McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy

McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy
Read: November 2009

Came across this book when a colleague was having a book sale as they were leaving Egypt. Looked interesting from the cover - something about Ireland, traveling and a biography/non-fiction of sorts equals my cup of tea. Scotty read this first and managed to get hold of and read another by McCarthy, The Road to McCarthy, that I will read too in due course.

I initially liked the premise for this book; that if you see a bar with your name on it, you have to go in and have a drink. And so for McCarthy, in Ireland, he finds himself busy drinking! McCarthy goes on this journey relaly though to explore whether his Irish heritage, having living in England all his life. Whilst the idea was a good one to start with, I did find that the book rambled somewhat aimlessly around - maybe this was the idea and the natural way you woud explore Ireland, but I guess I just wanted a bit more direction and way-markers!

I'm not so sure about the ending, when he does finally manage to make the spiritual retreat that he finds advertised early on in the book. I didn't feel that his journey had to cumulate into something religious-based. Although maybe all will be revealed in the next book?