BOOKIN' BINGO'S ST. PATRICK'S DAY REVIEW: SHANNON

SHANNON
by
Frank Delaney

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Robert Shannon is a young American priest who, in 1922, is sent to Ireland by his superiors in hopes that his discovery of his family roots will bring him peace. Shannon had been a chaplain with the Marines which was very unsettling to him. Also, add in that he returned to Boston where he became aware of corrupt activities going on in the Archdiocese of Boston. Because of this, his elders decided it would be best for him to make this trip to Ireland to bring him a sense of balance and peace.

Father Shannon travels along the Shannon River in hopes of finding out about his ancestors and get away from trouble and strife. However, this isn’t what he finds. He actually finds himself witnessing the start of Ireland’s civil war. He also meets some good people however, including a nurse he knew while he was a Marine chaplain. Shannon starts out on a sort of personal journey of peace but winds up in an action filled and suspenseful drama. This is because he is being stalked by a killer from back home. He is unaware of this at first so it leaves him wide open to the killer.

Author Frank Delaney does a good job of writing about Irish history, folklore, and scandals in the Catholic Church. The book has an even amount of spiritual feel as well as riveting drama if you can imagine the two together. I think for people who enjoy this kind of novel, they will enjoy SHANNON as it is very well written. For me, it moved a bit too slowly and I had to work at it a little too much for me to say I loved the book. I just think it wasn’t my style but others may find it quite exciting and informative.

Submitted Originally to Curled Up with a Good Book by Karen Haney

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Renowned for his gift of language, Frank Delaney's work has, so often, scrutinized the very nature of the spoken word (in broadcasts such as Word of Mouth, Say the Word, Omnibus and others.) As well as being a best-selling author himself, of more than 21 books, he has interviewed more than 3,000 writers for his BBC and international television and radio shows (Bookshelf, The Book Show, The Frank Delaney Show) including the great literary names of our time.

A judge of many literary prizes including the famous Booker Prize, Literary Director of the Edinburgh Festival, and host and guest at many other festivals, including, among others, Cheltenham, Dartmouth and Notre Dame, Delaney has also made documentaries for the BBC on characters as diverse as Joyce, Shaw, and Wilde. His One-Man-Show on James Joyce, ReJoyce, played to an extended run on London's West End, and his screenplay for Goodbye Mr. Chips was shown on ITV in the UK and Masterpiece Theater in the USA. Delaney's lecture subjects have included Joyce, Yeats, Beckett and Robert Frost and the influence of vernacular storytelling on literature.

In the current phase of his own work, Delaney is writing a series of novels exploring his native Ireland's history in the twentieth century, one decade at a time. Like all his books, they are multi-layered and aim to be read (say those who teach them) on a number of levels.

Frank Delaney was born in Tipperary, Ireland, and after a fledgling career in banking became a broadcaster with RTE radio and television, the Irish state network, working on documentaries, music programmes and finally as a newsreader. In the mid 1970's he joined the Northern Ireland region of the BBC in Belfast as their current affairs man in Dublin and covered an intense period of the virtual war known as the Irish 'Troubles.' Later, after half a decade of reporting bombings, shootings kidnappings, sieges, he moved to London where, perhaps as an antidote, he began to work in arts broadcasting. Bookshelf, which he inaugurated for BBC Radio Four, became an award winner; on television he wrote films for Omnibus and other arts programmes and in the early 1980's hosted his own talk show, Frank Delaney, featuring an array of cultural and literary personalities.

Among hundreds of other broadcast contributions, Delaney also created Word of Mouth, BBC Radio Four's highly rated show about language, and wrote and presented The Celts, a six part television series, seen in forty countries and still in active video and DVD distribution. Between his BBC radio and television shows, and later his BSBSky/Fox Network international Cable TV show, The Book Show, he has taped interviews with hundreds if not thousands of writers, including most of the significant authors of our time.

In 1979, his first book, James Joyce's Odyssey was published to critical acclaim and best-seller status. Since then, Delaney has written six books of non-fiction, twelve novels, one novella, two anthologies, and a smattering of short stories published in both magazines and collections. He has edited compilations of essays and poetry, written theatrical plays for the stage, radio plays for broadcast screenplays for films, a number of which have been produced.

Frank Delaney has three sons, Francis, Bryan, and Owen and a granddaughter, Poppy Beatrice. He lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Diane Meier.

FRANK'S NEWEST BOOK, VENETIA KELLY'S TRAVELING SHOW, IS CURRENTLY BEING GIVEN AWAY AT LUXURY READING AND IS OPEN UNTIL APRIL 1 SO HEAD ON OVER THERE TO TRY TO WIN A COPY!