44: A Dublin Memoir by Peter Sheridan (RB530)

Published 1999: First Edition / Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated Endpapers

Original green cloth with gilt titles on the spine and original pictorial dust jacket. 296 very clean and bright pages. Slight shelf wear on dust jacket. (RB530)

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This is the story of Peter Sheridan and his life in Dublin. It gives a portrait of an Irish family as they chart their way through the 1960s, following the author's journey from boy to man.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2013
A great novelistic autobiography. The detail of living in 60s Dublin is lovingly evoked in this book. Peter Sheridan tell his own tale with such warmth the nostalgia is palpable.

The development of relationship with his Da is the most telling: as Sheridan passed through his teenage years he misunderstands and becomes antagonised by his father's idiosyncrasies, but with maturity he comes to realise the bond between them.

That crowded house, filled with children and lodgers, becomes ever more familiar as the story progresses. This is the kind of mix of people that always provides domestic drama that doesn't have the tang of soap opera about it.

The tale of Frankie is the most touching. He was the child who took over Da's message running and general helping duties when Peter grew out of them, but his favour didn't last long. It's sad to read about his illness and death, but also the guilt that Sheridan felt when he thought he hadn't paid his little brother enough attention.

It is a real uncovering of the workings of a real family, its successes and failures along with the foibles that create humour and linger in the memory.

The book isn't startling or revealing, it is ordinary in a way, but completely involving. A comfortable, worthwhile read.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/44-Dublin-Memoir-Peter-Sheridan/dp/