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    The Misremembered Man
    The Misremembered Man
    The Misremembered Man
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Misremembered Man

    Written by Christina McKenna

    Narrated by Gary Furlong

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Misremembered Man is a beautifully rendered portrait of life in rural Ireland which charms and delights with its authentic characters and gentle humor. This vivid portrayal of the universal search for love brings with it a darker tale, heartbreaking in its poignancy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 24, 2018
    ISBN9781978600546
    The Misremembered Man
    Author

    Christina McKenna

    Christina McKenna grew up near the village of Draperstown, Northern Ireland. She attended the Belfast College of Art, where she obtained an honours degree in Fine Art. Having studied English as a postgraduate at the University of Ulster, she taught abroad for several years. She has lived, worked and painted pictures in Spain, Turkey, Italy, Ecuador and Mexico. In 2004 she published a memoir, followed by two non-fiction titles on the paranormal: The Dark Sacrament (2006) and Ireland’s Haunted Women (2010). In 2011 she embarked on the Tailorstown Trilogy, a series of novels set in and around a fictional Ulster village. The books—The Misremembered Man, The Disenchanted Widow and The Godforsaken Daughter—were highly successful and have been translated into several languages.

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    Reviews for The Misremembered Man

    3.5/5

    129 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Charming and bittersweet story, transports you to rural Ireland and its dark history, with a bit of hope thrown in.
    • 4/5
      “The Misremembered Man” is alternately heartbreaking and sweetly funny. It’s a poignant study of the effects of childhood experiences – especially the terrible brutality of abuse – that linger into adulthood (“Perhaps, she mused, we never really stop being the children we once were”) and how we all have a deep-seated need for love and affection. Do read it.
    • 5/5
      Jamie McCloone is a farmer, living on the farm in northern Ireland his adopted parents left to him. In his early forties, he longs for companionship and a family so he answers a 'Lonely Hearts' advertisement from schoolteacher Lydia Devine. She's a spinster, living and taking care of her invalid mother.The story alternates from Jamie's time in the orphanage as a small boy where he was abused and starved to adult Jamie and Lydia's lives. The orphanage sections are very dark; the boys suffered terribly much as the girls did in the Magdalene laundries. This cruelty is offset wonderfully by the poignant and funny sections with Jamie and Lydia as adults. There were a few scenes that made me laugh out loud.The author manages to balance the story well. Her writing is lyrical and her dialogue is masterful. Schoolteacher Lydia mentally corrects and awards points for correct grammar. Jamie and his friends are rougher, and they speak in an Irish dialect that works perfectly.I understand this is a debut novel. It's just lovely, and I can't wait to read more from this author.
    • 5/5
      I laughed, smiled, cried...followed the journey by rickety car, bicycle and yellow pointy shoes. A story of love finding you in a very untraditional way...but take note it is not a romance.
    • 1/5
      I hated this book...and I tried to like it..kept thinking surely it will get better, half way in, I gave up...boring...to the max...!
    • 4/5
      Tailorstown farmer, Jamie McCloone and virginal spinster, Lydia Devine of Killoran are a pair of Irish lonelyhearts who are ripe for love even though neither of them has an inkling of how to go about getting it. Gentle encouragement by their friends pushes them out of their ruts and into the risky world where change could mean the destruction of Jamie’s fragile soul or the humiliation of Lydia’s mother-beaten one.Comedy and tragedy take their turns on the stage, with a twist thrown in at the end that turns on Lydia learning a secret about her past that is really no surprise to the reader.McKenna writes with ease and tenderness, bringing her idiosyncratic characters to life in a charming way. This is a book one good friend could read aloud to another sick in bed with a head cold. Nothing difficult or symbolic here; it's simply heartwarming, but kept from being saccharine by delivering a punch to the Catholic orphan-slave “factories” run by the nuns and priests until the mid 1990s. Neither light nor heavy, and flavored with "Broguish" gab. In short, a very Irish tale.
    • 3/5
      Despite the excessive dialogue, I managed to continue reading. The novel does have a couple humorous moments, but they are much too far along. I was able to guess the conclusion prior to the end. It was a decent story, but prepare to wade through a lot of heartbreak and excessive verbiage to get there.
    • 4/5
      This is a really enjoyable book. The plot is pretty obvious from the beginning, but the characters are very real. You really develop and emotional connection with them, and just want to see them end up happy at the end.
    • 5/5
      Jamie McCloone was abandoned as a baby in 1934, to a convent in Ireland: a place where a priest abused him, and some hard hearted nuns looked the other way. Now 41 years old, living by himself in a run down 100 year old cottage in the Irish countryside, he is suffering from depression, dragging himself through each day with only the comfort of his dog Shep, and his neighbors Paddy and Rose McFadden. Rose worries about Jamie and suggests that he look for a wife by taking out an ad in the newspaper. In another part of town, Lydia Devine, a never married school teacher, is living at home taking care of her over-bearing widowed mother. Lydia doesn’t date, and when she gets invited to a wedding she realizes that she’ll need a date, so she takes out an ad in the same newspaper. The story evolves around these two lonely people taking a chance, hoping to find happiness. The author, Christina McKenna, has written a compelling story using their voices, and flashbacks to the abuse Jamie suffered during his childhood. Christina is an amazingly talented writer, who has crafted a piece of fiction that shines brilliantly in the midst of its underlying dark tale of abuse. Reading the first page convinced me of her writing ability, and in the last chapter my heart was racing and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. 5 stars; and a warning for anyone sensitive to child abuse; the scenes are graphic, but can be skipped over because you’ll know when they are about to happen.
    • 4/5
      A good book with good character descriptions. The orphanage scenes describe truly horrific conditoins and are based on true historical occurrences.
    • 5/5
      I can't believe only 25 other members have read this lovely book. Anger, sadness, laughter, all in a few hundred pages. Great characters and a wonderful ending. Just loved it.
    • 3/5
      Happy ending, of course, but wow, some of that middle part was sad and frightening and made me want to beat up a nun.
    • 4/5
      Sweet, beatifully written first time novel set in (very dated) County Derry circa 1974. Lonely farmer Jamie has been savagely abused in an orphanage as a child. Lost, orphaned; his life intersects with Lydia Devine - a spinster school teacher.A real slice of life or rural Ireland at a time when things were still naive and innocent.