...Then What Happened?
Tue., October 28, 08:50 AM
Is it just me? I don’t know whether other people do this or if I’m really as nutty as it seems. I read a nice feel-good book, like An Irish Country Doctor, in which everyone lives happily ever after, or so it seems. And I’m thinking, “so what happened next?” I suppose it’s just proof that the story was well written and the characters, like beauty, are more than just skin deep.
Whatever the reason, I was very glad that U.D. found a sequel on an “advance reading” list. “Shall I request it,?” she asked. She might as well have asked if I wanted ice cream. Of course!
According to the notes, An Irish Country Christmas is not the second in the series, but the third, even though it seems just a few short months since Barry, the young doctor, first came to Ballybucklebo. He is now a part of the community, knows many of his patients by more than just their ailments, and is still learning about human nature. We get to know more about Dr. O’Reilly. And I still love Mrs. Kincaid, known as Kinky, the housekeeper with, as the local dialect puts it, a heart of corn. (I love the glossary too.)
Sure, I know it’s fiction, and there probably never was a community quite that ecumenical. But what a nice way to celebrate the Christmas season — neither the Catholic church nor the Presbyterian has enough children to make a choir, but together they produce a creditable pageant. Indeed, someone does comment sarcastically that the best way to produce divisiveness is to educate small children separately.
Christmas Day, of course, turns out lovely for everyone, making this a good Christmas book, possibly an appropriate gift for someone you know. (We have ours, thank you.) Come to think of it, so was Fannie Flagg’s A Redbird Christmas, which we got last year.
I wonder what will happen next…
