in 1885 and ends in 1916, and introduces fictional characters along with a few historical ones.
We meet the Larkins and O'Neill's in a small town in Northern Ireland Ballyutogue. The central protagonist is Colin Larkin who grows from the favored child in his family to one of the leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Burly, strong, loyal, angry and relentlessly seeking the freedom of his people from under the foot of the Protestant Orangemen of Ulster. We see him from the third person narrator as well as occasionally in the first person account of his best friend Seamus O'Neill. We watch as Colin walks a tortured path.
Uris also introduces main characters who serve as antagonists in the industrial Ulster. Frederick Weed and his son-in-law Roger Hubble. These two live entitled lives and join forces to build a massive economic powerhouse in Ulster. Decisions they make are not based on the welfare of the Protestants Orangemen, or heaven-forbid, the Irish Roman Catholics. Their decisions are based on "just business", such as covering up a fatal conflagration at the Witherspoon & McNab Shirt Factory where over 70 primarily women and children lost their lives. Uris definitely did not favor these characters.
Three women are prominent in the book: Lady Caroline Hubble, Shelly MacLeod, and Atty Fitzpatrick. All of them are closely connected to our hero Colin Larkin.
There is so much carefully researched history, Irish vernacular, culture both Irish and Scotch-Irish Ulster, superstitions, and customs in the book. I enjoyed it so much. At times, I could hear the lilt of an Irish brogue in his writing. Reading this makes me hungry to continue reading about Irish rebellions, including the Easter Rebellion of 1916, and Michael Collins.
I recommend the book, and want to reread some of the other Leon Uris books I have read in the past, such as The Source, Exodus, and Mila 18.
The tension between the groups dates back to 1690 and the Battle of the Boyne where the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange (of William and Mary fame) defeated the Catholic English King James II. James was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. During his reign he attempted to give equality to Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters and foster religious tolerance, but this was adamantly opposed by the Anglican Protestants. After the Battle of the Boyne, James fled to France and died in exile in 1701.
Catholics in Ireland were under the domination of the Protestant minority in Northern Ireland and of course, Britain. Over the centuries attempts were made to free the Irish and were always crushed. This books begins in 1885 and ends in 1916, and introduces fictional characters along with a few historical ones.
We meet the Larkins and O'Neill's in a small town in Northern Ireland Ballyutogue. The central protagonist is Colin Larkin who grows from the favored child in his family to one of the leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Burly, strong, loyal, angry and relentlessly seeking the freedom of his people from under the foot of the Protestant Orangemen of Ulster. We see him from the third person narrator as well as occasionally in the first person account of his best friend Seamus O'Neill. We watch as Colin walks a tortured path.
Uris also introduces main characters who serve as antagonists in the industrial Ulster. Frederick Weed and his son-in-law Roger Hubble. These two live entitled lives and join forces to build a massive economic powerhouse in Ulster. Decisions they make are not based on the welfare of the Protestants Orangemen, or heaven-forbid, the Irish Roman Catholics. Their decisions are based on "just business", such as covering up a fatal conflagration at the Witherspoon & McNab Shirt Factory where over 70 primarily women and children lost their lives. Uris definitely did not favor these characters.
Three women are prominent in the book: Lady Caroline Hubble, Shelly MacLeod, and Atty Fitzpatrick. All of them are closely connected to our hero Colin Larkin.
There is so much carefully researched history, Irish vernacular, culture both Irish and Scotch-Irish Ulster, superstitions, and customs in the book. I enjoyed it so much. At times, I could hear the lilt of an Irish brogue in his writing. Reading this makes me hungry to continue reading about Irish rebellions, including the Easter Rebellion of 1916, and Michael Collins.
I recommend the book, and want to reread some of the other Leon Uris books I have read in the past, such as The Source, Exodus, and Mila 18.
March 29, 2011
FANTASTIC NOVEL! This was a bestseller in the mid seventies - and I never read it! Finally decided to tackle the over 600 page Irish historically based fiction of Ireland under British rule and abuse....Made me feel sorry for my distant Irish relatives, and I was disturbed how horrible the English were to the Irish people, and how brave and nobel they were in spirt of starvation and abuse and lack of freedom....There were some real heros that changed the course of history ---this is a fascinating read that is hard to put down. I finished it in a week due to the compelling story, and wonderful characters. Actually made me thankful for unions and government regulations that were slowly and begrudgingly put into place due to the abuses in factories and overall labor conditions in Irish towns...
July 1, 2009
Has there ever been a better book about the soul of Ireland?
July 16, 2017
Back in the 60's I was a big fan of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. A lot of their songs were political and a favorite was "The Patriot Game" by Brendan Behan. I loved the intensity of the song but was pretty clueless about the politics and history behind it. Now I know more. In a WW2 film from the same time(either "The Eagle Has Landed" or "Eye of the Needle")Donald Sutherland played an Irishman helping the Germans. When he was asked about "betraying" his supposed cultural/geographical roots he replied with a chilling smile "Ohh... I hate the British(English)". At the time I thought that was pretty nasty but now I think differently and this book is the reason. Does the author play it straight with his history? I assume so. It's quite plain where his sympathy lies - with the Catholic "croppies" and Irish Republicans.. This book takes place mostly in Ulster and as one of the blurbs behind the cover puts it, you'll gain an understanding of what all the bloody and brutal troubles of N. Ireland are all about. The villains: The British Government (Parliament), the Anglican aristocracy in Ulster, The Protestant industrialists of Derry and Belfast, the Catholic Church(though many radical priests did aid the Republican cause, the church impeded and condemned it all the while taking money from the British), rabble rousing/hate spewing Protestant ministers (think Ian Paisley) and finally, the foot soldiers of the Unionist movement; vicious, hate-filled, violent, mindless Protestant mobs of Orange thugs. What was/is the Ulster system all about? According to LU it was all about money. I was struck by the parallels between the political situation then and there and our situation now. A radicalized bunch of crazy white Protestants manipulated by their cultural fears by demagogues are terrorizing our government, people and country with a power far in excess of their numbers in the population. The Ulster Unionists were able to back down the British government and bring about partition of Ireland and a perpetuation of a system whose evils underlay the trouble of the 70's. I wonder what it's like there today? Good book by a capable storyteller but not great literature.
June 9, 2025
One of the extremely small number of books that I have read multiple times. This was my third reading over a 50-year period, and I learned more this time than on any previous reading.
September 23, 2020
Trinity annemin kitaplığından yakın zamanda tırtıkladığım 3 kitaptan biriydi ve 1977 yılı ilk baskısıydı. Normalde bu tarz eski baskıları sevmiyorum (birincisi tozlar alerjimi azdırıyor, ikincisi neden bilmiyorum o kadar yazım yanlışı oluyor ki bazen okumayı çok güçleştiriyor) ama biraz da puanı nedeniyle bir şans vermek istedim.
Leon Uris'in dili mükemmel, ona kimsenin birşey diyebileceğini sanmıyorum. Ancak açıkçası hikayenin işleniş biçimi olarak beni çok içine almadı. Trinity'de daha sonra basılan iki kitabın etkilerini gördüm. Yabancı ve Devlerin Düşüşü. Yine de başarılı bir tarihsel kurguydu ki günümüzde bu türe pek fazla rastlayamıyoruz.
43 yıl sonra kimsenin Trinity'yi bulabileceğini, bulsa bile okuyacağını sanmıyorum ama bu da böyle dursun.
Herkese keyifli okumalar!
Leon Uris'in dili mükemmel, ona kimsenin birşey diyebileceğini sanmıyorum. Ancak açıkçası hikayenin işleniş biçimi olarak beni çok içine almadı. Trinity'de daha sonra basılan iki kitabın etkilerini gördüm. Yabancı ve Devlerin Düşüşü. Yine de başarılı bir tarihsel kurguydu ki günümüzde bu türe pek fazla rastlayamıyoruz.
43 yıl sonra kimsenin Trinity'yi bulabileceğini, bulsa bile okuyacağını sanmıyorum ama bu da böyle dursun.
Herkese keyifli okumalar!
December 28, 2007
In Trinity, Leon Uris takes history apart and allows readers to look beyond events as taught. So that we might truly understand what history feels like.
Important, when we study or talk of our past history... Before my Nan passed away, I would walk into the kitchen & she would lie back in her chair, mumbling poetry to herself of the black and tans, of the famine... She mumbles because it's a tale, not a story. It was my history, her history, a peoples history. That I stop to listen to her tale is not important, its told with indifference to audience. It's the contradiction between a wish to say a story & the need to tell a tale.
.
My Gran remembered those times & equally with more passion than her own lips could mumble, would have watched her family mumble such tales, for their own need to speak what their eyes & hearts have seen and felt... It was etched in her heart, in the person she became & in the life she led... That whats so special about Trinity
Leon Uris bases this story in the north of Ireland. By doing so he offered readers explanations of the dynamics of what is termed the struggles. On one hand he explains the reality of the Protestant/Presbetarian relationship with Catholics. How it was not ignorance that fueled hatred, but social distance & marginalisation maintained through years of false religious doctrine. They were not just second class citizens in the eyes of protestants, they were a plague, an infestation that were hated by protestants, but equally in their eyes, by God himself as not worthy. An attitude which, by its very nature, scorned at the prospect of interaction and integration. Protestants actively distanced themselves from Catholics, they were being squeezed and strangled as a people..
Now to me the last few parts of this review were about the intelligence of the book itself, Leon Uris's use of fictional characters reflective of the attitudes of the time to explain the dynamics of such history... In my opinion perfectly, intelligently accomplished. If that was the the book alone it would be brilliance, however he does something else in this book, which to me is simply magical...
There were times; I literally had to stop reading passages, as the emotion struck home... In particular "Ballyutogue" Part I... He encompasses all the spirit of a family of that time with poetic, magical genius, starting with the arrival of a "Shanachie", following a family death and wake... the shanachie tells tales of wonder, fairytales to Connor and Seamus, the struggles of their family, he goes on to explain the Potato Famine, its heartbreaking reality as seen through the eyes of a man (Connor's Granfar), who in spite of all the struggles faced stood proud, a famine that broke his soul... Leon Uris painstakingly builds that story, as if we, as readers were seamus & connor, like children, wrapped up in the magic of a bedtime story, but certainly not a sweet tale, designed to send children to sleep.
There's a tradition in Catholicism of crossing yourself as you pass a graveyard.. whilst we get on with our daily lives, we pass a place where souls rest, with lives once lived as we do our own, of a different time, but equally colorful & magical... I think to read Trinity, is to cross yourself, to say "I want to know the people we talk of as "history". To know the personalities, the families, the struggles, the spirit. To do so puts names to faces, it explains to me, why something so long ago, is really still here today, as fresh as the day it happened in my Gran's mumblings.
Souls being timeless; Leon Uris keeps the past as our present real & alive, with the magic of a shanachie.
You'll need to read all 887 pages over and over again if you think this is about history, you lose the point of the book and the intentions of its author.
And so the book opens with the quotation...
"There is no present or future-only the past happening over and over again-now."
Important, when we study or talk of our past history... Before my Nan passed away, I would walk into the kitchen & she would lie back in her chair, mumbling poetry to herself of the black and tans, of the famine... She mumbles because it's a tale, not a story. It was my history, her history, a peoples history. That I stop to listen to her tale is not important, its told with indifference to audience. It's the contradiction between a wish to say a story & the need to tell a tale.
.
My Gran remembered those times & equally with more passion than her own lips could mumble, would have watched her family mumble such tales, for their own need to speak what their eyes & hearts have seen and felt... It was etched in her heart, in the person she became & in the life she led... That whats so special about Trinity
Leon Uris bases this story in the north of Ireland. By doing so he offered readers explanations of the dynamics of what is termed the struggles. On one hand he explains the reality of the Protestant/Presbetarian relationship with Catholics. How it was not ignorance that fueled hatred, but social distance & marginalisation maintained through years of false religious doctrine. They were not just second class citizens in the eyes of protestants, they were a plague, an infestation that were hated by protestants, but equally in their eyes, by God himself as not worthy. An attitude which, by its very nature, scorned at the prospect of interaction and integration. Protestants actively distanced themselves from Catholics, they were being squeezed and strangled as a people..
Now to me the last few parts of this review were about the intelligence of the book itself, Leon Uris's use of fictional characters reflective of the attitudes of the time to explain the dynamics of such history... In my opinion perfectly, intelligently accomplished. If that was the the book alone it would be brilliance, however he does something else in this book, which to me is simply magical...
There were times; I literally had to stop reading passages, as the emotion struck home... In particular "Ballyutogue" Part I... He encompasses all the spirit of a family of that time with poetic, magical genius, starting with the arrival of a "Shanachie", following a family death and wake... the shanachie tells tales of wonder, fairytales to Connor and Seamus, the struggles of their family, he goes on to explain the Potato Famine, its heartbreaking reality as seen through the eyes of a man (Connor's Granfar), who in spite of all the struggles faced stood proud, a famine that broke his soul... Leon Uris painstakingly builds that story, as if we, as readers were seamus & connor, like children, wrapped up in the magic of a bedtime story, but certainly not a sweet tale, designed to send children to sleep.
There's a tradition in Catholicism of crossing yourself as you pass a graveyard.. whilst we get on with our daily lives, we pass a place where souls rest, with lives once lived as we do our own, of a different time, but equally colorful & magical... I think to read Trinity, is to cross yourself, to say "I want to know the people we talk of as "history". To know the personalities, the families, the struggles, the spirit. To do so puts names to faces, it explains to me, why something so long ago, is really still here today, as fresh as the day it happened in my Gran's mumblings.
Souls being timeless; Leon Uris keeps the past as our present real & alive, with the magic of a shanachie.
You'll need to read all 887 pages over and over again if you think this is about history, you lose the point of the book and the intentions of its author.
And so the book opens with the quotation...
"There is no present or future-only the past happening over and over again-now."
Read
September 16, 2012"We are all absurd actors on the stage of the diabolical." Spoken by the character who provides the backbone of the novel, Conor Larkin. This isn't just a book of historical fiction, it really is quite good literature as well. Parallel's for analyzing abound, and feel a second reading would do it justice but at nearly 900 pages I don't know..I would even say it belong's in required reading in any Irish Lit class. The story catapult's the reader into the lives of the Irish from mid-1850's to the Eve of the Easter Rising. It's a good primer of Irish history but only offers the briefest sketch of earlier history enough only to set the stage for the birth of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The characters are brilliantly multi-faceted and shimmer from the pages. A reader will come away from the book looking at the Irish surnames walking around in abundance in a whole new light. Honestly, you will look at the face of the one who carries the name and know, something maybe even they don't know themselves...looking at the passenger list of two of my own family leaving Ireland to Canada gives me a whole new perspective of the hopelessness, dispair, and longing of an entire country of people. However, the more I learn the more I see how the Irish diaspora colored the world beautiful.
The characters are brilliantly multi-faceted and shimmer from the pages. A reader will come away from the book looking at the Irish surnames walking around in abundance in a whole new light. Honestly, you will look at the face of the one who carries the name and know, something maybe even they don't know themselves...looking at the passenger list of two of my own family leaving Ireland to Canada gives me a whole new perspective of the hopelessness, dispair, and longing of an entire country of people. However, the more I learn the more I see how the Irish diaspora colored the world beautiful.
March 9, 2015
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2009
When I read this, I think I read it on two levels. First, I went through a period where I couldn't put Leon Uris down. And I think this was still in that period because I was in college then. And I certainly remember sitting at the kitchen table reading one or another of his books late into the night.
And, at this point, I hadn't read too many books about Ireland. It was a good story. But it shouldn't be taken as history. As I learned when I read a historical acocunt of the Irish Rebellion. The forward in that book stated they didn't want people to think of the Uris book as the story of what really happened and the book I was reading (I can't remember the title or the author and I don't know if I still have it or not) was remedying that situation. At least for the people who read it.
And, at this point, I hadn't read too many books about Ireland. It was a good story. But it shouldn't be taken as history. As I learned when I read a historical acocunt of the Irish Rebellion. The forward in that book stated they didn't want people to think of the Uris book as the story of what really happened and the book I was reading (I can't remember the title or the author and I don't know if I still have it or not) was remedying that situation. At least for the people who read it.
July 2, 2009
I loved the Leon Uris of Battle Cry, Exodus, and QBVII. Not so much the Leon Uris of The Haj and Mitla Pass. Of all he wrote my favorite is Trinity. Thirty years of Irish history, the intersecting lives of three families, and Conor Larkin. Trinity is a long book that flies by. Action, love, suspense and characters you'll care about long after you finish the book. The summer that Conor and Seamus spent at the Booley House is one of the most idyllic sections of any book I know; especially as it stands in stark contrast to so much heartache that takes place elsewhere. I often imagine my own summers at the Booley House. A person could find herself or himself there...
June 17, 2007
Leon Uris is a fantastic storyteller. This book follows the events of an Irishman named Conor Larkin who, by nature, was larger than life. Larkin needed the 19th century as much as the 19th century needed him. The end is a crashing, tragic, dazzling explosion of nonstop events. It makes me wish I was Larkin. (The sequels are embarrassing, I would start and stop your Uris experience with this book.)
September 26, 2021
November 8, 2013
Finished re-read of TRINITY. Everything I want to say about the book is diametrically opposed to everything I want to say about the book. That is my best description of Ireland in that day. This book covers the civil unrest in the span of time from the latter 19th century until the second decade of the 20th century. More unrest, such as The Troubles, is yet to be played out in Ireland's history. The year 1917 is a settling down date for much of the strife in Europe and Asia, although the world war would not end until 1918. The author led us to that date in TRINITY. Conor Larkin is an imaginary character that somehow represents the 'everyman' real heroes that we love, hate or have no feeling for at all.
The story could have ended when the central characters were no longer destitute, or
when a love interest came to fruition, or after the Sixmilecross plan went awry. It could have ended any number of places if the author had in mind to only write a best seller. That the story was told in whole is indicative of Mr. Uris' dedication to writing history in full.
Thematically, the story was rich. Oppression, discrimination, civil rights and the tenacity of the human spirit are but a few of the themes I found in the book. The book spoke about whiners and losers and people of true grit. The author made me think about different ethnic groups and how their stories stack up against the history of the Irish who longed for, fought for and died for freedoms fundamental to the very core of who they were. I wonder where I would fall or stand in the context of TRINITY.
Mr. Uris has a sense of humor in his writing. Look for the loft in an early chapter.
Thank you, Mr. Uris, for a good read.
Finished re-read of TRINITY. Everything I want to say about the book is diametrically opposed to everything I want to say about the book. That is my best description of Ireland in that day. This book covers the civil unrest in the span of time from the latter 19th century until the second decade of the 20th century. More unrest, such as The Troubles, is yet to be played out in Ireland's history. The year 1917 is a settling down date for much of the strife in Europe and Asia, although the world war would not end until 1918. The author led us to that date in TRINITY. Conor Larkin is an imaginary character that somehow represents the 'everyman' real heroes that we love, hate or have no feeling for at all.
The story could have ended when the central characters were no longer destitute, or
when a love interest came to fruition, or after the Sixmilecross plan went awry. It could have ended any number of places if the author had in mind to only write a best seller. That the story was told in whole is indicative of Mr. Uris' dedication to writing history in full.
Thematically, the story was rich. Oppression, discrimination, civil rights and the tenacity of the human spirit are but a few of the themes I found in the book. The book spoke about whiners and losers and people of true grit. The author made me think about different ethnic groups and how their stories stack up against the history of the Irish who longed for, fought for and died for freedoms fundamental to the very core of who they were. I wonder where I would fall or stand in the context of TRINITY.
Mr. Uris has a sense of humor in his writing. Look for the loft in an early chapter.
Thank you, Mr. Uris, for a good read.
May 9, 2014
After struggling through the first two hundred or so pages of this, raw historical subject matter eventually proved to be enough to keep me going. I'm unsure as to whether this is just because I was relatively sketchy on the finer points of this period in Irish history; I suspect a more informed reader would struggle to push through ...
Despite its occasional flashes of compelling narrative and relatively well-crafted historical intrigue, Uris uses the laziest historical fiction cliches you could imagine to portray his characters and their relationships - you can spot every unlikely romance, tragic death, revolutionary hero and eventual villain coming a mile off. The two protagonists who grace a large chunk of those 900 pages are starkly and painfully two-dimensional, your classic formulaic young, intelligent, patriotic-to-a-fault, tortured, hot-blooded youths - 1 x brains, 1 x brawn, both best friends.
And don't even get me started on the female characters. Every single woman in this story has been caricatured to a pulp. They're all just filler, never properly integrated into the story and existing merely to accessorise their male counterparts. Ticking the boxes of every category you could hope for, including Sexually-Liberated Bohemian turned Lady of the Manor to Innocent Country Girl turned Bitter Spinster, Uris covers all bases!
Despite its occasional flashes of compelling narrative and relatively well-crafted historical intrigue, Uris uses the laziest historical fiction cliches you could imagine to portray his characters and their relationships - you can spot every unlikely romance, tragic death, revolutionary hero and eventual villain coming a mile off. The two protagonists who grace a large chunk of those 900 pages are starkly and painfully two-dimensional, your classic formulaic young, intelligent, patriotic-to-a-fault, tortured, hot-blooded youths - 1 x brains, 1 x brawn, both best friends.
And don't even get me started on the female characters. Every single woman in this story has been caricatured to a pulp. They're all just filler, never properly integrated into the story and existing merely to accessorise their male counterparts. Ticking the boxes of every category you could hope for, including Sexually-Liberated Bohemian turned Lady of the Manor to Innocent Country Girl turned Bitter Spinster, Uris covers all bases!
June 7, 2012
Recently attempted a re-read of this, years after my first read. I had a vague recollection that it was a pulpy take on Ireland from the Famine through the Easter Rising and independence. My re-read confirmed that memory. What I hadn't remembered was Uris' simplistic, black-and-white, pulpy view of the world. In this retelling, there are no shades of gray, there are no ambiguities, only a highly burnished world of clear heroes and villains.
Overall I found it to be a starry-eyed vision of the conflict, predictable, and lacking in narrative tension or impact.
Overall I found it to be a starry-eyed vision of the conflict, predictable, and lacking in narrative tension or impact.
December 20, 2008
A masterpiece on Irish story, telling the saga of Conor Larkin, showing his principle of non-recognition of British institutions on Irish soil and disobedience to British authority became a universally accepted cornerstone for breaking the yoke of the colonizer.
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