'Blight' is about the Doherty family's experiences during the potato famine in the Skibbereen area 1845 - 1847. The novel has its roots in Anna's childhood and adolescence.
In a mud cabin near Skibbereen, Brigid Doherty, a mother expecting her fifth child, lies on trodden earth. The baby is stillborn. Potato blight's pungent smell lingers in the autumn air. The plight of the Doherty family is the lot of all poor people. The rent is paid, only just, coutesy of the pig.
Blight covers the Relief Commissioner's struggle with bureaucracy, Molly Maguire's killing of sheep, the gombeen man's lack of pity for a poor widow and the pawnbroker's eye to booming business.
The ships bringing famine victims to North America disappear in the Atlantic mist. Anna remembers her early childhood and teenage years which shape her famine novel.
Professional Reviews
Blight
No money + no food = destitution.
In Blight, author Noel McCready explores the eternal themes of rich vs. poor, life vs. death, and food vs. starvation. Each condition is examined as the story moves from a family suffering through the Irish Potato famine to a modern tale of a young woman who has to deal with her own power, helplessness, abandonment, and starvation issues. Blight shows us that there are certain universal societal behaviors that are destined to repeat throughout history, simply put in any community, if the food supply is interrupted, there will be an unbalance of power. Insightful and well researched, Blight gives us much food for thought.
Wendy Thomas, Allbooks Review International, www.allbooksreviewint.com
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