SOURCE: Harman, Mark. “The Irish Struggle Within.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (13 June 1993): 2, 8.

In the following positive review, Harman evaluates the strengths of The Heather Blazing, complimenting its clear prose and intense plot.

We Irish are often said to be obsessed with the tangled history of our small island. Over the past few decades historians have been busy revising the simplistic version of Irish history that pitted ever virtuous Irish natives against evil foreign conquerors. That traditional scenario is still accepted in some Irish-American circles. The more differentiated or revisionist view of Irish history informs this splendid new novel by Colm Tóibín, a well-known journalist in Ireland and author of The South, winner of the Irish Times/Aer Lingus literary award.

In The Heather Blazing, Tóibín explores the impact of changing Irish attitudes toward history, religion and sexuality on the life of a successful...