Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

If charm were cholesterol, this book would be a guaranteed heart attack. Coolarney House is an Irish dairy farm where two old men with big hearts and secrets mend lives and make astonishing cheeses, some with magic powers. (The cows are tended by pregnant vegetarians who sing "The Sound of Music" as they milk.) Lost souls arrive and stay, make cheese, make love, and it's all funny, sexy, and surprising. Heather O'Neill does a great job with the Irish voices, is slightly less steady with American ones, and is really terrible with the Australians, but it doesn't matter much, as they aren't in the book very long. A delightful audio read. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

May 26, 2003
In the spirit of Chocolat, Lynch's debut novel is a tender love story told through the medium of food, in this case cheese. In County Cork, Ireland, Joseph Corrigan and Joseph Feehan, better known as Corrie and Fee, are the aging manufacturers of world-renowned Coolarney Blue. Their chief worry is a conspicuous lack of successors, and the narrative chronicles the solution to their quest in the unlikely but fated convergence of two characters. Abbey Corrigan, granddaughter of worrywart Corrie, who hasn't seen her in 24 years, sits abandoned on the Pacific Island Ate'ate while her irrigation-obsessed and hypercritical husband gets biblical with the natives. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Kit Stephens is a burned-out stockbroker and despondent alcoholic, heartbroken by the recent departure of his wife and now fired from his job. In a series of fantastic coincidences, the two end up at the Coolarney factory, a meeting that will forever change their lives and the future of cheese. In an engaging and humorous style, Lynch details the cheesemaking process (sun, rain, a salty sea breeze and of course, grass, are the essential ingredients, along with constant music and a secret mold), and enlivens the narrative with eccentric, loquacious and comical characters, including three ginger cats named Jesus, Mary and All the Saints. The pace of this heartwarming novel is brisk, and the background detail so colorful that the reader will henceforth eat cheese with a new appreciation for its magical properties. Optioned by Working Title Films.

November 1, 2003
Magic is most certainly in the air in County Cork, Ireland, home to Joseph Corrigan and Joseph Feehan, the eccentric creators of the world famous Coolarney Blue Cheese. The beginning of the novel finds the elderly Corrie and Fee steeped in worry about the absence of successors to their traditionally run cheese empire. Fate sends them Corrie's long-lost granddaughter, Abbey, on the run from her philandering, emotionally abusive husband, and Kit Stephens, a former investment guru whose Irish secretary suggested he take a holiday at the cheese farm and dry out from a budding alcohol abuse problem. Although Kit and Abbey literally feel electricity between them when they first meet, their raw emotional wounds leave them reluctant to consider that they might have just found true love. Heather O'Neill's depictions of the wacky characters in this charming debut are all terrific, but her portrayals of Corrie and Fee are truly exceptional. Highly recommended for all collections.-Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH

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