Author's Search to Learn More About Ireland's Great Hunger Leads to Outstanding New Novel
THE LAW OF DREAMS
By Peter Behrens
Steerforth Press
ISBN 0-88784-207-0
Reviewed by Sharon Greer
The outstanding debut novel by Peter Behrens, The Law of Dreams, is an exceptionally conceived book about violence, hardship and betrayal. It is the story of one man's precarious journey from Ireland to Liverpool and Wales during the Great Hunger of 1847.
Fergus O'Brien, the son of a tenant farmer, endures the loss of his entire family at the hands of a merciless landlord, whose own ultimate demise is rife with bloodshed. This young man's epic passage from innocence to harsh reality is chronicled in heartbreaking prose. His three great loves, Phoebe, Luke and Molly enter and exit his life with great alacrity.
After being forced to leave his hill farm in Ireland where he was born, Fergus sets off on what will prove to be a haunting experience of legendary proportions. He quickly joins a band of brigands and after raiding his former landlord's farm, drifts to Dublin, then to Liverpool where he is set up to work as a "pearl boy" (male prostitute).
Having no stomach for that particular line of work, he moves on to Wales where he meets a married woman, Red Molly, who becomes his lover. Together they return to Liverpool where they set off on a harrowing 41-day journey across the Atlantic on a coffin ship, bound for Canada.
Eventually Fergus' dream is to become a horse trader in the United States, but it is his agonizing adventure along the way that will capture the reader's heart. The Law of Dreams is ultimately a story of endurance and great spirit. The only criticism of the book is that Fergus as narrator is a bit thin at times and not always convincing.
Recently the writer explained his motive behind writing this particular story. "I grew up in an Irish-Canadian family in Montreal in the 1960s. There was never a period in my life when I was unaware of the Irish Potato Famine, the coffin ships, and the disastrous summer of 1847 when tens of thousands of Irish people crossed the Atlantic.
"My grandfather, John Joseph O'Brien, use to drive past the 'Black Rock' on Bridge Street near the old harbour in Montreal. The Rock marks the mass graves of thousands who died. I remember JJOB making a Sign of the Cross as we cruised slowly past. The Rock had a powerful, dark radiance, 120 years after the Famine. I needed to find out more about the story. So I wrote a novel."
Peter Behrens is the author of a collection of short stories and has written four feature screenplays. He now resides on the coast of Maine.
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