cover image To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood

To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood

Alice Taylor. St. Martin's Press, $14.95 (151pp) ISBN 978-0-312-03945-5

Taylor follows To School Through the Fields with these equally captivating further recollections of family life in pastoral County Cork, Ireland. Infused with wit and lyricism, the story centers on the 1950s when the author and her friends were budding teenagers. Unlike their daunted elders, the young were eager to ``quench the oil lamp'' and discard the chamber pot, as electricity and indoor plumbing changed home and farm forever. Taylor describes the past vividly and without complaint as years of hard labor for herself, parents and siblings, making clear that the days also were full of fun shared with neighbors in the close-knit community. Highlights in the memoir include the author's discovery of books, which became a lasting love, and her re-creation of the glorious night when she was allowed to attend her first dance at the county fair. Sad occasions also are reflected upon but the overall feeling is of joyful exuberance. (Mar.)