A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette review of Patrick O’Keeffe’s novel The Visitors describes ” the story of two contemporary Irish immigrants. Graduate student Jimmy Dwyer and real estate investor Kevin Lyons were never friends, but their families were linked by the friendship between their two fathers in rural Ireland. All four men’s lives were intertwined by friendship and their love of the sisters and daughters of the two patriarchs.”
“Patrick O’Keeffe emigrated from County Limerick himself and is now a professor of creative writing at Ohio University,” writes reviewer Lorinda Hayes. “The poetry of his descriptions of life in Ireland before the economic boon is the kind of picturesque storytelling that Irish Americans love to read. (Isn’t our Ireland really The Quiet Man with rugged John Wayne and beautiful Maureen O’Hara?)
“Mr. O’Keeffe tempers that poetry with the grit of hard work, marriages that are never to be broken and true love that will never be fulfilled. Dreams fade into the realities of economic survival. Pursuing a dream may involve sacrificing relationships with those whom you’ve loved all your life. Secrets revealed may help heal or may ultimately hurt.”
Read the Post-Gazette’s book review.
The review also appeared in Smart Health and Topix.
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