Lawhead is one of my favorite authors, and he followed through well on this book. This was my second time reading it.Stephen Lawhead is an expert in Celtic history and mythology, and most of his stories are set in ancient Britain and/or Ireland. He retells Celtic legends as historical novels (rather than as fantastic legends) which fascinates me.This novel tells the story of the famous St. Patrick, although the story is much different than the one I usually hear about Patrick. I'm most familiar with the legend of the great saint who saved Ireland by combating the druids and standing for the truth of Christianity. My wife and I sing the hymn attributed to St. Patrick every year on St. Patrick's Day (called "St. Patrick's Breastplate" or more commonly known as "I Bind Unto Myself Today.").However, Lawhead's version of Patrick is of a man who goes through a crisis of faith (as most of his protagonists do). Lawhead is quite gifted at painting a picture of real life struggles, and the issues that come along with them. Through the course of this novel, Patrick must be broken of his trust in himself. In the end, he must look upon the work of his hands and see how worthless it is. This sets him free from his slavery to wealth, power, and fame. It is convicting to see that God must break us of ourselves before he can truly use us.I must give a warning, though. Patrick's "Christianity" is not a true Christianity. I am familiar with the legend of St. Patrick resisting the druids, yet Lawhead's Patrick ends up synthesizing Christianity with Druidism (rather than fighting the druids, he joins them). In this novel, Christian priests are fat, lazy, selfish sons of guns, and the druids are noble, intelligent, and loving to all men. The one exception to the former category is the monk Pelagius. Historically, Pelagius was an arch-heretic of the church, teaching that men could be good enough to be accepted by God without needing Christ's atoning sacrifice. In Lawhead's novel, Pelagius is the only "Christian" who actually cares about someone other than himself. Thus he has a great influence on Patrick.So, while I cannot recommend Lawhead's theology, I would still highly recommend his novels as excellent stories of human life. This is one of his best.
Readers seeking a faithful biography of St. Patrick should look elsewhere. Readers hungry for a fanciful, fluid and engrossing tale of adventure that takes place in an extremely well-researched and realistically-depicted 5th-century Europe will be delighted. I approached this novel as the latter and loved it. Lawhead conjures wonderful, historically accurate imagery as a backdrop for a remarkable yet plausible story filled with depth and human emotion. Unlike many reviewers, I particularly enjoyed the highly-relatable main character. He is multidimensional, complex, completely believable (especially in his flaws) and is also quite well-developed by the author. My biggest criticism is that conclusion felt distinctly rushed; I wish Lawhead had spent as much time fleshing out the events leading to the ending as he had on the rest of the novel's stages. All in all, a beautiful story.
What do You think about Patrick: Son Of Ireland (2004)?
I was expecting a fairly accurate- but still fictional- account of Patrick's life. Fictional, of course, because we don't know much about his life; we have so little evidence to go on. But we do have *some* information.I guess I expected too much. Taking this as a work of 95% fiction, it was interesting, but lacking. Patrick himself is a liar and a thief; he has no regard for those he claims to love and is utterly selfish. Lawhead tries to bring him around to sainthood by the end of the book and fails. I don't think the Church beatifies druids- and being Ceile De doesn't help.
—Kelly
I have given up on this book half way through. It was a slow starter, and I skipped whole chunks out of boredom. It picked up for a bit and while Succat was in Ireland it grabbed my attention, but it has waned again. Wjo,e chunks of boring passages where not much is happening and I'm not particularly bothered by any character, least of all the main one! I was going to persevere, but having read reviews that show it never gets to the story of Patrick the saint but leaves off before that - which is the actual bit of Patrick's story I'm interested in, I feel no compulsion to pick up this book and finish it. A bit disappointing sadly.
—Milly Jones
Was disappointed that in reading this book I learned nothing about the actual historical person St. Patrick. Likewise, I don't feel like I learned anything about Druidism, but that feel that Lawhead dangerously mixes his obsession with it with his Christian beliefs in order to somehow reconcile the two. Sadly all the women in this book are two dimensional and therefore I wasn't moved by any of its romance. However, Succat is an interesting character to get to know and the book is an easy, entertaining read that at times is a page-turner.
—Tirzah
