I have read and/or listened to many memoirs from actors/actresses, but Gabriel Byrne's Walking With Ghosts was very different. This was not a tell all, or a regurgitation of his career, but a story of his life, especially as a boy growing up in Dublin and the ghosts that still haunt him. We learn about his family; I especially loved what he shared about time spent with his dad, going to the seminary, dabbling in illegal activity, early dating and how he got into acting. This was a beautifully written book, that evoked many feelings as I listened to it. His writing is so eloquent and descriptive. This was a Gabriel Byrne I loved getting to know. I

i just love Gabriel Byrne in movies so I decided to read his memoir. truthful, gripping and poignant are my descriptive of this book. worth the time to read and gives more insight into his life , I think it truly honest and glad he took the time to write and share who he is ,

I love him as an actor and now have reason to love him as a writer. His recanting of his childhood is not clouded with the brightness and happiness usually associated with those time. These recollections are stark and often times bleak. Learn what shaped him to become the gibe s tor he was.

I am a huge fan of Gabriel Byrne. It was such a thrill to read his autobiography. I learned a lot about him. It was funny and heartbreaking as well. What a fascinating man. You have to read this!

*eGalley courtesy of Netgalley*

I've read a number of "memoirs" in my lifetime and almost all of them seem a tad sugar coated and gives the reader the impression of insincerity. What I loved about Gabriel's book, is that it is the exact opposite of the typical me, me, me type memoirs.

Yes, it is about his life but as he shares his memories of personal and professional experiences I couldn't help but feel as though I was walking with him, taking a tour of the old stomping grounds, and listening to an extraordinary storyteller. It isn't the typical and here I am at age 10 kind of storytelling, more of a snapshot of key moments that give you insight into who he is and how he grew up. There are a few snapshots that were tough to get through (i.e. the "boarding school").

He does talk a little about his time in the film industry, and while it doesn't take away from the overall storytelling... I am glad those stories are few and far between. I also liked the poetry interspersed throughout... there is just something about Irish storytelling that I can't put down.

Highly Recommend!

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

I really enjoyed this memoir. Gabriel Byrne's voice shone through his words and it held my interest from start to finish. A well written, honest and interesting account of a life spanning many decades. My only gripe is the lack of information about his relationships - but that’s just because I’m nosy 🧐 Maybe there will be a part two at some stage. I’d read it for sure!

Many thanks to NetGalley and to Picador for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Reading Walking With Ghosts drew me in so that turning the pages was like walking the journey with Gabriel. The style of the writing, the honesty and humor with which he told his story was completely captivating.~ The lyrical soul of this gentleman came through as did the scrappy Irish lad from Dublin. I truly enjoyed it, and found myself going back to read different parts over again. ~ Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this treasure of a memoir and only asking for an honest review in return.

A dark Irish memoir by a well-known Irish actor whose childhood was lived in poverty and Catholicism. This was mostly about his grim childhood, his relationships with his parents, and the abuse of the church. Every now and then he would tell an adult story about his relationship with one or other great actor, and his alcoholism. It was well written and worth reading, although was very dark and required stamina to finish. If you ever have the chance to hear Byrne talking about his memoir, take it, and hope that he also reads from it. I heard him at a Writers Festival two weeks ago and his reading was wonderful; along with hearing Sebastian Barry (also from an acting family) reading from his novels, the best author reading I have ever heard. That ability to read aloud is about being Irish, and an actor as well as a writer,

Unsparing and brutally honest, this was a lyrical memoir that I enjoyed very much. The revelations about Byrne's sexual abuse and his failed effort to confront the priest years later is heartbreaking.

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne
Genre - Memoir
Rating - 3 out of 5 stars

First off let me say that I have read a lot of memoirs in my day. Especially right now. It seems that everyone thinks their life is so interesting they need to write about it.

When I was approved to review this book I was excited. I am a huge fan of Gabriel Byrne’s acting and really enjoy most of his movies. Going into the book I figured it would be like many other actor’s memoirs. Talking some about their growing up years and then getting into their acting careers and the movies they had made and such. This was not at all the case with this book.

This book is very odd in the way it is written. It goes back and forth between ages in his life without much about the age he was at the time that story happened. He talks very little about his acting career and seems to focus more on what has happened to him during his life. Especially in his childhood.

There is absolutely no timeline to this book. Which is a pet peeve of mine. I want to know when all this is happening and at what stage in their life it is happening. All of the jumping back and forth with no timeline at all really confuses me.

I won’t put a spoiler about how it ends but I do want to warn you that it is very macabre ending. Talking a lot about death and then ends very abruptly. I was very disappointed. Thus the unusual for me rating.

Reviewers note: I received a non edited advanced reader copy of this book so it may have changed some when it finally went to print.

I really enjoyed this book! This book was generously provided to me through NetGalley. Highly Recommended!

I was very excited to read this book as I'm a big fan of Gabriel Byrne's work. But, I figured it would be like every other celebrity book, not a lot of truth, just enough sensation to please you. But this is not your ordinary celebrity book. This is a Frank McCourt kinda book.

The writing was elegant and at times I felt I was in the room with him. Those Irish sure know how to feel and describe life.

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's as exquisite as Gabriel.

When I saw this, I knew that I was going to love it. I gobbled up these beautifully written words! This was honest and eloquent and touched on things that were both raw and wondrous. This is not your typical celebrity memoir that glosses over events. It's in depth and personal and absolutely addictive!

I pounced on this book the moment I saw it available for request, having been a huge fan of Gabriel Byrne's since his days in Bracken (I was a child watching it with my parents). This is not an autobiography in the traditional sense of the word, it is a beautifully written, literary remembrance of Byrne's days gone by.

Loved it.

Walking with Ghosts
by Gabriel Byrne

All my Irish forebears rose up around me as I read Gabriel Byrne’s latest memoir. The Ireland of his heart and words wrapped me up completely. As I read of that place I’ve never been, it felt familiar and something very close to recognition happened – ringing true, lining up with every family tale I’ve been told. He’s a homegrown Irish boy, that’s for certain. It’s in his voice, the very words he uses to tell his stories and lay bare his truths.

Full of heart, sorrow, outrages, regret and glimmers of joy and light as the storm clouds part for a moment, he’s lived an adventurous, productive life. There’s love, of all types, and mistakes, of all types. There’s finding yourself, losing yourself, losing beloved others, and finding they are probably still about, watching o’er.

A love letter to his life, and all those who helped him on his way. A lovely read.

A Sincere Thanks to Gabriel Byrne, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
#WalkingwithGhosts #NetGalley

I didn't have high expectations for this memoir, because most celebrity memoirs are, "huh, cool, moving on" and that's it. This memoir is a different breed entirely. Gabriel Byrne's writing style is very literary, his prose is gorgeous. He turns mundane ruminations and unnoteworthy events into something thought provoking. Sometimes melancholy, sometimes funny, sometimes inspiring, his Irish background is evident the whole way through and the entire thing feels like he's just sitting down telling you some stories.

That said, there were some negatives for me. First is the writing style itself. I'm not sure if the ARC had it formatted strangely or if its authorial intent but the constant paragraph breaks at odd parts took me out of the story he was telling, and I'm personally not a fan of having dialogue in anything besides quotations, call me what you will. Signaling dialogue with a dash just doesn't work for me at all. Tying into this was the nonlinear fashion he wrote this in. Nonlinear writing is fine, but most of the time he would be telling a story from childhood, and then be talk about something 25 years later with almost no context clues. I'm sure he had his reasons, but I want to get lost in his wonderful writing, not spend extra time trying to figure out how this relates to the previous paragraph temporally.

Overall, enjoyable. I think I may pick up the audiobook soon so I can enjoy the incredible turns of phrase and lyrical sensibilities that Byrne has, without having to deal with looking at his style.

Thanks to Net Galley and the Publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Reading a lot of memoirs, one can’t help but compare the ways different writers tackle their own pasts. Some are sweet, some are harrowing tales of abuse, some are the meanderings of a tortured soul that might be better off unread.

And sometimes the best memoirs are from people we’d never even heard of, like Frank McCourt who wrote the astonishing Angela’s Ashes. McCourt’s background as a teacher and storyteller informs his memoir just as Chronicles, Volume 1 by Bob Dylan informs his.

The two couldn’t be more different—Dylan is Dylan and has been famous since he hopped off his fake hobo train—a born storyteller but mystical, hiding in plain sight. Dylan is full of play and his memoir reflects that; it’s a stream of consciousness that jumps all over the place. Very little in it is straight forward storytelling.

And now here’s Gabriel Byrne in Walking with Ghosts who combines McCourt and Dylan. Byrne is Irish like McCourt and has that Irish poetry infused into his soul. Like McCourt, he tells stories. But Byrne is also a lot like the Dylan of Chronicles. His stories roam, they’re not chronological and you’re not quite sure what you’re going to get or when.

Byrne of course has been a famous actor since he was in his 20s but don’t expect to pick up this memoir to read about bold-faced names. There are a couple—Richard Burton and Sir Lawrence Olivier but mostly we learn about Byrne himself and that famous Irish upbringing.

Recently, the actor Eve Hewson, Bono’s daughter, said in an interview: “Irish people, the Irish life, it’s unmatched.” Byrne certainly would agree. Being Irish, for him, is everything.

Watching a film as a boy, he recalls “the excitement of seeing Dublin on the screen, and we gave it a round of applause for being Dublin.”

Like McCourt, Byrne’s early life was rough. He trained to become a priest before he was a teenager and, inevitably, was sexually abused by a priest before being returned home for not obeying the rules.

In his memoir, he is haunted everywhere by the ghosts of his past, chiefly his mother and father and the younger Byrnes. And he misses them dearly. “My father taught me the simple things,” he writes, “the bundling of clouds, or the seconds between thunder and lightning to tell how far it is away. How to smell snow in the wind and know by the night sky if frost will come.”

Byrne was mooning his way through life as a young man when one day his friend gave him the advice that changed his life: “You spend all your time in the picture house and the theater, why don’t you join an amateur drama group.” After that, it all clicked.

At the height of his fame, when The Usual Suspects made a splash at the film festivals and Byrne was declared a star, he fell into bed. “To a God I no longer believed in, I prayed: Have pity on my lostness. Don’t let my days bleed into each other like this. I am unraveling inside. Can you not see the terror that consumes me?”

Not surprisingly, Byrne took to drink and spent years having blackouts, not knowing what he’d done the night before. In one episode, he awakens in a famous Hollywood hotel trying to pry loose his memories when a naked girl appears from beneath the sheets. He has no idea who she is or where they met until he spies a bee’s costume on the floor. Oh right, he remembers, it was Halloween, and he admired her costume. Whatever else happened, happened to someone else. He gives her his overcoat and sends her on her way.

This book is unbearably honest, and Byrne is a great writer. Some of the writing reads like a private journal as he struggles with the very idea of acting and who he really is.

“We all act all the time,” he writes. “Life makes us necessary deceivers. Except maybe when we are alone. As I am now in the windowless dressing room of a Broadway theater. I struggle with authenticity. Being truthful. Both to myself first and to other people. Is it possible to be completely honest with myself? To admit my demons, prejudices, the petty envies, the unfulfilled desires? I want to live an authentic life. To take off the mask requires courage. I admit fragility, my vulnerability and weakness. Why are we do afraid to let others see us as we truly are?”

Clearly, Byrne has dropped the mask.

So, if you are looking for a gossipy celebrity memoir, this is NOT it. Instead, this is a poetic series of remembrances that come together as a literary memoir with a very heavy dose of melancholy.

’How many times have I returned in my dreams to this hill. It is always summer as I look out over the gold and green fields, ditches foaming with hawthorn and lilac, river glinting under the sun like a blade. When I was young, I found sanctuary here and the memory of it deep in my soul ever after has brought me comfort. Once I believed it would never change, but that was before I came to know that all things must. It’s a car park now, a sightseers panorama.’

Byrne grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Dublin, and as a young man was enticed by the idea of the priesthood, the adventures seen through the slides of missionaries in faraway places lured him in, and soon ’began to hear God.’ The church booklets urging him ’to answer the call to the priesthood, and so he followed that for a time - until a priest’s unwanted attentions to him convinced him otherwise.

’I wondered if I could climb into the wounds of Jesus for shelter, hide in there behind black-red blood.’

When I requested a copy of this, I had no idea who this author was, and didn't realize he was an actor. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything he’s been in, but didn’t recognize him from the photograph on the cover. Based on my friend Elyse’s review, and then reading that he was originally from the fringes of Dublin, I requested it, and was granted a copy. Before I began reading it, I noticed it was already published, so I added the audible version, as well. Reading and listening to this, highlighting passages, and just loving the many moments when the lyrical prose just swept me away. There’s so much honest reflection on his past, some of it painful, some enlightening, and much that is lovely.

'On the road to the boat, the fog felt like a wall I passed through, as if from my old self to a newer one, and just beyond the golf club, having blindly inched our way, it cleared. Lights lined the coast from Howth all the way to Wexford. Gulls screamed in the wind.'

’And I stand an intruder in my own past. I think of our life there, all the days and all the nights since. The weeks, the months, the years. I think of time and how it passes. It was winter, New York. I was an exile emigrant and immigrant, belonging everywhere and nowhere at all. Home is where the heart is but the heart itself had no home.’

A lovely, if sometimes melancholy, powerfully raw memoir that unveils his life through a raw, beautifully poetic sharing of his reminiscences through his past, and sharing the ghosts of his past that remain.

’I carry that day like a photograph in my heart.’

This memoir is one that will remain, like a photograph, in my heart.


Published: 12 January 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic / Grove Press

Gabriel Byrne's Walking with Ghosts is definitely not your standard memoir or autobiography. In fact, I came away from it not really knowing much more about Byrne than when I started.

This book is set up in a nonlinear fashion with Byrne telling vignettes in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. Some vignettes are funny and others heartbreaking. Because they're not written in any particular order and are rather short, the reader never really gets to fully immerse themselves in Byrne's life story, which in my opinion, is a detriment.

However, Byrne's poetic writing is second-to-none. He has a way with language where the reader can picture the setting and story in their mind's eye. I just wish the stories he tells had a little more depth to them.

MY RATING - 3