So, Tom That Went and Tom that would come back! is how Nora Lynch greeted the young American Thomas Lynch in 1970, at the edge of the ocean in West Clare, outside the cottage that his great-grandfather--another Thomas Lynch--had left nearly a century before on a one-way ticket to America. In thirty-five years and dozens of return trips to Ireland, Lynch has found a template for the larger world inside the small one, the planet in the local parish. The neighbors and characters he found there--spinsters and farmers, local heroes, poets, clergy, and corner boys-taught him to look, as Montaigne said we ought, for the whole of Man's estate in every man. Part memoir, part cultural study, Booking Passage is a brilliant, often comedic guidebook for those Lynch calls fellow travelers, fellow pilgrims making their way through the complexities of their own lives and times.

"Undertaker-cum-poet Lynch (Bodies in Motion and at Rest) recalls his long romance with Eire and how it has affected his life in this compelling memoir. He takes off for the Emerald Isle early in 1970 to meet his people, who live on the edge of the Atlantic in County Clare. He stays with his elderly cousins, Nora and Tommy, a brother and sister who never married. The humble cottage has no water and is heated by a turf fire. Here the young Yank absorbs his culture shock and learns how life is lived without television, cars and other modern distractions. After Tommy's death, Lynch and Nora become closer, and he begins to bring the 20th century into the house in the form of running water. Along the way he tells the story of the Lynches of County Clare: how they survived 'starvation, eviction and emigration — the three-headed scourge of English racism' — and the pain of diaspora as they emigrated to the U.S. Along the way Lynch examines his own life: his love-hate relationship with the misogynist Catholic Church and pedophilic priests; his battle with alcoholism; the breakup of his marriage and remarriage; and his unusual love of the undertaking trade. This is a deeply thought-out book filled with poetry, pathos, triumph and lots of Irish laughter. Agent, Richard McDonough. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A man for whom he was named, his great-grandfather, made the long voyage from Country Clare to America, and Lynch returned the favor by going back a hundred years later, and then many times after that. The result is this combination memoir and cultural study, in which Lynch applies the mind of the outsider who is also the insider to this vast collection of people and conditions of life rolled into what is actually a fairly small space. Those lives carry the larger world back and forth, but they, like Lynch are keenly aware that this is a type of holy ground solid enough to be capable of also holding the profane.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

A man for whom he was named, his great-grandfather, made the long voyage from Country Clare to America, and Lynch returned the favor by going back a hundred years later, and then many times after that. The result is this combination memoir and cultural study, in which Lynch applies the mind of the outsider who is also the insider to this vast collection of people and conditions of life rolled into what is actually a fairly small space. Those lives carry the larger world back and forth, but they, like Lynch are keenly aware that this is a type of holy ground solid enough to be capable of also holding the profane. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In 35 years and dozens of return trips to Ireland, Lynch has found a template for the larger world inside the small one, the planet in the local parish. Part memoir, part cultural study, this is a brilliant, often comedic guidebook for those Lynch calls "fellow travelers, fellow pilgrims" making their way through the complexities of their own lives and times.