Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read this. Full of history, interesting characters, and familiar celebs brought to life. It’s a bit on the worst side but an interesting read, nonetheless.

I received a ARC from netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

So much passion, ambition, and loyalty to their family gives this book a mafia vibe. Loved it!

Great story of an Irish family over years. Would make a good mini series. Loved filling the characters as they found the way to succeed in America. Really liked this book

The first thing to know about this book is that it has a sweeping scope. This isn't that character driven historical fiction that focuses more on the characters and their lives while leaving the history to be interesting window dressing. This is deep, heavily-detailed history, the kind that warms the heart of someone like me who studied it but I could see it being a bit much otherwise. I'd say this is my only real criticism of the book: the details of the history have a tendency to bog down the narrative, making certain sections longer than necessary and/or repetitive. This was the only reason it took me so long to finish it, not the page length but the lack of forward plot movement.

Which is saying something because there is less of a plot as there is just a progression of history from the protagonist's point of view. (Sometimes there doesn't really feel like there's a plot at all and we lose our main character amongst the history. I would've liked less of that and more of Nora.) We watch the Irish, through the Kelly family's 3rd and 4th generations (post-immigration due to the Great Starvation) rise up and take their place as a formative group in American politics and culture.

The protagonist is logically placed where she has personal experiences of WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, and a host of smaller events in between including her meeting several famous individuals. Usually this feels more contrived in historical fiction but it worked for me with this one because of her occupation: as the personal photographer of a very important city at that time, she realistically could have met those people. Am I saying it's likely? Not really, but it is historical *fiction*.

Nora is a perfect main character. She has so much growth during the story but she's never too perfect, as some MCs grow to be over such a long timeline. In the beginning when she's young I like that at times she's petty and overconfident because that gives her the opportunity to realize she was when she's older. But even into her later years, she retains that brashness, that tendency to speak out of turn which gets her into more trouble than not.

Her bravery has moments when it backfires or collapses all together, despite her personal history amidst violence and war, which is endearing and human. She's very lovable. By the end of the book, she truly feels like a friend I could have in the real world with all her foibles and shortcomings but also her intensity, her dedication, and her unwavering support of those she loves.

Was it perfect? No but I did enjoy it and that's good for me.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Macmillian/Tor-Forge, and the author Mary Pat Kelly for the opportunity to do so.

Irish Above All was disappointing. The story is very long. The plot is too many people and names. I got lost and stayed lost. Very dry and complex. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this story. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was so anxious to read this book as I loved Galway Bay.... however, this novel reads more like a series of historical people and events rather than a novel, hence my rating of 2.5.

This novel follows Nora Kelly in the 1920s through WWII and into the 1960s. Along the way, Nora interacts with historical figures such as Al Copone, Sally Rand, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joe Kennedy, John F. Kennedy — all tied to her job as a photographer working for her cousin, Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly. The history is solid, but loses its impact as it becomes the thrust of the “story” rather than the main character. And speaking of characters, there are way too many. It was difficult to keep track of who was within the Kelly family. (I made a family tree just to keep track of all the Kellys and their relationships.)

As a novel, it lacked a strong thread to really follow, other than Nora lamenting her lost love, sticking by her family, her Irish roots, and her determination to live life on her own terms (despite being dependent on her cousin for a job). And much of that was constantly repeated. Nora, as the main character, was irritating (perhaps all that repetition?) but as the book was based on a real person, perhaps that was who she really was in real life. Then there was the ending, which, for me, came from nowhere and seemed to spring rather fast from reality into fantasy.

Irish Above All failed to deliver as a novel, but as history it delivered. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Mary Pat Kelly's "Irish Above All" continues to tell the story (started in "Of Irish Blood") of Irish-American Nora 'Nonie' Kelly, born in Chicago. As this part of her life begins in 1923, she has just returned to her home town after spending ten years in Paris, where she learned the art of photography from a master.

The story continues to balance family inter-relationships and world events (influenced in surprising ways by Norah, though she's rarely credited).

Fans will be happy to know that there is - eventually - a happy ending for Norah Kelly.

Way too long , way too many characters and way too many references to how Grandma Honora and the Irish were the only immigrants that shaped Chicago. A lot of the book I skipped as was bogged down with so much detail regarding places, people and events. The story of the Irish and their struggles can be shared by so many other peoples who have left their homeland and succeeded in a new place. The title suited the book as this book certainly personified that the Irish were better and above all . This was referenced to the point it became overpowering. The author chronicled very well the historical component of this time in history but to the determent of her readers.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to note that I tackled Irish Above All: A Novel by Mary Pat Kelly as a buddy read with one of my favorite fellow book bloggers. Magdalena reviews books at A Bookaholic Swede and if you haven’t done so already, I really recommend checking her site out. She’s a prolific reader and has a great catalog of honest reviews spanning a variety of genres.

Getting into the novel at hand, I want to say that I wanted to like Mary Pat Kelly’s Irish Above All, but I am afraid the novel and I proved a poor fit. I managed to read 63% before I resorted to skimming the text and ultimately felt the narrative too much work for too little return.

The novel is the better part of six hundred pages in length, most of which is dedicated to a who’s who of headlining twentieth-century personalities. Al Capone, John F. Kennedy, Nancy Reagan (nee Davis), Eleanor Roosevelt, Sally Rand… Kelly fits so many references that novel felt like nonfiction. I appreciate the attention to detail, but I can’t help feeling the name dropping eclipsed the novel’s heroine and distracted from the story at hand.

The wealth of information often caused me to lose track of the plot and I confess that I had to circle back several times to reacquaint myself with the details of Nora’s relationships and the course of her experiences. Keeping track of the story amid so much superfluous exposition was mentally taxing, but Kelly tends to tell more than she shows and that made it difficult for me to connect with her cast or care how their journeys played out.

At the end of the day, I think Kelly has a great eye for subject matter, but Irish Above All didn’t speak to my tastes.

DNF at 57% then I jumped to the end and what I predicted came true. It was so ridiculous that I don't know if I should be impressed with the fact that I saw it coming in the beginning or depressed that the most cliche ending you can imagine happened.

Now, this is not a truly bad book, but I just didn't have enough care left for Nora and her BIG family. The book is sure well-researched, but much of the time it felt like reading a history book with constant name droppings. Every famous person from the 20 and forward either showed up or was mentioned. There just came a point when I felt that I had enough, and the book is so THICK almost 600 pages and it just went on and on. I couldn't take it anymore. The constant name dropping and Nora constant talked about going back to Irland and visit Peter's grave, but ALWAYS something happens.