THE MAMMY, THE CHISELLERS, AND THE GRANNY by Brendan O’Carroll are best read in combination and considered as one book. They compare very favorably with Angela’s Ashes which remained on the bestseller’s lists for such a long time in 1997. These are fiction titles instead of being based strictly on the author’s life as Angela’s Ashes was.

These books have the same structure of an Irish childhood spent in poverty with a single mother. THE MAMMY opens with a twist on what has all the ingredients of the usual tale of woe as the father dies and leaves his family destitute. It is Dublin, 1967, and Redser, the father, has just been run over and killed. Agnes Browne, the Mammy of the stories, quickly makes her way to the Department of Social Welfare so she won’t miss a penny of the money which is her due. It is difficult to imagine this scene in a government office as a funny one, but the author will have you snickering over what happens next.

This sets the pattern for the entire series. Perhaps because it is fiction, the author always allows the humorous viewpoint to dominate. Going through these experiences would be more tragic as real occurrences. Six children always provide the situations a parent must provide discipline for as they try to keep the grin off their face. But watch out for Agnes if anyone is brutal or unfair to one of her children. Watching an Irish Catholic go up against a nun when her child is tormented at the school is an eye opener.

THE CHISELLERS takes the ages of the children a little further along. One is an apprentice carpenter and another brother is making the gradual discovery that he is gay. One is learning how much he enjoys a life of petty crime. This book deals with some of the real problems low income families face and is a little darker. As in all families, there are some failures and some successes.

THE GRANNY has one son going to jail and another running off to England. But like all large families, there is a new grandchild to cuddle. Life never really ends, it goes in a circle.

The novels are written in an Irish working-class accent which gives plenty of opportunity to learn Irish slang. When you read a sentence like “Will yeh go on outta that!” the sound of the voices ring in your ear. The pictures used on the covers look just like they came out of a family album. You will forget these novels are made up and try to identify which child is which.