Ballydoonan Days: Hesitant Hearts and the Wrestling of Goats
RRP £12.99 Special Offer price £9.99
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√ £3 to Europe
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Click here to see Ivan reading an extract from his book
Meet Will Patterson. He’s an apprentice at an aircraft factory in Belfast. He gets the same bus in the morning as Liz McCutcheon – beautiful, graceful and pain in the chest achingly unreachable Liz McCutcheon. Until that is, one morning she drops her hankie for Will to pick up …
And Liz’s brother Nathan, Goat Wrestler extraordinaire, whose skills in bringing down Gertie the Goat are applauded from far and wide as invisible crowds of thrilled onlookers roar their approval. But who will tire of the game first – Gertie or the quickly maturing and thoughtful Nathan?
Then there’s William Mungo Kirkpatrick, aided and abetted by walking disasters, Lennie and Bisto. Kirkie has often toyed with the idea of submarines – two old steel baths welded together, an electric motor with a car battery for power and a periscope. It couldn’t fail, could it?
A debut novel from Ballywalter author Ivan McKeown and the first in the Ballydoonan series, Hesitant Hearts and the Wrestling of Goats takes the reader on a series of witty discoveries, each one brimming with good humour, tinged with pathos, but ever on the brink of momentous disaster.
Ivan Mc Keown’s fiction celebrates that carefree blithe spirit that is not dead yet though perhaps teetering just a little on the edges of modern technology and globalism. Humour and humanity live here in a real, exciting, experimental world of possibilities. This is also very much a portrait to remember of people we loved in places we knew.
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Price: £9.99
Author: Ivan McKeown
Illustrator: N/A
ISBN: 9781900935838
Type:
No. Pages: 352
Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
Type: Paperback
Name:
weeblacksheep
Rating:
5
Review:
So where to start............Ballydoonan Days 'Hesitant Hearts and he wrestling of Goats' I have to say I loved it, I know I'm biased, but considering it's hard to pick up a book that doesn't transport you into some young woman's boudoir (praise the Lord for 'spellcheck') or make you feel like your an ancient monument that should be decked in ivy, this book took me back to my youth.
The innocent fun we had, the crazy antics we got up to all laced with a morality somewhat lacking today. I must say I'm blessed to be in a minority of folk who still encourage children to experience such daft capers....... 'making memories' was what my mother called them!
Hesitant Hearts let me wallow in the fun of youthful frolics, and shed the odd tear along the way for good measure. I loved the section about the young sub teacher who had sussed that 'there was no God', it reminded me of when an old sub duffer tried to convince my daughter of the 'fact' of the Big Bang Theory. She listened patiently,then, when he felt he'd successfully imparted his 'knowledge' to the class of 13yr olds he asked if there were any questions. She replied simply...
"Right sir, and do you also believe that if I threw a 1000 piece jigsaw up into the air it would land perfectly made?"
See, I digress!
I also loved the chapter about the old teacher....Kleenex to the rescue!
I'm really looking forward to the next book. I bought 4 for friends for Christmas and so far they have all been delighted with the gift, one scottish lady commented ...
'This book is SO nice...it had me in some tears, and lots of laughter. It's just been such an easy book to read, I'm taking my time on it as I don't want it to end.'
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Name:
larneman
Rating:
1
Review:
I nearly gave this book up after a couple of chapters but seeing the invitations for comments, just inside the back cover, my sense of fairness compelled me to finish it.
Almost every story starts promisingly then limps and meanders to the end with barely a nod at a punch line. The one story that does have a real ending, (the orphaned school girl), is as corny as the worst Country and Western tear-jerker along with a good helping self-righteous, religious morality. It does however, fleetingly refer to “the troubles”. Amazingly, the other 349 pages of this book set in N. Ireland of the 1970’s, manage to avoid any mention of the violence and strife prevalent at that time. Social realism, this not! Precious, trite and twee to the Nth degree…. yes!
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Name:
matilda
Rating:
5
Review:
Usually, a book is to be read. Every so often however, a book jumps down off the shelf, wanders into your hand and then sinks itself into your mind... and ever-after is somehow treasured in our memories as more than a 'good read'. Those who have experienced life on the ards peninsula cannot help but indentify with the quirks and comedies of the characters in 'Ballydonnan days', laugh aloud at their escapades, and recognise the poignancy that often comes in the midst of daily life rather than in action-packed moments. Those who have not, after reading this book will probably sell their city house, throw out their sat. t.v's, buy a cow, and move. Definitely a shelf-jumper!! Loved every minute.
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Click here to see Liz Kennedy's excellent review in the Belfast Newsletter – move over Ballykissangel.
Click here to get the Belfast Telegraph's view on Gertie the Goat's arrival at the Linen Hall Library on 16th November to launch the book.
Click here to read Terence Bowman's interview with Ivan McKeown