Click on the link below for more details:

http://www.southdublinlibraries.ie/news/2012/03/months-south-dublin-libraries-competition

Book Club meeting Tuesday, March 6th, 2012The Book Club was delighted to welcome Actor, Playwright and first time novelist, Karen Ardiff, to its monthly meeting.  Karen discussed her book, ‘The Secret of my Face’ with the more than twenty members who came along to meet her. Her book revolves around a young girl, Veronica, who is disfigured by hare lip and cleft palate and whose father is unwilling or afraid to allow her to have the necessary corrective  surgery. The story is set in the thirties on an isolated farm in Wicklow and later follows her life when she escapes to Dublin to stay with wealthy relatives who make arrangements for her surgery.  A wide ranging debate was sparked off by the cold detachment of the surgeons which contrasted with Veronica’s  anticipation of her transformation into a beauty.  Beauty, disability, and her perception of herself  motivated her actions. Karen gave generously of her time and we learned something of her acting life and of her reflections on her play, ‘The Goddess of Liberty,’ which had recently been performed in the Civic Theatre.  A very enjoyable evening.

The Goddess of Liberty – by Karen Ardiff

The play follows the story of 2 Irish emigrants who forge a friendship on the passage to America. They have spent a lifetime together and the play then takes up the story of the later stage of their lives when they are in a town in Alaska during the Alaskan Gold Rush when the town is in the process of  going from boom to bust as the gold has dried up.

It is a story of greed and corruption and the consequences of that within a family. Geraldine Plunkett plays the part of  Frankie as one of the leading roles. It is an amazing performance from her as her character has had a stroke and although she has lost the power of speech she is aware of what is going on and is able to communicate in her own way.

The acting from all 4 women in the story was spectacular and the stage setting and costumes  fitted the bill perfectly. However at times the storyline was somewhat convoluted, confusing and slow but it did improve in the 2^nd half of the show and there were some twists in the story which made the  2^nd half a far stronger performance than the 1^st half. I was disappointed that the character of T-Belle never got to know that Joe came back to her of if she did, it was a loose end that wasn’t tied up.

Edel

THE GODDESS OF LIBERTY by Karen Ardiff

Is set in Skagway Alaska near the end of the gold rush and is about the survival of Irish Immigrants. It is an original piece with a lot of humour and pathos. Karen Ardiff is a wonderful writer and the play is directed by Paul Meade. The costumes are delightful period costumes by Joan O’Cleary. The set design is period authentic and realistic set with many antiques.”Frankie” is played by Geraldine Plunkett and she gives us a stimulating performance. The play opens with her character suffering from stroke.  She tries to communicate by grunting and hand gestures her paralysis and silence is difficult to watch but she is much loved by her friend “May” played by Maire Ni Ghrainne. “Tbelle”  May’s daughter is played by Emma Colohan and the local flusie called “Nellie the Pig” is played by Megan Riordan. All of thes e charaters gave sterling performances…Voice overs give us some of the history of these characters as Frankie was a famous, beautiful entertainer and dancer who arose from a replica of the statue of Liberty in her performances.  May has given a local business man their life savings of gold nuggets  to recreate the performance of the Goddess of Liberty…and thereby get their gold back…

Martina

Karen will also be discussing her play ‘The Godess of Liberty’ which will be running in the Civic Theatre from Tuesday 21st to Saturday 25th Feb 2012.

The Last Weekend

&

The Absolutist

   3/10

Tallaght Library Bookclub
 
Date: 4th October 2011
 
6:45pm start, 7:45pm end
 
We had 12 at our bookclub this month, the book for discussion was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
 
The main character is Rose Edelstein, a young girl who discovers at the age of 9 that when she eats food prepared by other people she can feel their emotions through the food. It begins with a lemon chocolate birthday cake her mother has made for her birthday which tastes of her mother’s deep despair. Her “special skill” becomes more pronounced as time goes on so that she can taste the origin of ingredients too and tell how the food was grown or raised. The novel follows Rose into adulthood and examines her relationships with those around her including her brother who becomes more withdrawn from the world as time goes on.
 
Opinions on this book were quite uniform and mainly negative. One positive was that the book was an easy read but for some the lack of quotation marks became irritating after a while.The intial concept sounded interesting and most had high expectations for it but the plot quickly became ridiculous especially where Joe, Roses’s brother was concerned. A common complaint was that a number of subplots and characters were introduced but never went anywhere. For instance the maternal grandmother regularly sent “gifts” to the family in the post of unwanted junk and she had a poor relationship with Rose’s mother but this relationship was never explained. The family was very disjointed and uncommunicative and the story wasn’t at all uplifting. The only character who was appealing was Joe’s childhood friend George but his appeal might have been that he was “normal” compared to Rose’s family.
 
The concept was good and should have made a good novel but the plot and execution weren’t very good. A few people remarked on the fact the title and artwork on the cover were very good and would make you want to read the book. A bookclub score of 3/10 was awarded for this book. The website www.goodreads.com was recommended as a good one for ordinary readers’ reviews of books