The Parish by Alice Taylor

Ours are hard times for humanity - for a number of reasons. Firstly, we don't talk to each other much. Second, we don't care about each other much - or at least enough to outwardly show it.

We would rather walk a mile when it's raining cats and dogs than knock on a neighbours' door asking for a cup of sugar. Maybe that's just me, but look around you - pregnant women struggle to get a seat on the train, 12-year olds get accidentally shot in a supermarket lane, and it's acceptable to throw a tantrum over wrong hair colour.

Well, not in Alice Taylor's world. Not that she lives on a deserted island in a Utopian community of perfect neighbours. No, Alice Taylor simply possesses a Pollyanna-like spirit that makes her write books portraying her neighbours as great, strangers as helpful, communities as thriving and family members as the ones you always wanted but never really had. In Alice Taylor's memoirs people talk, listen, and their help reaches way beyond the proverbial cup of sugar.

Alice's book is a pleasant change of scenery to the books of today. It is an unpretentious collection of stories of the life of a regular Irish parish, where people live and die and rebuild churches and care about their family history. You will find pages dedicated to Alice's beloved garden, beloved dogs, beloved family, all tender without being corny, and full of acceptance.

There is no great catch in the book, there is no drama and no thrills as such; it's a collection of the stories our grandmas could have told us (if one ever bothered to listen) - ordinary people living ordinary lives and making something great of it everyday by just being there.

There's a grain of salt - it is not all charming, it does get mildly little annoying at times, because you want Alice to do something socially acceptable. Well, you know - to freak out, to say she's tired of having no me-time, to run away with a butcher - something! You half-heartedly want her to show some sort of human selfish capricious side of herself, just to be closer to us regular human beings.

She does not. She remains loving and grateful, and the only thing that really made me like her rather than hate her for being so nice, was the fact that the book was full of poems that did not really work for me, and it made me feel the author was both human and great: a wonderful, bold and undefeated woman, who goes about her small parish with no other goal but of making it a better place.

Fight your cynicism, give this book a try, and give in to the urge to call the family afterwards!

I would like to thank the publishers for sending this book to The Bookbag.

For more superb family recollections why not try Another Alice by Alice Peterson.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Parish by Alice Taylor at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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