Reviews for The Story of the Irish Pub: An Intoxicating History of the Licensed Trade in Ireland

The average rating for The Story of the Irish Pub: An Intoxicating History of the Licensed Trade in Ireland based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-31 00:00:00 David Tan The review on the front cover reads: "I have been darting, delightedly, from one section to another -from Salting Herring to extreme halophiles, to Spectroscopy. It is a marvellous mosaic leavened with great charm and lightness." (Oliver Sacks). That is a perfect summing up of a book that doesn't hold your attention for more than a minute, where you have to dart around to see if there is anything your mind can settle on. Too much information is presented as a 'mosaic' of off-topic light humour, speculation and quirky little asides. The Positive: there is charm in the writing, which is about the nicest thing I can say of this over-blown and often-awkward translation. The Negative: to give an example of how bad this book is, the second introduction (!) is all about whether the book should be a book, essays or called a treatise. A second introduction indeed! I gave up after making like a hummingbird and flitting around three chapters-worth of this and that, never finding the sweetness, nor even any tiny grain of the enticingly savoury. Mind, I still have the book. I love the cover.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-10 00:00:00 Philip Horton This book could have been so much cooler. I think I was hoping it would be more like "The Supper of the Lamb," but it wasn't because the author is not a Christian, for starters. He does have a disclaimer that the book is going to be a bit rambling and "an ignorant treatise," and it was indeed rambling and slow in part. However, it had some really interesting stuff and is good for arguing that "salt is neat!" He shows how integral salt is and has been in politics, culture, language, technology (PVC pipes!), and cooking, of course. I really enjoyed his inclusion of proverbs about salt from many different languages and various etymological nuggets.