The Last Storyteller: A Novel of Ireland starts slowly but it builds and does that well until you are totally engrossed in the story and never quite sure where it is going.

When I first started reading this, I was not impressed. After 10 pages or so I looked toward the end and figured I had another 300+ pages to go and really thought I might want to just give up at that point. But I decided to try a few more pages and then a few more and soon I was sure I wanted to read it all. Now that I’m done, I’m glad I gave this book a chance.

A well-told story has a certain quality. This book does not seem similar at all to the book I earlier reviewed about the French philosopher and essayist (see Montaigne: How to Live ) but the Montaigne book came to mind when I started this review. But when you think about it good stories are like Montaigne’s essays in that they are about “how to live”. A good story is entertaining but has a larger point.

Frank Delaney is a master storyteller. And this is a story about a storyteller. A group of stories within a story or perhaps a story next to other stories. Maybe both. At any rate, a good story. The story takes place in the Ireland of the middle 1950s, a time of great change. The narrator Ben MacCarthy of the Irish Folklore Commission is trying to record the old culture before it disappears. An important part of that culture was the seanchai or traveling storyteller.

The story is complex. It includes Delaney’s retelling of several traditional Irish stories through characters in his book. These tales are well told and are a very enjoyable part of the book. The story is also a love story. You see, Ben lost his wife to a rather vile character many years back and his quest involves not only storytelling but recovering this lost love. And getting to know his children born after he lost his wife. It is a long story and Delaney tells it much better than I could, so I’ll leave it there.

Give “The Last Storyteller” a chance; I think you’ll not regret that.