Forever

Starred review from December 23, 2002
This novel demands that the reader immediately suspend disbelief, but if this summons is heeded the reward will be a superior tale told by Hamill (Snow in August; A Drinking Life) in the cadence of the master storyteller. The year is 1741 and this is the story of Cormac O'Connor—"Irish, and a Jew"—who grows up in Ireland under English Protestant rule and is secretly schooled in Gaelic religion, myth and language. Seeking to avenge the murder of his father by the Earl of Warren, he follows the trail of the earl to New York City. On board ship, Cormac befriends African slave Kongo, and once in New York, the two join a rebellion against the British. After the rising is quelled, mobs take to the streets and Kongo is seized. Cormac saves Kongo from death, but is shot in the process. His recovery takes a miraculous turn when Kongo's dead priestess, Tomora, appears and grants Cormac eternal life and youth—so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan, thus the "Forever" of the title. What follows is a portrait of the "city of memory of which Cormac was the only citizen." Cormac fights in the American Revolution, sups with Boss Tweed (in a very sympathetic portrait) and lives into the New York of 2001. In that year he warily falls in love with Delfina, a streetwise Dominican ("That was the curse attached to the gift: You buried everyone you loved"), and comes into contact with a descendant of the Earl of Warren, the newspaper publisher Willie Warren. His love, his drive for revenge and his very desire to exist are fatefully challenged on the eve and the day of September 11. This rousing, ambitious work is beautifully woven around historical events and characters, but it is Hamill's passionate pursuit of justice and compassion—Celtic in foundation—that distinguishes this tale of New York City and its myriad peoples. 4-city author tour.

September 15, 2002
Cormac O'Connor arrived in New York in 1741-and he's still there, having been granted immortality as long as he remains on the island of Manhattan.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2002
Hamill, a well-known journalist, is also a popular novelist; his 1997 novel " Snow in August" appeared on best-seller lists (as well as the " Booklist" Editors' Choice list for that year). His remarkably imaginative new novel is an exciting mix of realism and fantasy as he follows the exploits of Cormac O'Connor, born into Ulster peasantry in intolerant eighteenth-century Ireland. O'Connor is painted as a traditional mythical hero who is oversized in strength and character, and who actually carries a sword with great protective powers. In fact, the whole novel springs from Celtic mythology, for O'Connor's parents adhere neither to Protestant ways nor to Roman Catholic beliefs but to old Celtic religious practices. Both of them are killed--in separate circumstances--by the cruel Protestant earl of Warren, who, not caring at all, then seeks better fortune in New York City. O'Connor, vowing to avenge his mother's and father's brutal deaths, tracks the earl to the great American metropolis. Events come to pass wherein O'Connor is given the gift of eternal life, but for the blessing to work, he must never leave the island of Manhattan or he will die and never pass into the "Otherworld" of Celtic mythology. So, at this point O'Connor's story becomes the story of New York City, from the mid-1700s to the present, as he "absorbs its life, its menace, it cruelties, its toughness, its joys and sorrows and beauties." Hamill writes with great detail, which adds texture and spice to, rather than impeding, the narrative's swift movement. As always, he is perfectly enjoyable to read for his great felicity of style (obviously derived from his years as a journalist) as well as his originality of plot. This absolutely embracing novel is certain to hit the best-seller lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)