Full title: An Irishman's Journey: A First Person Account of One Immigrant.
Author: Benjamen Patric Ezekiel Carver, AKA "Reilly Padraic Ezekiel O'Hanna"
Published: ₣eedom Press 2014
Format: E-book, paperback, hardcover
Content: an unvarnished first person view of the Irish Potato Famine, the coffin ship journey, and the attitudes of the times and himself, including his movement from prejudice to tolerance. While the book is framed around Carver's autobiography it is as much a slice of the times as a look at the man. He pulls no punches about the place, the attitudes, or himself. He uses the word "nigger", because, as Carver explains: "It was said and it was said every bit as hatefully as it has come to mean. People need to remember that it was said, and why."
The book ends with Carver's adjustment to the modern world. And how he got here as a warning that the magic is real and coming. Yes the book outs him as part of the weird.
Reaction[]
The book has been noted critically as not an easy thing to read. Not for any reason of style, but for the unvarnished content. Light waiting room reading it is not.
The book is not sitting well with certain people that would like to romanticize the South and the Confederate cause. Dr. Carver said he didn't write it to make anyone comfortable. He did it because he was a witness, and likely the last witness.
Carver's viewpoint of the South and later Confederacy that he lived in and actively supported with military service is ugly. The Confederacy existed to preserve the institution of slavery, period. It is nothing to wax poetic about. He put the cards on the table, they can accept or call him a lair. The latter is very hard to do.
It is hotly debated by the Academic community. Carver's source materiel has been questioned by those that didn't read carefully enough. His guest lectures on the subject make that very plain. It is only what he himself has witnessed.