An Embarrassment of Riches
Gerald Hansen
Reviewed by Ashley
Merrill
This story that
Gerald Hansen has set up for his readers
is definitely not a snore. He brings in
many elements to help him make this a great story. His use of language,
the drama
he creates, and the personality's of his characters allows the reader
to get
swept up in this story of family mayhem.
Ursula Barnett
wins the Irish lottery. Thinking she and
her husband are now set for
life, they find themselves going and buying whatever they want, and
very soon
are shocked to realize that they are almost out of money. As soon as
that money
is won, the scent of it is picked up by Ursula’s family. They are now
after her
for a piece of the pie that they feel is owed to them. Little do they
know that
Ursula doesn’t have that much left to share. They confuse her refusal
to hand
out money as snobbery and mean heartedness.
Fionnuala
is Ursula’s sister-in-law and will stop at nothing to get the money
that she
feels she deserves. She has eight children, one of which is in jail and
the
others not far from it. She holds down
two part time jobs and never seems to have enough money. If you find
yourself
feeling bad for her, don’t. She makes it
her full time job to put Ursula in the spot light and make her family
hate her,
and try and send her to jail and sue her.
She will stop at nothing to do this. Whether she gets fake
x-rays to
show the court that her young son has broken bones from a car accident
they
accuse Ursula of being involved in, or convincing Ursula’s mother that
Ursula
never cared for her, but instead neglected her, Fionnuala is bad news.
Gerald
Hansen does a wonderful job with this dark comedy.
It is definitely worth the read to see what
happens at the end of this tail spinning story.
You’ll find that some people get what they deserve and others
end up
doing something quite surprising and shocking.
What helps make this story so real, and allows you to imagine
yourself
in Northern Ireland is the dialect these characters use. For the first
chapter
I was convinced I would be unable to comprehend this story, but you
find
yourself getting used to it, and even picking up a few phrases to use!
This
is an excellent novel for anyone to enjoy and to read again and again.
It gets
you away from your everyday problems and makes you realize that maybe
your
family really isn’t so bad in comparison to the family that is
portrayed in
this story. Who knows, you may even
learn some fantastic phrases that you can shock your friends with!