Snag The End Of The Hunt Depicted By Thomas Flanagan Accessible In Publication

didn't like it that much, Thomas Flanagan's trilogy of Irish historical novels winds to its relentless close with the Free State established in the's after the bloody civil war, and the stage set for the Troubles through the rest of the century.
A vivid portraint of Michael Collins, This is a fine book that was a challenging read, partly because I had to check a history of Ireland and some web sites on the names of World war I era arms and vehicles for some background that the author assumes we know.
That said, I am grateful to Thomas Flanagan for the vivid portrayal of the attitudes that propelled the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War.


Some folks have commented that Michael Collins is the central character in The End of the Hunt, but I have to disagree, Collins and to lesser degrees Brougha and De Valera provide the historical backbone of the work but the narration centers on several fictional characters who provide us with a range of points of view on the events of the period.
Particularly interesting is the perspective of Janet Nugent, a member of the Irish Catholic gentry and a war widow, who often lets us see the disconnect between the passions of those directly involved in the conflicts and the desire on the part of most to simply get on with their lives.


I've read historical accounts of the period and remained confused, I can't claim to understand the complexities of the conflict now, but this work of fiction certainly helped me along the way, Over the years I've read both Year of The French and The Tenants of Time, books that tell the story of historical attempts by the Irish to wrest their small island from the tentacles of the British Empire.
The End of The Hunt tells the final chapter, the successful uprising led by Michael Collins in thes,

For those who have seen the film, Michael Collins, which was partially based on material from this excellent book, the territory will seem somewhat familiar.


Flanagan tells the story through the eyes of several of the participants, His writing style is intimate, biographical and poetic with wonderful descriptions and attention to detail, Highly recommended for those interested in a full sensory account of the fight for Irish freedom, What makes recent violence worse than that of years ago I squirmed that those I rooted for were assassins, This was the first of the Flanagan trilogy with well developed women characters and I found myself wanting to hear even more from them, All three books were wonderful for giving me even more feeling for what I think of as my second country, Therd in the series very helpful in understanding the civil war , etc, I liked it because the 'fictional friends' were also included, and made it easier to understand, Set in Ireland at the time of the Troubles, during the watershed year of, Thomas Flanagan's epic The End of the Hunt chronicles the years following World War I, in which the British attempted to put down once and for all the centuriesold dream of an independent Ireland.


On the pages of this gripping novel, we are transported from the smoky pubs of Dublin, where men argue eloquently but action has the final word, to the Irish countryside, where lonely roads become paths to the grave as fast as a rifle shot from stately manors, where an ancient way of life is threatened, to the gleaming London conference table, where men like Lloyd George and Winston Churchill play games of power, tainting the triumph of their Irish opponents through the painful dilemmas and grievous losses of men and women for whom old certainties have been splintered and new sides must be chosen.
The End of the Hunt is fiction of a very high order, It brings us facetoface with history as it was made, and life as it was given and lost, Outstanding. Highly recommended. This is the third book in Flanagan's masterful trilogy on the Irish rebellion against British rule, Flanagan was a gifted writer, in my opinion, but his prose is seldom easy, and he is not a quick read, This was my favorite of the three books, although I read the first two so long

ago that it's difficult to be sure, This was perhaps one of the saddest books that I've read in a long time, The personal tragedies of the characters are interwoven with the historical tragedy of Ireland's quest for independence and Britain's repression, I started the novel after returning from my first trip to Ireland and the book made me nostalgic for the country of my grandparents, although Flanagan does not spend a lot of time on the landscape.
It's about the men and women who lives through the years fromthru the end of the civil war, I wasn't sure at times which of the principals were fictional, aside from the historical figures like Collins and deValera, I would think it possible to read this book on its own but I would encourage potential readers to try the Year of the French.
Flanagan's three books of fictionalized modern Irish revolution are excellent, This is the weakest of the three a little slack and looselipped, as if he were dictating it over a Guinness and no one felt like editing.
Still a great read, though, A great read. Like being present during the revolutionary upheaval in Ireland, Walking alongside the likes of Michael Collins, We see how the middle class people of the South Side were won over to the Independence movement, Very engaging characters. I have just finished rereading this novel for what must be the fourth or fifth time since it was first published someyears ago, Each time I have read the last words of the novel with a profound sense of regret that the reading was done,

The End of the Hunt is a genuine masterpiece, For me, it compares with two very different, but exceptional historical novels: Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Hilary Mantel's recently completed trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell.


The novel's multiperspective brilliantly unravels the complexities of the Irish War of Independence, the scission over the Treaty that ended it, and the bloody and tragic Civil War that followed.
All the principal historical protagonists are brought to life in all their roundedness, The writing is sometimes dense, but lyrical, Some of the set pieces, and confrontations between Michael Collins and Cathal Brugha, bust off the page and almost overwhelm the reader with a sense of the tragedy of "The Troubles".


This is not a book for the fainthearted, but richly rewards any who persist, Thomas Flanagan November,March,was an American professor of English literature who specialized in Irish literature, He was also a successful novelist, Flanagan, who was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, graduated from Amherst College in, He was a tenured full Professor in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley until his retirement, Flanagan died in, at the age of, in Berkeley, He won the National Book Critics Circle Award in, The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds his papers, .