The Village

March 1, 1993
Taylor's warmly received chronicles of Irish rural life ( To School Through the Fields ; Quench the Lamp ) are extended in this reminiscence of the village of Innishannon in western Ireland. Taylor arrived there as a bride in the 1960s, when, she observes, ``an old world was slipping out the back door while a new way of life marched in the front.'' Her recollections commemorate the old gathering places--the post office and the small shop she and her husband inherited--and the rugged individualists of Innishannon. Recording the circumstances of her happy marriage, Taylor captures the little world that satisfied many: the doctors, the curate and the countrymen and women with their pawky humor. Progress arrives in Innishannon in the shape of a supermarket and guest house for tourists. Taylor's love affair with the village endures as her storytelling endears it to her readers.