The Memory of Music

An Irish Family Saga of War & Redemption (The O'Neill Trilogy, Book 3)

By: Olive Collins

Narrated by: Maeve Smyth

One Irish family, 100 turbulent years.

1916: Betty O’Fogarty is proud and clever. Spurred on by Betty's belief in her husband Seamus’s talent as a violin-maker and her desire to escape rural life, the couple elopes to Dublin. She expects life there to fulfill all her dreams. To her horror, she discovers that they can only afford to live in the notorious poverty-stricken tenements. Seamus becomes obsessed with republican politics and neglects his lucrative craft.

As Dublin is plunged into chaos as the Easter Rebellion of 1916, Betty gives birth to her first child to the sound of gunfire and shelling. But Betty vows that she will survive war and want, and move her little family out of the tenements. Nothing will stand in her way. A hundred years later, secrets churn their way to the surface, and Betty’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren uncover both Betty’s ruthlessness and her unique brand of heroism.

©2019 Olive Collins (P)2021 Olive Collins

The human toil to be happy.

The end became very garbled. Too many names not enough story to support it. Made me sad. Listened to it more than one hungry for more attachment to the main story.

The trilogy of olive Collins story

Fascinating, intriguing,quite beautiful the stories from Ireland to Jamaica and back again , family history so interesting , sad cruel but told so well . I loved these books , very well researched and written .My eyes were opened to another part of history I knew nothing about , thanks you Ms Collins .

Lovely

Sometimes we forget history is our family. You will want to know more about your own

Immensely enjoyed

The intricate weaving of the characters. A must read, The whole trilogy is fantastic and never boring.

The story was unusual.

This trilogy is definitely worth a listen.
A time and people not often written about

Strong beginning then lost some momentum

From the beginning, this book held my attention and I was completely enraptured! I had grown to understand and love the characters and couldn’t stop listening to see what came next. I have listened to her other books and truly enjoyed the history and character development. About halfway through, she jumps time frame and that is where the story loses its grip. I kept waiting for it to go back..but it never did..and the author went off track from the main storyline into the new characters and it lost the mystery and appeal. I loved the first half and the end but could have skipped over the “modern day” narrative.

Engaging story

The story itself is engaging and unfolds enticingly. The narrator has a pleasant voice, lovely accent, and reads with expression however, she reads way too quickly. This was an easy fix by adjusting the reading speed to .8.

Not my cup of tea

I listened to The Tide Between Us and loved the story and characters. I was happily surprised that there were no descriptive sex scenes as this was a new author to me, and I am usually disappointed by the need for others to imagine. describe or view other people's sex lives. Sadly, this book had too much of it for me. I did not really connect with any of the characters even before the descriptive scenes. Maybe that was one point of the story. For me. the story had an unsatisfactory ending based on the description. I did not see or feel any redemption or hope in the ending, just attempts to climb out of the despair of the past that missed the mark. I would not waste my time commenting if I felt there was a legitimate reason the scenes that bothered me actually moved the story forward,but I feel a much better story could have been told with the suggestion and not the description. it might not have bothered me so much, except that I was listening and not reading, and I was appalled that it was being blurted out within earshot of my children. A book I can close or skip ahead. I am not really inclined to continue with this series because I am afraid I will encounter more of the same. I realize I am in the minority, but I have no interest in reading other people's sex. I do love a good historical and learning about the past. I feel the author does a great job evoking Ireland and the history. While I didn't connect with the characters. they were well developed. For mist audiences, this would probably be a wonderfully poignant read.