1.	Obsah knihy

2.	Recenze knihy

2.1.	Příběh a jeho zasazení

2.2.

Humor

2.3.	Postavy knihy - Maureen a Kevin

"When you read the title of the book by Patrick McGinley – Foggage – you do not get much idea what the book is about. I chose the book because of the several hints on the cover of the book, e.g. Kevin and Maureen shared everything – including the most shocking secret of all. I chose the book because I wanted to know what kind of secret they shared.
The secret is revealed at the very beginning of the book. Maureen and Kevin are siblings but they regularly have sex with each other. They live peacefully on their farm and care for the land until Maureen discovers that she is pregnant. Kevin has to find a solution and he tries to find a suitable man for her.
However his sister Maureen is a very coarse person. She is a simple village woman with the habits of not much a civilized person. She is not very tactful and she does not choose words properly from her limited vocabulary according to the situation she is in. During the meals she talks about things that are not at all suitable for mealtime. Her hygienic habits are also on a low level. She washes only on Sunday.
It is not easy for Kevin to find a man for her. She does not need to get married necessarily; just a little affair would be enough. During the process he experiences funny as well as tragic moments. Kevin invites his friend Festus O’Flaherty who works as a vet and is infamous for his affairs with a good deal of ladies. Obviously, Festus is not interested in Maureen. Kevin invites another friend of his, Murt Quane. The official reason for the invitation is working together on Kevin’s farm. Murt is coming in his new tractor and Kevin is felling a tree meanwhile. Unfortunately the tree falls on the tractor and Murt dies. After that Kevin hires a farm laborer called Billy Snoddy. Maureen and Snoddy know each other because they went out together once when they were teenagers. Kevin tries to catch them in the romantic moment but instead Billy catches him and Maureen. After Murt´s death Kevin becomes acquainted with Murt´s sister Elizabeth. Finally they get married and Kevin thus cleanses himself. Here the funny turning point of the story comes. Maureen finds out she made a mistake and is not pregnant. Actually, she is in her climacterical. Elizabeth moves to Kevin’s farm but her life together with these three people is not happy. The first sad moment comes when her favorite dog dies and the second one when she herself becomes ill and is going to suffer all her life by an incurable skin disease. Elizabeth also spent a great part of her life on a farm but she got some education and worked as a teacher. She cared for the farm life and she discussed agricultural topics with her brother when he was still alive. Her personality is softer, her behavior more traditional according to the Catholic Church. She cannot stand the coarseness of Maureen and Snoddy. The differences of these four people than lead to a tragic conclusion.
This story is not very typical for the Irish culture, where everybody is very conservative and lives according to the rules of the Catholic Church. My favorite character was Elizabeth who seemed to be the most Irish person of the people described. She was free in her youth going out with men as well but as the time went on she settled down on her brother’s farm and devoted her time to teaching and remained unmarried. The reason for staying single might have been the fact that she was raped and thus not virgin anymore and preferred to keep it as a secret."