Skip to main content

Saints for All Occasions 50%

Teresa has her son (Patrick) raised by Nora, but only at the expense of a broken heart. Teresa enters cloistered convent.  Nora's children:  John, successful campaign advisors, but for REPUBLICANS. Unthinkable for Catholics.  Daughter Rachel (or is it Bridget) is gay and wants to bear a child. Brian, youngest, works at Patrick's bar.  Patrick gets the bar after having the great good fortune of having a container take off two of his toes at the docks.  Settlement is for $200,000, which he uses to buy the bar.  Charlie dies of cancer.  John's daughter is adopted from China, and as a teenager doesn't talk to either John or his wife.

Good Irish family stuff--quick tempers, quick forgiveness. Talking over one another, finishing each other's stories, repeating stories at every family meeting, family tiffs and rivalries, Mom more impressed with Patrick's bar than John's success as campaign manager.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, continued 2/3rds

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Napoleon 14 Amiens

"Ambassadors are essentially spies with titles."  Napoleon President of Italy . . . Peace treaty with England (Amiens) in March 1802, with Turkey in June 1802 . . . flawed peace treaty with England because there was no opening up of France for trade with England, infuriating the English who thought peace would mean trade. . . tourism, though--Brits come to Paris and admire Napoleon . . . British liberals enamored . . . Napoleon "consul for life" . . . lots of unsettled territories, Switzerland being the largest . . . Industrialization much greater in England than France . . . France in 1802 is about the same as England in 1780 as a manufacturing center . . . Napoleon is basically Anglophobic, complaining of any art work that celebrates English victories being shown in Louvre . . . peace unraveling . . . by 1803 . . .  War May 18, 1803! . . . Louisiana Territory sold, advantageous to both parties.  France gets money; USA gets land.  France avoids possible war with ...
Post a Comment
Read more