The title, "Bitter Oranges" refers to the often-stated desire of this boy - growing up in dark, cold, always-rainy Northern Ireland - to live where the sky was blue, there were palm trees and oranges grew alongside the road.
Some will be familiar with similar longings from British novels and movies such as Shirley Valentine where Shirley is dreaming of "drinking the wine where the grapes are grown." Such a deep pining for the sun may be unintelligible to those raised in anywhere with warn, dry, sunny summers.
This author remembers the first time he stood in a vineyard in the south of France. He was hitchhiking and was stuck looking for a lift for hours near Carcassonne. But, somehow I didn't really mind it that much. "I'm actually standing in the middle of vineyards." How bad could it be, loafing about for a while where it is warm enough to grow grapes?"
A scene in the novel where he is freezing in a Dublin seminary and reading about the plight of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath - hot and dusty Oklahoma of the dust bowl - prompts the thought,"How bad could it be when it's hot and dry enough to produce dust?".
It's hardly a spoiler to predict that the "oranges" he so looked forward to in California, turned out to be not as sweet as he'd dreamed.
Some will be familiar with similar longings from British novels and movies such as Shirley Valentine where Shirley is dreaming of "drinking the wine where the grapes are grown." Such a deep pining for the sun may be unintelligible to those raised in anywhere with warn, dry, sunny summers.
This author remembers the first time he stood in a vineyard in the south of France. He was hitchhiking and was stuck looking for a lift for hours near Carcassonne. But, somehow I didn't really mind it that much. "I'm actually standing in the middle of vineyards." How bad could it be, loafing about for a while where it is warm enough to grow grapes?"
A scene in the novel where he is freezing in a Dublin seminary and reading about the plight of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath - hot and dusty Oklahoma of the dust bowl - prompts the thought,"How bad could it be when it's hot and dry enough to produce dust?".
It's hardly a spoiler to predict that the "oranges" he so looked forward to in California, turned out to be not as sweet as he'd dreamed.
In the 1960's - the time-frame of the novel - many California dioceses were still in the post-war (WWII) expansion mode. New parishes were springing up to accommodate the thousands of new families and California could not supply anything like the number of priests and nuns needed to staff these churches and schools. Ireland, on the other hand, was at this time experiencing a bumper crop of young people entering convents and seminaries - training to become teachers and priests.
For a pittance California bishops recruited these young Irish men and women. ["Paddys for peanuts," a more cynical person might call the program. A new priest was paid the lordly sum of $64.00 per month all found]. It was under such a program this author - and Jack Holland - came to be in a California diocese.
For a pittance California bishops recruited these young Irish men and women. ["Paddys for peanuts," a more cynical person might call the program. A new priest was paid the lordly sum of $64.00 per month all found]. It was under such a program this author - and Jack Holland - came to be in a California diocese.
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