Quindi buonista, quindi pauperista, quindi realistico, quindi surreale (meno rispetto al buon, ottimo Charles). Scalda il cuore! ( )

Perhaps worth reading just for the author's sudden musings on life, poverty, and relationships which break up the mostly mundane story. ( )

An unusual little book. A story of Dublin, it starts off being almost twee. I'm not 100% clear why this book is in the 1001 Books--but I have not read a lot of Irish lit, and certainly not of urban Irish lit. Per the text in 1001 Books, this is an unusual book about Dublin--it is female, it is poor, it is claustrophobic.

Teen Mary Makebelieve (really) lives with her charwoman mother in one room in a Dublin boardinghouse. While her mother goes out to work every day, Mary wanders the city, observing. She makes their meals and cleans their room, but does her first paying job when her mother is very ill (and she takes her place). A story of the poor in Dublin, who window shop for entertainment and pawn what they own when they are broke. Neighbors can be trusted to help out in times of need. Perhaps, even dreams can come true--if you let them.

A very quick read.
( )

An Irish fairy tale where dreams come true. While well written I had a hard time with the characters and basically found the story to be uninteresting. For a short book, I really struggled to finish it and wanted to cast it aside half way through. ( )

Curiosa novela. El narrador observa a sus personajes y los poetiza así como a la ciudad de Dublín. Está hablando de una mujer de la limpieza y su hija que viven en un cuarto oscuro en un barrio lúgubre y mohoso de la ciudad, ...pero tanto la hija como la madre son tratadas con un respeto, una naturalidad y un cariño que los eleva a un estatus de princesas de cuento de hadas, que es la impresión que se tiene al leer la novela.
La joven de 16 años se hace mujer y descubre nuevos sentimientos, la madre teme perder a su niña y con ella el sentimiento de "maternidad", pero la inteligencia y el amor que se tienen ambas no mermará.
La novela está llena de simpáticas observaciones como cuando la madre y la hija enumeran las ventajas y los inconvenientes de casarse con un policía.
Por otra parte y no la menor, el autor inserta sus pensamientos y sus cabales observaciones con un toque de humor que hace que se lea con la sonrisa en los labios. ( )