The Village

Pat Monaghan

Ireland's best-selling author (domestically) strikes a new note in her third volume of memoirs. While its immensely popular predecessors focused on the simple farming life of mid-century Ireland, this book introduces the changes that have brought the country close to modernity (for the record, there are those who claim, convincingly, that Ireland will never be truly modern). In it, the family store that Taylor's family tears down in order to build a full-service grocery serves as a metaphor for all the losses and opportunities change brings Ireland. Another change, noted in a section of the book (one of the best) that will endear itself to Americans who've stayed in a bed-and-breakfast, is the renovation of an old house into one of these homey establishments. Taylor's clear, sensuous prose is here sparked by new notes of impatience and independence, so that she herself becomes more tartly modern than the young romantic of the earlier volumes. Look for demand from Taylor fans.