For Book Clubs & Readers' Groups
rathcormick
A Childhood Recalled
Published in Paperback by Vintage/Random House and
available from bookshops worldwide
Or from www.bookwise.ie
Homan’s memoir of growing up on a farm in Ireland in the 1950s
is popular with Book Clubs and Readers’ Groups
Here are some discussion topics to help spark conversation among your group:
To start with...
The book is described as a memoir. What is the difference between that and an autobiography?
What is the tone of the book? Serious? Angry? Pompous? Mocking? Affectionate? Hubristic?
What other words would you use to describe it?
How authentic is the culture or era represented in the book?
What does it tell us about the history of Ireland?
For general discussion...
How does Rathcormick itself feature as a character in the story?
Is there a story?
There is a change
in mood between the opening and the closing chapters. Is this satisfactory?
Rathcormick was a working farm. Is there a sense of that in the text?
Although it is Homan’s memoir, does he tell us much about himself? What?
Who of the characters is the most…sympathetic? …awful? …comic? …unpleasant?
How would you describe the different members of the family?
Some specific topics...
Did Mamma and Papa have a good marriage by today’s standards?
How does Alice compare with young girls
of today?
How do the descriptions of Kilkee in Chaps 12 and 23 differ? What do they convey?
Two weddings are described,
Alice’s (Chap 19) and Clonagh’s (Chap 21): what do the descriptions tell us about the two families concerned?
Two visitors from
England, Miss Pringle (Chap 11) and Jennifer (Chap 16), and one from America, Mr Meredith (Chap 14), are introduced into Rathcormick:
how did their experiences differ and how do you think they would have described the Pottertons when they went home?
Three of
Homan’s teachers are featured: Miss Thompson (Chap 6), Mr Church (Chap 17), and Mr Colton (Chaps 21 & 22). How different
were they and what, if anything, did they impart to Homan for life?
Did the book remind you of any other memoir or story?
Need
some background information…?
If you feel that you would like to know just a little about the history of Ireland,
consult these useful sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Republic_of_Ireland
http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/index.htm
Papa Potterton
is particularly preocupied by ‘The Land Commission’ the ‘Ne Temere Decree’, and the family’s position as part of a declining Protestant
minority. The following sites provide some information on these topics:
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/land/eire.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/ne-temere
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/protestants_1861_1991.html
Photographs
of all the family are included in Homan’s book
Potterton People and Places: Three Centuries of an Irish Family