Caitlin's Reviews > Trinity

Let's begin by stipulating that Uris is a pulp fiction writer and should be read and reviewed on those terms. There's absolutely nothing wrong with pulp fiction - it's a great and wonderful genre full of entertainment value.

With Uris' books the formula is pretty simple: Our hero is noble, well-read, and self-sacrificing. He's closed himself off, but is waiting for the right woman. The right woman is also noble and self-sacrificing, but strong-willed and beautiful. He sets these folks down in the middle of some big historical conflict and then uses them to give readers a bit of a history lesson. He's typically got a bias, but most history does. These are good solid historical epics.

I really like Mila 18, his book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It inspired me to read a lot of actual history of the event including a number of diaries that were recovered from there. Likewise with Trinity, which I read once before, I will most likely go read more Irish history.

Trinity is a decent vehicle for imparting quite a bit of history from the Irish perspective. It's a good read for making you think about the impact of imperialism and industrialization. There's an excellent set of chapters on early twentieth century factories and a factory fire that will remind you why unions came about in a really visceral way.

This is a dense read, but it's entertaining and interesting in parts and is probably a good gateway to other more substantive reads on the subject matter.