From AudioFile
CASTLE OF THE FLYNNS is a novel of the resilience of an Irish-Catholic family in Chicago in the 1950s. The story is told in the voice of a young boy who has lost both parents in a car accident and is left in the care of his grandparents, with the support of his aunts and uncles. Patrick G. Lawlor narrates as if the the story were his own and he remembers well what it means to be 8 years old. The "first generation" retains Irish accents, which offer local color without being overbearing or strained. The younger characters are more Americanized in their speech and attitudes. Lawlor's apparent fondness for his characters adds an extra dose of warmth and reality. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
The McCourt brothers can move over. The Chicago branch of the Irish mafia weighs in with a hilarious rendition of an Irish Catholic childhood, circa 1955. Raleigh breaks the mold set by his five previous novels featuring private detective Paul Whelan. His familiar, superior sense of place is here, but he adds an orphan, a family burdened by the love of drink and blessed with the gift of gab, a beautiful and brilliant nun, and a charismatic, slightly dangerous uncle. Seven-year-old Daniel Dorsey has lost his parents in an automobile accident. He is taken in by his grandparents, the Flynns, and his two bachelor uncles, and in the first unsteady months, Daniel ends up feeling sorry for the adults, who seem to have no clue about how to organize his daily schedule. But in the year that follows, through a number of key events in his family--a funeral, a wedding, a Labor Day baseball game--Daniel learns the great lesson of childhood: "They all belonged to me, and I to them." Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The year is 1954 and Daniel Dorsey learns at the age of eight the intimate meaning of death when his parents are killed in a car crash. Taken in by his colorful, at times mad, and always tender and caring extended family, Daniel learns that even the deepest sorrows and hurt can be healed. Michael Raleigh’s In the Castle of the Flynns is about a young boy growing up Irish in a vibrant 1950s Chicago neighborhood. Now grown and looking back on those years, Daniel recalls his bouts with grief and fear of abandonment as he learns to adjust to his new surroundings amidst his oddball family. It is a time of wakes and weddings, conflicts and romance. Above all, it is a time when Daniel comes to understand both his own loss and the dark places in the lives of his loved ones. In the Castle of the Flynns is a poignant, often hilarious story of hope, passions and unforgettable memories. It is a novel that will make grown men weep, women cry and cause both to break out in great guffaws of laughter.

About the Author
Michael Raleigh is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. His most recent, The Riverview Murders, won the first Eugene Izzi Award. He has received four Illinois Arts Council Grants for fiction. He teaches English at Truman College in Chicago.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The year is 1954 and Daniel Dorsey learns at the age of eight the intimate meaning of death when his parents are killed in a car crash. Taken in by his colorful, at times mad, and always tender and caring extended family, Daniel learns that even the deepest sorrows and hurt can be healed.
Michael Raleigh's In the Castle of the Flynns is about a young boy growing up Irish in a vibrant 1950s Chicago neighborhood. Now grown and looking back on those years, Daniel recalls his bouts with grief and fear of abandonment as he learns to adjust to his new surroundings amidst his oddball family. It is a time of wakes and weddings, conflicts and romance.
Above all, it is a time when Daniel comes to understand both his own loss and the dark places in the lives of his loved ones.
In the Castle of the Flynns is a poignant, often hilarious story of hope, passions and unforgettable memories. It is a novel that will make grown men weep, women cry and cause both to break out in great guffaws of laughter.

Author Biography
Michael Raleigh is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. His most recent, The Riverview Murders, won the first Eugene Izzi Award. He has received four Illinois Arts Council Grants for fiction. He teaches English at Truman College in Chicago.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Raleigh's gentle new novel follows two years in the life of young Danny Dorsey. Orphaned in 1954 when he is seven, Danny is taken in by his extended Irish-American family. Though raised by all his relatives, he lives with his grandparents in the rambling house they rent on Chicago's North Side the "Castle of the Flynns." In the years that follow his parents' car crash, Danny mourns his loss but slowly adapts to a new life, as do all the relatives who help to raise him. Danny spends his summer days with Grandpa Flynn or Grandma Dorsey and explores the neighborhood with his cousin Matt, while at school his Aunt Teresa helps him settle down to his studies. Little drama propels this tale of ordinary pleasures, but what there is resides in the adventures of those around Danny, particularly in his uncle's pursuit of another man's girlfriend. That courtship leads to the novel's climax, a Labor Day baseball game rendered as a duel between Uncle Tom and his rival, Philly Clark. Raleigh, the author of five detective novels, chooses to tell this story in the style of a memoir. The prose is relaxed (too relaxed), the story loosely structured (too often the novel cranks unremittingly through the calendar), and there is little tension. Closing the book, the reader might feel a favorite uncle has spent too much time regaling him or her with windy but fond memories. There are, however, many tender characters lovingly depicted, and those readers who know Chicago's North Side may enjoy Raleigh's evocation of that neighborhood in the '50s. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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