User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
This is one of the select few on my bookshelves that I've bothered to read more than once (quite a feat, as the book is roughly 800 pages or so) and has got to be one of my top five, if not my absolute favorite book of all time. This is the first Uris book I read, and I became an instant fan. Leon Uris is a masterful story-teller who irrevokably draws you in to his tales, and this one is about 19th century Ireland in which several decades of Irish history are woven into the stories of three families seamlessly. The only minor "negative" I can think of is that the story is a bit one-sided, but as you read, you find yourself believing that the rebels' cause is a righteous one. Action, drama, suspense, romance, history, this book has a bit of everything! I'm also not one to get all that emotional when reading books, but the last chapter... Oh my. Keep the kleenex handy! Make sure you read the sequel,
Redemption to find out what happens to the characters! I don't recommend it as highly, but it brings the story line in
Trinity to a close.
Rating: really liked it
I loved this book and have read probably six times. Great love story and great historical fiction at the same time.
The first review on Goodreads really panned this book and all of Leon Uris' books in general-- do NOT believe that review or his comments about other Uris books, in particular Exodus. This person's comments were basically that the situation was presented one-sided, without any shades of gray, and the book was little more than propaganda.
I disagree with that assessment, but also want to ask the question-- how can there be another side to either the Irish Catholic situation in Northern Ireland or certainly, the Jewish exodus to Israel after WWII? Is it not an established fact that the English treated the native Irish population horribly, as they did with the native population in all of their colonies? And it is also established fact, I believe, that they blockaded Palestine after the war to prevent Jewish immigration.
So, I don't see what "other side" could be presented. To try and show Britain in a positive light is revisionist history. There is no other side (and I'm an anglophile big time). His book about the Berlin airlift is another example-- the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin and left the civilian German population to starve. Where is the other side to that?
Uris did present some characters on the "other side" as being conflicted about the choices their government was making. I think the moral of his books would be that all individuals cannot control the actions of their governments, but they can control their own actions. Maybe that is simplistic, but I would rather read a book that is passionate about its position-- sometimes you have to take a side; there is not always shades of gray.
Rating: really liked it
In all of Leon Uris's books, the schema is very simple. There are good guys, and there are bad guys, and nowhere is there room for even a shade of ambiguity. This kind of cartoonish view of the world leads to books which might be better classified as propaganda than as historical fiction.
This was certainly the case for "Exodus", which amounted to thinly disguised propaganda. "Armageddon", dealing with the Berlin airlift, also tended toward crude 'good guy/bad guy' categorizations, but didn't bother me quite as much. However, I found Uris's heavyhanded, reductionist approach to writing about the situation in my own country supremely offensive from start to finish. In addition to grossly oversimplifying political events and allegiances throughout, Uris is sure to include every lazy, faith-and-begorrah, bogtrotting cliche about the noble, bibulous, freedom-fighting sons of Erin (and the pretty colleens that love them).
The best that can be said about Uris is that he probably believed his own reductionist, 3rd grade view of history and world politics. But be warned - it's not just his thinking is at the 3rd grade level - much of the writing is as well. Uris's dictionary is stuffed with cliches, heavy on adjectives, but the word "nuance" is obviously missing.
But why would we expect anything else? Uris was a hack. The man was in the business of churning out bestsellers. Apparently most readers like their historical fiction in black and white - the reviews of "Trinity" on Amazon.com are even more creepily adulatory than the Amazon norm. (Though I really would like to send the Bookmobile round to the caves of all those readers who claimed this was their "favorite book ever"!)
Well, I disagree with all of those Amazon acolytes. I thought this was a dreadful book, an insult to the intelligence, and I would recommend it to nobody.
Your mileage may vary.
Rating: really liked it
A great book from Leon Uris. Trinity is a bit long, and perhaps a bit one sided in telling the tale of the struggles in Northern Ireland. It is a tale well told. The characters are rich and memorable. Memorable enough for me for a name to stick in naming our son many years later.
Though the writing might seem a bit dated in 2020 it is well worth a read, both for the skill of the writer and a view of The Troubles that pervaded between the Irish and the English.
A must read for historical fiction fans.
Rating: really liked it
This book was a very hard read at times... filled with so little hope, but I learned so much. I knew very little about the Protestant/Catholic struggle in Ireland in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Another tragic time in history where ignorance caused hatred fueled by religious fervor. One of my favorite quotes came from my favorite character in the book, Conor Larkin. He is an Irish Catholic rebel who spends his life fighting for his implausible cause.
....They sat across from one another and Atty waited until he opened his own door and let it all pour out.
"If there's a God," he whispered at last, "and I surely think there is, He will have looked down on the Catholics and Protestants of this province and shaken His head sadly in realization it is the one place the Devil has beaten Him thoroughly."
There were parts of the story that were exciting and page-turning, and others that read more like a history lesson. The story was written in a way that left the reader feeling like there was definitely a "good" side and a "bad" side, with so little crossover as to be a bit unrealistic. Thankfully there were some very beautiful love stories, albeit sad, to offset some of the horrible ordeals.
I wish I wasn't left with such a feeling of despair. I'm really glad I finally read this book even though it was extremely sobering.
Rating: really liked it
When I first read this book over twenty years ago, I knew very little of the history of the Home Rule conflict between Ireland and England, and found it to be a moving and often shocking history lesson.
Reading it this time, I found that even though I remembered many of the main events, the book had lost none of its impact, and I quickly became immersed once again in this powerful story.
It's difficult not to become emotionally affected by the characters in this novel, especially when you realise that so many real people experienced the same things in their own lives.
There are many memorable characters, but Connor was, for me, totally unforgettable.
His destiny was shaped from early childhood, not only by what he himself observed, but also by a Father and Grandfather who believed passionatly in home rule, and told him the old stories of the struggles, and of the men who became folk heroes fighting for a better life for those who were oppressed by the colonisers.
Connor and his fellows believed that their people had the right to decide on their own destiny, and felt that anything else was a compromise.....a selling out to the enemy which was totally unacceptable .
Like so many others in the history of the world, they felt compelled to give up any possibility of a pleasant and settled life for themselves, and continued to fight for justice, no matter what the cost.
They saw oppression, misery and injustice, and couldn't pass by on the other side....but they paid a terrible price.
This is a book which is rich in the history, traditions and culture of Ireland....at times it's almost unbearably sad and difficult to read, but it's well worth the effort.
Rating: really liked it
Let's begin by stipulating that Uris is a pulp fiction writer and should be read and reviewed on those terms. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pulp fiction - it's a great and wonderful genre full of entertainment value.
With Uris' books the formula is pretty simple: Our hero is noble, well-read, and self-sacrificing. He's closed himself off, but is waiting for the right woman. The right woman is also noble and self-sacrificing, but strong-willed and beautiful. He sets these folks down in the middle of some big historical conflict and then uses them to give readers a bit of a history lesson. He's typically got a bias, but most history does. These are good solid historical epics.
I really like
Mila 18, his book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It inspired me to read a lot of actual history of the event including a number of diaries that were recovered from there. Likewise with Trinity, which I read once before, I will most likely go read more Irish history.
Trinity is a decent vehicle for imparting quite a bit of history from the Irish perspective. It's a good read for making you think about the impact of imperialism and industrialization. There's an excellent set of chapters on early twentieth century factories and a factory fire that will remind you why unions came about in a really visceral way.
This is a dense read, but it's entertaining and interesting in parts and is probably a good gateway to other more substantive reads on the subject matter.
Rating: really liked it
Having come to "Trinity" after a break of some twenty years since reading the Uris classics "Exodus," "Mila 18" and "Armageddon," it was a very pleasant surprise to be able to discover that old zest for life, that lusty undercurrent which marks his work and fills it with an unmistakable energy. At the same time, "Trinity" enabled me to discover something about my own Irish background, and put the perspective of history into a new position for me altogether. In fact, so tainted were we, some of us, by the version of the other protagonists in that ghastly story, that we had a curious emotion, verging on shame, when it came to being part-Irish and perhaps more importantly, not sufficiently English. I imagine that a great many people know what I mean. It is through books like "Trinity," Keneally's "The Great Shame" and McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," that we are starting, many of us who were not born in Ireland but who have solid links of former ownership (however tenuous they might have appeared), to finally get the gist. I know one person who really had almost a prejudice against their own Irish family of last century, who came away from "Trinity" with a very different perspective indeed.
It's really an awful story, and if you wonder any longer why the troubles have continued so long and so bitterly into the last century and, quite possibly, into this one, you must be reading it upside down. At the same time, it's a great Uris yarn, if one may be permitted to say so. And it doesn't make me ashamed at all, after reading this, to be doing some proper wearing of the green.
Rating: really liked it
I don't know how I forgot to record this book...I just found it in my garage, one of the few that escaped garage sales or Goodwill! I keep it around hoping to one day re-read it. I recall running late for work, or returning from lunch, during the time that I read this book because I simply had to wrench myself away from the story (often making a bathroom stop to dry my eyes and reapply mascara). My dull review could never do it justice.
It's a story about a family in Ireland, following their lives through 3(?) generations. The day-to-day lives of the family is intertwined with the decades of cultural, political turmoil, famine; and incredible violence and hatred between the Protestants and Catholics that evolved through British occupation and colonialism. I've always been drawn to everything Irish, but the way the story unfolds, by focusing on one family, through generations, sucks the reader in on such a personal level that you feel as if you've lived the modern history of Ireland... all the joys and sorrows of being there. When I finally finished I promised myself I would seek out more of Leon Uris, who authored other historical fiction books.
Rating: really liked it
I'm going to try and keep this real simple.
What I liked: the well-executed compression of Irish history into a thirty-year period from 1885 to 1915, with echoes of the prior thousand years. The whole theme of no present, no future, only the past happening over and over again. The ultimately fatalistic message, that the best Irish Republicans could hope for was a "glorious" defeat. The quality of Uris' writing which I've come to expect, in that he can seamlessly weave together scene and summary. The unabashed tenderness in the romantic scenes, the appeal of the 'vulnerable' masculine hero Conor Larkin. Lastly: the invention of the word "oilylike," used in place of the awkward "oilily."
What I didn't like so much: the occasionally exclamatory prose. I'm not sure that this ever works well-- when an author throws down exclamation points outside of dialogue. The unorthodox usage of certain verbs that never really caught on-- most notably "spiraled" to describe, for instance, climbing the social ladder. The reversion to first-person perspective when the action focuses on Seamus O'Neill, the writer. This was an interesting choice but I don't think it worked. In fact it seems to accomplish little more than drawing attention to the author's artifice. The overlong section of Seamus' newspaper articles.
In conclusion: stirring, sweeping, mostly effective historical fiction with a realistic (i.e., pessimistic) viewpoint on the whole Irish debacle. Pretty unsparing in its critiques of all involved: the Catholic church, Protestant propaganda, and, above all, imperial English meddling. An unholy trinity.
Rating: really liked it
I’m a bit embarrassed that it’s taken me so long to read this incredible story, a modern classic by one of the 20th century’s most notable authors. I read Exodus over 30 years ago and it’s still one of my favourite books of all time. And it’s hard to believe that any of Leon Uris’ other works could meet the extraordinary heights of near perfection where Exodus belongs. But that’s not true. Trinity is a very different story but equally compelling, engrossing and just as masterfully written. I’m saddened that Leon Uris is no longer alive to gift us with more of his storytelling genius. And I’m also sad that the vast amount of historical research so expertly woven into the story of Trinity doesn’t seem to be the norm in many historical fiction books published in the 21st century.
I suspect that the impact of reading Trinity will have me recalling snippets of the story in the decades to come in the same way Exodus has never left my memory.
Rating: really liked it
STILL NO SPOILERS!
Done. Not one of my favorite books. I think lots of other people might like it. The history clearly chronicled in ythe last 100 pages was a plus. For me the characters had no depth. What you get is a story of Ireland's history through the 1800s and up to the beginning of the Great War. The tone is negative from start to finsih. The troubles will not end, the battles will continue forever. That is the message. I DO understand Irish history better after reading the book. That is why historical fiction is good - if the story doesn't grab you well then you can at least learn something.
Through page 528 of 751:I feel like I am the odd-ball. I can see why so many like this book. You come to understand the plight of the Irish situation. However this wasn't news to me when I started. For me the main character is just too GOOD. Nothing can deter him. When he falters, his friends are there to quickly nudge him back. I do not believe in PATRIOTISM. I know Irish feel a great love for their country. Russians too, but me I see good and bad things in all countries. I could never say I must live in just THAT one country. There are countries I might NOT choose to live in, at least not for more than a short time, but there are lots of countries where I would be happy. This all encompassing adoration for the country of your birth is hard for me to understand. On a lighter note - I really need the character Caroline in this book. She gives a breath of fresh air. She laughs, thinks and is practical. You do get to really know several characters in this book, the same characters return time and time again. I don't think anybody should avoid this book if you want a long, gripping story of the Irish experience. IF you think what is bothering me would also bother you, then maybe think twice.
Through page 458: Actually my previous comment is wrong. I do care about these people. The whole situation is so horrible. Even the strongest of the Irish themselves say that part of the probelem is the Irish themselves. They have been misstreated so long and so terribly that they have no will any more. It is hard to watch. It is so depressing when the strongest of them "fills up his friend's glass with ale", when they give up, when they accept defeat, when all that is enjoyable is another drink, when the two buddies accept to never see each other again. I have a hard time accepting such defeat. I know enough history to know that others too have gone through equally hard times and they have not succumbed to liquor. They have not accepted defeat. Maybe it is necessary to die fighting, but at least you go on fighting. This is so depressing. OK, maybe I am suppose to feel the horror so I can accept how some of the Irish have resorted to terrorism and violence. And the humor in thiz book is only sarcastic; there is no joy visible ever in these poor people's lives.
Throgugh page 410: What is happening is simply horrible. I ought to care more. I don't know whose fault that is - the author's or mine! But we all know what has happened to the Irish people is horrendous.
Through page 375: If you like a good, long epic story about a family I recommend this book. I have no trouble understanding why lots of people like it. Escape into that family and time and place. But I find it rather predictable. No, I don't know EVERYTHING that is going to happen, but when something happens I just think: OK, fine,that happened. I don't really care terribly much. I do not want to discourage people who like this kind of STORY. It is simply a GOOD story. Somehow that isn't enough for me.
"In the ensuing half hour Brigid made full disclosures (to Father Cluny), which included rolling in the grass and hay with him(her boy friend), pressing her body to his deliberately and enjoying it to the point of allowing further liberties on her breasts and three times between her legs, however with clothing in between.
Since the death of Father Lynch, Father Cluny had been receiving a great number of retroactive confessions. Some were more serious than this, some were better. He was thinking in terms of declaring a general amnesty rather than have half the parish serve penance. Their crops might rot what with all that praying."
Through page 250: I AM learning Irish history. I DO like some of the characters. Here is another book where the antics of the church make me happy I am NOT religious. BUT, when you start looking at how many pages you have read and how many are left AND when I keep going back to GR to check out other books rather than reading this - well then there is something wrong. It is a good story, but I am simply not emotionally engaged.
Through page 124: I wouldn't say the characters are terribly nuanced. Some, partucularly Caroline Weed, are amusing. She is so outspoken. The relationship between her and her father is as direct as it could be. Would a daughter act as she acts in the 1880s? I think it is possible, although not usual. It IS amusing. On a completely different issue, that of how the British viewed the Irish, I cannot help but make a comparison to how, today, the Jews in Israel look upon the Palestinians. Both the British and the Israelites see the indigenous people as being lazy, good-for-nothing scoundrels. They feel they have brought prgress and knowledge to the uncultivated, uneducated and lazy people from whom they took their land. Of course I am generalizing here; not every one behaves so badly. I personally have heard this view from a woman I know currently living in Israel, so the comparison just smacked me in the face.
Through page 60: I had mixed feelings when I started this book. First of all I HAD to read it and that is not a good way to start a book. I am getting into the book, and I am enjoying it. It follows two struggling Catholic families living in the small village Ballyutogue situated on Lough Foyle in Ulster. You learn about the family ancestors and their role in Northern Ireland's history starting at the beginning of the 19th century. The reader clearly understands the antagonism between the Scotts who were Presbyterian, the Irish Catholics and the ruling English(Anglicans). The Scotts were kicked out of England and came to get a better life in Ireland, but there they never had the high status of the English. The English encouraged the Catholics and Scotts to see each other as enemies. The winner was of course the English. Then the potatoe famine of the 1840s brought terrible suffering to the peasants, both the Catholics and the Presbyterians. Uris does a vey good job of allowing the reader to understand the horror of the potatoe famine. It is September and all the stored potatoes turn black. This is the peasants ONLY source of food through the coming winter and how could next year's crop be owed if all was destroyed. These people had nothing to begin with and then also no food. How do you feed your children. Can you imagine the horror? Then of course those who should help don't. This is a scenario we see that continues today. The history is clear. Some may say it is black and white, but this is a general description of what happened. Obviously some Englsih did try and help, but they were in any case few and far between, and not enough to turn the tide of disaster. On another issue, you learn alot about Irish customs, superstitions and village life. The wake at a funeral was fun to read about - the importance of spirits and fairies, the partying and lamenting are all rolled together. Another plus are the wonderful maps all throughout the book.
Xmas present from my Mom who is Scotch - Irish. She says that is where we got our tempers from.
Rating: really liked it
Uris is a Jewish author who gets the Irish perfectly. This book is essential reading to understand the Irish culture- Uris creates characters that travel through the famine, works with the Fenians, and into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who become the IRA of the Easter Rising, Michael Collins, etc. I was handed the book and ordered to read it at 13 by my father. I will refrain from typing about this book ad nauseum, and say only these two things: 1) there is a literary device used in this book I have never seen anywhere else, and 2) approximately 75% of every boy named Conor was so named because their mothers (and sometimes fathers) read this book. And, if my own mother had known one more salient family detail, I would have the same sobriquet.
Rating: really liked it
Written during a time of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster forces, Leon Uris sought to portray and define the history behind the strife. The complexity of the hatred between the two groups, the Protestant Ulster Orangemen, the Roman Catholic Irish (green) and the British crown (White) can be rivaled by the violence in the Balkans in the 1990's after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
The tension between the groups dates back to 1690 and the Battle of the Boyne where the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange (of William and Mary fame) defeated the Catholic English King James II. James was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. During his reign he attempted to give equality to Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters and foster religious tolerance, but this was adamantly opposed by the Anglican Protestants. After the Battle of the Boyne, James fled to France and died in exile in 1701.
Catholics in Ireland were under the domination of the Protestant minority in Northern Ireland and of course, Britain. Over the centuries attempts were made to free the Irish and were always crushed. This books begins in 1885 and ends in 1916, and introduces fictional characters along with a few historical ones.
We meet the Larkins and O'Neill's in a small town in Northern Ireland Ballyutogue. The central protagonist is Colin Larkin who grows from the favored child in his family to one of the leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Burly, strong, loyal, angry and relentlessly seeking the freedom of his people from under the foot of the Protestant Orangemen of Ulster. We see him from the third person narrator as well as occasionally in the first person account of his best friend Seamus O'Neill. We watch as Colin walks a tortured path.
Uris also introduces main characters who serve as antagonists in the industrial Ulster. Frederick Weed and his son-in-law Roger Hubble. These two live entitled lives and join forces to build a massive economic powerhouse in Ulster. Decisions they make are not based on the welfare of the Protestants Orangemen, or heaven-forbid, the Irish Roman Catholics. Their decisions are based on "just business", such as covering up a fatal conflagration at the Witherspoon & McNab Shirt Factory where over 70 primarily women and children lost their lives. Uris definitely did not favor these characters.
Three women are prominent in the book: Lady Caroline Hubble, Shelly MacLeod, and Atty Fitzpatrick. All of them are closely connected to our hero Colin Larkin.
There is so much carefully researched history, Irish vernacular, culture both Irish and Scotch-Irish Ulster, superstitions, and customs in the book. I enjoyed it so much. At times, I could hear the lilt of an Irish brogue in his writing. Reading this makes me hungry to continue reading about Irish rebellions, including the Easter Rebellion of 1916, and Michael Collins.
I recommend the book, and want to reread some of the other Leon Uris books I have read in the past, such as The Source, Exodus, and Mila 18.
Rating: really liked it
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