Sharon Gmelch

I was looking forward to reading this book on an Irish Traveller family written by an anthropologist.

I was rather disappointed. It appeared that Sharon Gmelch took her PhD (or paper research) and sort of fashioned it into a more "readable" form in a popular title...

I had hoped to learn the "inside story" of the travellers -w hat do they like about the life, is it hard or easy, their customs, language, etc.

Nan was a traveller by choice. She grew up in a settled house, and only really took to the road when she left her first husband and 4 children (they were taken away). It is a book of co-dependence, there is much violence, drinking (which Nan never mentions herself, but medical records do show how ravaged she was by it), and really a lost and illererate woman's tale. This tale begins in the 1930s, and her husband was a very abusive man - however, it is a totally one sided tale (until the epilogue) of a woman who clearly had no coping mechanisms except to run away and abandon her 10 children. A sad tale.… (mere)

Told through the voice of Nan, who was born in 1919, the daughter of a chimney sweep, we hear about how travelers lived, their crafts, where they came from, and how and why they ended up less in the countryside and more in the cities. Nan was an Irish Traveler, sometimes living in tents, sometimes a wagon or barn or at times just under the sky. To earn a living the travelers would mend tinware, sweep chimneys, sell household goods, tell fortunes or get employment as home helps and farm laborers.

The author first met Nan in the 1970s. Over a period of several years Nan told her the story of her life, of how she traveled through Ireland and England, countryside and city slums. She had more than her fair share of heartbreak but also times of luck. Nan had a very tough life, had 18 children and suffered at the hands of her second partner who was violent when he'd been drinking. Through all of her troubles she didn't let anything break her and managed to find a little happiness for herself.

This book is an extremely emotional read, touching and heartbreaking. Some of the tales that Nan recounts will amaze you. A fascinating book and one I will always treasure.… (mere)