ʻI USED TO BE IRISHʼ
by Angeline Kearns Blain
A. & A Farmar, Dublin,
2009
Reviewed by Glenda Cimino
In 1957, 19-year-old Angeline
Kearns left her home
in George Reynolds Flats
in Ringsend and said goodbye
to her family at Dublin airport,
setting off to marry an American
GI she had met in Dublin,
with whom she was to have a
long marriage and three children.
Her descriptions of the hardships
of families growing up
in Dublin in the 40s and 50s
is reminiscent of ʻAngelaʼs
Ashesʼ, yet she also captures
the warmth, love and loyalty
of family and community that
she experienced in Ringsend,
especially her close relationship
to her mother.

Today she has been for 20
years Adjunct Professor of Sociology
and Womenʼs Studies
at Boise State University in
Idaho, and apparently has remarried.
It is the one thing in the book
about which she is not totally
candid, perhaps to protect the
feelings of others. Maybe there
will be a sequel later on.

The book describes, in colourful
language with flashes
of humour, remarkably wellremembered
detail and dialogue,
her long journey to
discover America, herself, and
Ireland. Her ʻbecoming American
ʼ gave her a new sense of
the strengths and weaknesses
of each country, of promises
betrayed.

She saw America as the land
of opportunity, but after the
assassination of John Kennedy
and the carnage of the Vietnam
War, she became aware that
ʻAmericaʼs leaders were not as
benevolent, upright and moral
as I had believed them to be.ʼ
Her first husband comes
off as some kind of saint, but
their paths diverged as Angie
grew to know herself better.
In America in the sixties, like
many other women, she began
to question ʻthe folderol of being
the perfect wife, the allgiving
mom, the happy shopper,
and the empty-headed
corporate spouseʼ.

This led to a clinical depression
which she describes
honestly and from which she
gradually recovered. She tells
of nightmares about the period
in her childhood when she had
to pick cinders on the dump
to sell other poor people for
fuel and feared being bitten by
rats.

Over the course of the book
her life evolves, from poverty-
stricken child in Dublin
to working woman to new
wife and mother, to university
student and political activist.

She has also written ʻStealing
Sunlight: Growing Up in
Irishtownʼ. You canʼt help admiring
how far she has come
in her personal journey.
Below left: From the book,
Angeline is pictured with local
kids on the balcony at George
Reynolds House, who came to
say goodbye before she left for
the airport.

ʻTHE GIRL WHO KICKED
THE HORNETʼS NESTʼ
by Steig Larsson
Reviewed by
Christopher Sweeney
With this, the final
volume of his phenomenally
successful
ʻMillennium Trilogyʼ, Stieg
Larsson brings to a conclusion
the stories of his diminutive,
action hero heroine, Lisbeth
Salander and her partner in
crime and retribution, the journalist
Mikael Blomkvist.

Over the course of the first
two volumes we have learnt
that Salander has been the victim
of a massive miscarriage of
justice. She is the daughter of
a brutal Russian defector, Zalachenko,
who beat her mother
almost to death. But the secret
police contrive to have her
locked away in a psychiatric
unit to prevent her blowing his
cover.

In essence, the three volumes
tell the story of Salander
ʼs struggles to avenge herself
on the state institutions and
the men running them, who
have wronged her so gravely.
As a result of her treatment,
Salander will have nothing to
do with the authorities, seeking
justice on her own, often
bloodily violent, terms.

At her side is the investigative
journalist Blomkvist, editor
of ʻMillenniumʼ magazine,
exposing the murky machinations
of the Swedish state at
the end of the Cold War.

At the start of book three,
we find Salander in intensive
care, recovering from an attempted
murder, with her father,
the man who tried to kill
her, lying at deathʼs door a few
rooms away from wounds inflicted
on him by Salander.

There is a concerted effort
underway by the Swedish state
to try and get Salander locked
away again and cover up the
whole mess before the press
get a hold of the story.

So, as in previous volumes,
Lisbeth will need the help
of Mikael Blomkvist. He is
writing an exposé of the Zalachenko
affair that will shake
the Swedish government, particularly
the secret service, to
its foundations. At last, there is
a chance for Lisbeth Salander
to put her past behind her, and
finally there is a chance for
truth and justice to prevail.
Will Larssonʼs army of fans
be satisfied with this final instalment?
Iʼm sure they will.

There is a sense of impending
doom for the villains, as
their various schemes to silence
Blomkvist and Salander
unravel. The pace is relentless
and Larssonʼs unconventional
plot keeps you transfixed to
the last page.

Sadly, there will be no
further outings for Lisbeth
Salander. After delivering the
manuscript to his publisher,
Larsson died suddenly at the
age of 50.

Now the second most successful
author in the world, he
never lived to see his books in
print.