These two stories and novella resonate particularly to me and bring back memories of my time in Northern Ireland from 1970-72, as the "Troubles" were heating up. I was among a small detachment of USN sailors operating a communication station. The thing about being an American in Derry was that the populace -- Catholics and Protestants -- viewed us as neutrals in their conflict. I have said that we Americans were the only people in the community who could enter any of the sharply segregated secterian neighborhoods. We had Catholic friends from Bogside and Protestant friends in the Waterside. (There was no mistaking which sect lived where by the graffiti, banners and curbstones painted the red, white and blue of Great Britain or the orange, green and white of Ireland). I arrived at the base (located right in the city) in November 1970. The Protestant assault against Catholic civil rights marchers at the Burntollent bridge outside Derry had happened in 1969. When the British army came shortly after to separate the fighting factions they were viewed at first by the Catholic community as protectors. This changed sharply in 1970 as the IRA adherents became actively violent. My wife and I rented a flat near the city center. Our landlords were partners in an auto dealership whose showrooms were on the ground floor. They were an unusual pair because one was Catholic and the other Protestant. In August 1971, the British rounded up suspected IRA militants and incarcerated them without charges in the prison at Long Kesh. This sparked a violent response across the province including stepping up bombing of civilian businesses. On the night of August 11, my wife and I were entertaining an Irish friend in our flat when, at about 10:00 pm, a bomb exploded outside the car showroom. We were not injured but the flat was no longer habitable. My sense is that whoever placed the bomb did not know that people were living above. My Navy bosses made arrangements with the British army for us to occupy a British army house outside the city adjacent to a weapons depot no longer in use. (The house was isolated so for obvious reasons they could not have their own soldiers living there.) Our neighbors in this rural setting were Protestant "Orangemen", but very nice people. I was invited by a civilian worker aquaintance at the base to attend the civil rights march on Sunday January 30, 1972 -- "it'll be a lark", he said. I declined. The march became the infamous "Bloody Sunday".

The first story -- "Everything in This Country Must" -- tells of a British army patrol that happens on a man and his daughter attempting to rescue their horse drowning in the river. The brave efforts of the soldiers, at no small risk to themselves, is appreciated by the girl, but not by her father who threatens them as they depart. His anger shows how the attitude of the people toward the presence of the British army had evolved.

The second story -- "Wood" -- refers to the annual parade of Protestant Orangemen through the streets of Derry, Belfast, and other cities. The paraders carry banners with anti-catholic slogans. It commerates the victory of Protestant King William over Catholic King James in 1691. The parades are perceived by the Catholic population as insulting and an arrogant symbol of Protestant supremacy. (I witnessed our Protestant neighbor proudly dressed in his parade regalia on the eve of the march.) The marchers needed wood poles to display their banners and called on a family of skillful workworkers to make them. The head of the household had been incapacitated by a stroke and, although a Protestant himself, loathed the annual parades for all they represented. His wife and young son surreptiously gathered the materials and made the poles for the income they would bring. He embodied the rejection of sectarianism felt by many, but his helplessness symbolized how the forces of hatred prevailed.

The novella -- "Hunger Strike -- is told from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy from Derry who is staying with his widowed mother in the Republic (somewhere it seems on the west coast near Galway). His uncle, who he has never met, is imprisoned in Prison Maze at Long Kesh for his suspected IRA activities. The uncle and others had begun a campaign of hunger strikes to protest the refusal of the British authorities to recognize them as prisoners of war as opposed to suspected common criminals. This resulted in a number of starvation deaths that received major media attention across the world. The boy is extremely obsessed his uncle's slow death, even to charting what he believes to the the steady weight loss. He seethes with anger, fantasizing about the actions he would take in response. He meets an elderly couple who introduce him to kayaking in the bay and repays their kindness in an unexpected way that speaks to his troubled state of mind. ( )

I enjoyed this, but after some years since reading it, I don't recall enough to discuss it. ( )

A fine collection. I preferred the title story best, but the novella was heartfelt if a little prolonged towards its inevitable conclusion. ( )

McCann has a terrible gift with the words, so he does. This collection of two short stories and a novella is powerful, disturbing, brilliant but ultimately unsatisfying for me. The title selection has a straightforward beginning, middle and end, which I confess to admiring. But the ending, which I certainly saw coming, does not make sense to me on an emotional level. I knew as soon as the soldiers succeeded in saving Father's favorite draft horse from drowning that Father would have to kill it. The story allows for no other outcome. But I will simply never understand a person destroying the thing he loves because it has been sullied in his mind by the actions of someone else. The second selection, "Wood", is beautifully crafted and I was sailing right along with it...right up to the moment McCann dropped me in mid-air. Beginning and middle...no end. Star off. The novella, "Hunger Strike', is the most difficult and heart-wrenching of the three. An Irish teen and his mother attempt to cope from a distance with his uncle's hunger strike during the troubles. Although the boy has never met his uncle, he feels a great connection to him and his struggle. I wished for a better grasp of the politics while reading this one; Irish history has always confused me a bit, and I need to get it clear in my head. I suspect this story of a subtlety I was not quite equipped to appreciate, but I still found it moving and enlightening. Recommended. ( )

The novella and two stories in this slim book are set in Ireland and peripherally deal with The Troubles. Each features a teenaged protagonist hose life is somehow affected by the lingering residue of the hatred between Catholics and Protestants. In "Wood," young Sam and his mother must hide from his blind father the contribution they are making to a political march. The title story depicts the confusion of a girl whose father would rather lose his draft horse than owe a debt of gratitude to the British soldiers who try to save it. And in "Hunger Strike," a coming-of-age story, a boy rages against the disruption caused by the family moving from north to south for 'safety.' Always in the background, always presuring the foreground are the ongoing religious and political divisions that plague the Irish. A very fast read, but--as usual--McCann's lyrical prose demands close attention. ( )