Gerry Burnie

2,5 stars. 5 stars for the first part about the Sheldon's childhood and youth in rural Canada. This part was great. It was extremely well written and absolutely enthralling.
The second part about how he started his political career was ok. But from there it went downhill.
Why only 2,5 stars? Because of the last part.
Sheldon is described as a beautiful, somewhat soft kid/young man, very smart and well educated. He fiercely loves his parents and is bent on achieving an university degree for his late mother.
So far so good. But his sexuality and his moral compas are a bit off. He works as a male prostitute to finance his studies and doesn't find it a problem to have three different relationships at the same time (rich sugar daddy, hot male friend, female girlfriend) as long as he is not married. Sorry, but it is cheating still imo. He marries the girl, has two kids and starts his career - living as a heterosexual and not cheating anymore.
Then Trace, a guy from his past as a male prostitute appears, who is a convicted psycho who is obsessed by Sheldon (a former "lover", who raped him twice). Trace ruins his political career and kills his wife. Sheldon is shellshocked. He kills Trace in selfdefense. Two days later he clears with his good (and rich) friend Colin, that now that his wife is dead he is free to have sex with him - they wink at each other. They wait for the funeral because Sheldon really feels that he has to wait a bit to consummate their love (3 weeks?) - a lot of chuckling, laughter and winking follows.
Maybe you noticed by now, why I disliked the end so much.
This is so shallow and sad after the great start.… (altro)

Gerry Burnie's Two Irish Lads is a quaint tale of second cousins Sean and Patrick McConaghy who migrate to Canada from their homeland of Ireland in the year 1820. With their life's savings they intended to buy some land in "upper Canada" (the area now known as Ontario) and make a good life as farmers with the hope of prosperity.

Once they arrive they visit the land office and select a choice piece of property. With a few supplies and a tent, they take on the task of clearing the land, hoping to build a shelter before winter. The two lads eventually realize they are in love. One of the settlement's wealthy leaders, Nealon, takes them under his wing, giving them advice, arranging a cabin-raising for them, and even getting Sean a job as a schoolmaster. It is soon revealed that he has an ulterior motive in that he hopes they might marry his two daughters.

There are a few harsh realities through which they must persevere, before all the dust settles, but I won't spoil it by revealing any more.

The story is written in the style of Sean's daily journal. While the first few chapters do indeed read like an authentic journal, thankfully Burnie then shifts to more of a first-person narrative than how a real journal would read, but that is simply to accommodate the storytelling process.

Burnie's knowledge and research shine through in that the story beautifully describes 19th century Irish customs and decorum. He even uses a few Gaelic phrases, always with translation, and the dialog sounds so right you can practically hear the Irish brogue.

I thought the characters were well-developed and exuded a great deal of charm. Sean was the leader and sensible one, whereas the younger Patrick was more carefree and daring. While he yearned to be able to be open and proclaim his "secret love" to the world, he deferred to Sean's wisdom and together they balanced each other out. The details of frontier life were also well researched, and the descriptions were vivid enough to give us a good picture of the landscapes and the settlements.

My quibbles are minor - I'd have liked to see more of Sean actually teaching the children, and I felt there were a few times some of the characters were just a little too perky for my taste.

I really enjoyed Two Irish Lads. It suits my personal taste of an upbeat depiction of frontier life, and I especially like stories where people come together to help each other and fight against the evils that threaten them. I look forward to reading more from this gifted author.

The following link is to a longer version of my review:
My In-Depth Review of Two Irish Lads by Gerry Burnie… (altro)