Title: Irishman Dies of Stubbornness

Author: Caitlin Connors

Genre: Memoir

 

In Irishman Dies of Stubbornness, Caitlin Connors is joined by several others who knew her father, Chris Connors, as they tell his life’s story. Chris Connors passed away from pancreatic cancer, all the while ailing with ALS in late 2016, and in his wake, he left grieving family and friends, quite the impressive legacy, and an obituary that went viral. His daughter, Caitlin, bolstered by the obituary’s success, was prompted to share his memoir with the world because she felt his story needed to reach a wider audience.

To write a memoir, a person’s life often needs to have a certain quality that sets it apart from the mundane. Chris Connors’s life was certainly a qualifying story. He was one of those people who seemed larger than life itself, a big fish in a small pond. His daughter, Caitlin, wasn’t the only one who thought even a double dose of illnesses could keep him down. Her raw, honest retelling of her relationship with this complex man doesn’t paint him as a hero at every turn, yet the reader gets a real sense of his love for his family and friends and the zest he carried for life.

The only child of divorced parents, Caitlin retells her visitations every other weekend with her father when growing up, how they connected over going to the matinee show of whatever new movie was out. Although they didn’t speak much, their connection went deeper. She clearly felt she had a lot to live up to in order to make her father proud, and when he cut into her later in life for her choices, the reader feels the tearing of the heart right along with her. Many can relate to this gripping defeat and shame of letting a parent down.

By choosing to get multiple points of view, Caitlin has expanded the story of her father’s life drastically. This was a smart and compelling move on her part, thus giving the reader a more well-rounded version of Chris Connors. As a daughter, her viewpoint of him is limited, understandably, to her role in his life. It is challenging for anyone to step outside their role, perceived or otherwise, in someone else’s life, so having tales of exploits, such as being shipwrecked in his twenties or his years on Wall Street limo surfing, gives the reader a clearer picture of who Chris was.

The memoir reads like fiction, which is a nod to the quality of the storytelling. Caitlin Connors opens with an introduction to explain why she wrote her father’s memoir and mentions that she never wrote anything previously. Let it be said that she possesses a natural ability to compose a detailed account, rife with emotion.

At just over 46,000 words, this memoir is on the shorter side. It reads quickly, as the audience is easily immersed in the pages. If anything, more words would be welcome. What was Chris Connors’s childhood like, for example? Here, we aren’t given many details, and based on the quality of the extant writing, more stories about Chris would fill the reader’s mind with even more thrills about this interesting man.

Irishman Dies of Stubbornness is an entertaining, easy-to-read memoir about a man who both lived life to its fullest and lived it the best way he knew how in the moment. Caitlin Connors and others have composed a true-to-life tale that will resonate with those who have been graced with knowing someone who left big shoes to fill. The complexity of love and relationships in all their messy glory spill from the pages of Irishman Dies from Stubbornness.

 

 

This Editorial Review was written by the Book Review Directory staff. To receive a similarly honest, professional review for one of your own books, click here.