Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not a linear tale, Byrne alternates stories of his growing up in Ireland with his battles of alcoholism, supporting a sister through mental illness, his almost career in the priesthood and some memorable moments from his acting career. I think what I learned most is that as a reluctant film star, it will always be his homeland that will call Gabriel Byrne home. Usually jumping around in a memoir doesn't work for me but I just kept turning the pages.


Goodreads review published 10/01/21
Expected Publication 12/01/21

The review is also on Instagram and Facebook

WALKING WITH GHOSTS is a lyrical, moving memoir brought to life by an able raconteur. That author Gabriel Byrne is a successful actor almost works against him because he is a truly gifted writer and this is not your average celebrity memoir. Far from it. The book is by turns philosophical, reflective, somber, poetic, inspiring, humbling and funny. I admit I most enjoyed his scene-setting and world building that revolved around the lost world of his youth. It is lost due simply to time and development; the world and Ireland has moved on. He spun that world so well and described his feelings and activities so vividly that the pages were alive. For readers seeking scandalous details, this is not one of those books. Byrne appears to really be the author of record and has tales of his own to share; he didn’t need to crowd his stories with other well-known names. The book is a joy. Here’s hoping Byrne feels motivated to write more. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advanced copy for an honest review. First of all this book was great, really loved the flow and the authors writing style. I felt like I was in the authors home growing up when his father would bring fish home in wrapped newspaper and the chickens, turkeys and rabbits hung from the door - as the author writes he wondered if they ever missed being alive.
The author tells about being a son of devote Roman Catholics and almost becoming a Priest, the heat of Los Angeles and his dad working for Arthur Guinness among other things.

Really enjoyed this book, totally recommend.

Gabriel Byrne always seemed rather enigmatic to me, and this book just sort of plays into that perception. I had no idea he had gone to a seminary to become a priest and was kicked out. Imagine the entertainment world without his body of work! He does bare his soul, yet somehow it still feels enigmatic. I can't explain it, you just have to read it. The book goes very fast and you won't be bored. My favorite part was when he talked about living in Dublin early in his career. He makes it feel like a Gaelic Paris, where poets and performers mingle and create their own family. I want to go to there. Who knew I'd be dreaming of Dublin after reading this? It's just one of the many little unexpected treats in this book.

An interesting collection of Byrne's memories to share with readers. I wasn't a fan of his stream-of-consciousness style that jumps around in time for no apparent reason, but often found the writing to be quite elegant.

Because I love Gabriel Byrne, I was hoping for more from this memoir. It was just all over the place, sometimes jumping from one period of his life to a completely different period of time with no wrap up or introduction or anything. His stories, in and of themselves, were fascinating, and his writing is beautiful but I prefer a little more structure.
Thanks to #netgalley and #grovepress for this ARC of #walkingwithghosts in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

Not your usual Hollywood actor's bio. This is an actual (I believe) personally written and atmospheric memoir of the childhood and coming of age of actor Gabriel Byrne. There are some movie anecdotes but this is not a name dropping sort of book.

Byrne beautifully evokes his Irish upbringing and his insecurities as a young man. There are times when it almost reads like a stream of consciousness tale, with poetic descriptions. He doesn't overanalyze but is obviously a thoughtful man. He calmly reveals his struggles with alcohol and his sexual assault by a priest as a young seminary student.

An interesting and perceptive read. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne is a memoir written as a series of vignettes describing his childhood experiences , his early days on the stage and his later film success. The writing is lyrical, at times almost poetic, most notably when he talks about his childhood experiences in a rural area on the outskirts of Dublin. Most surprising was his honesty about his decision to train for the priesthood and his experiences at the seminary, including some that readers may find distressing. He is also very frank in talking about his problems with alcohol and his decision to embrace sobriety. I was not sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was something more memorable and more special than the average celebrity tale.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

A well written and entertaining memoir. It's series of vignette that tell about his life and growing up in Ireland.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne, multi-award winning and highly respected actor, takes us through the Ireland of his youth, revisiting his family and community in Dublin. The story shares secrets, a culture of self-reliance, tradition, and the deepest thoughts we all have as we learn the mysteries of adult behaviors and loss of innocence. Which is illustrated painfully while out swimming with boyhood friends when one drowns.
Deep love of family and a need to make something of himself to live, he is persuaded when representative from the seminary visits his local school to recruit. They are shown pictures of boys with their own rooms, looking quite content. Considering that he shares a room with two brothers, and his three sisters share a room across the hall he makes the commitment. After a great sendoff by his community, the boy makes the trip alone across the Irish Sea to England to study for the priesthood.
Of course there actually are no private dorms, and he does experience sexual abuse by a priest, as he spends four years there getting and education, not wanting to let his family down.
Returning home he flounders, tries several jobs, drinks a lot, and somewhere along the way a friend invites him to visit an amateur theater group. Eventually this leads to a park on The Riordans, and Irish TV soap, and later to films.
The non-linear journey takes us from his abusive teachers at school to having a drink with Richard Burton in a hotel room overlooking Venice.
We see that Byrne has a great love for acting, and not so much for stardom. Walking With Ghosts is an honest, revealing, and superb memoir which he has generally shared with us.

"Home is where the heart is, but the heart itself has no home.”

Many moons ago, on a break from uni, my best friend headed overseas to travel. Ireland was one of the destinations. She asked me what I'd like her to bring back. My immediate reply was “Gabriel Byrne!”. I had quite a crush on him at the time. Such a handsome deevil. There was a movie called "Into The West" which beguiled me. Amusingly, my wish came true. Yes, she did bring me home Gabriel Byrne. In the form of a paperback. His first bio titled "Pictures In My Head". Darn it! I should have been much more specific in my request.

So where has Gabriel Byrne been and what has he been up to since he and I last crossed paths? Well, he’s written this unflinchingly raw memoir in which he looks back, and reminisces on his life, through the eyes of an older man. And walks with the ghosts of his past.

To start with, his writing is utterly poetic. He shows a beautiful turn of phrase. More than once I started to tear up as the way he writes is just so…

"I have never loved concrete like I loved a tree…the first stars of evening...the small spitter of rain on a windowpane.”

You can take the boy out of Dublin, but you can’t take Dublin out of the boy.

Even as a lad, we can see his appreciation of nature, of lights and textures. Feelings. He was a keen observer of people which is unusual for such as young ‘un, running around in shorts, collecting milk from a local farm as his Mum distrusted the shop-bought stuff.

”I ran and summersaulted until I was breathless and dizzy. I lay for hours under the upside-down sea of the sky, where the clouds became camels or the face of God.” I love this line. It gave me such a feeling of joy and exuberance to read it.

We revisit the Dublin of his youth. The people and places. His sisters getting all dolled up to go out on a Friday night, people pouring out of pubs at closing time, going to local dances, reeking of Brut (aftershave), time spent with his Dad, learning about nature, the names of trees, wildflowers, birds. These paragraphs where he talked of such special moments were so poignant they hurt.

"I carry that day like a photograph in my heart."
Is this not the most beautiful line you have ever read?

We criss-cross in time in this book. We jump from a memory of his childhood, to his being an adult, just starting out in his acting career across the waters. A snippet of his youth, immediately followed by first experience of an earthquake while staying in a hotel in LA (which was quite amusing, people in a mad panic, it’s 4.20am and yet "Kenny G, weirdly, was still playing on the intercom.” Go Kenny!).

Skip, jump, skip, jump. I actually enjoyed the mesh of timelines, as who are we if not a mix of all that has been, and all that is yet to be? We are all that. Time may well be linear, but we are not. We still exist both in the past as well as in the present. So this stream of consciousness sat really well with me, as my mind goes off on tangents all the time too.

There’s no gossip, nor anything salacious here. No name dropping. No ego.

A mixture of whimsy & maudlin is displayed, as only the Irish can do. Talk of saints, faeries and banshees, are all given equal respect.

"My depression, it seems, was often linked to my drinking."

Gabriel Byrne has always felt somewhat of an outsider. At university, he thought he'd be enmeshed in a world of knowledge. That his thirst to learn would be satiated. Instead, he felt talked down to. Made to feel he didn't belong. He may well have been the first one in his family to attend uni, but it brought him no joy. Perhaps only his work in theatre and the movies gave him some access to a truth he was seeking. Through the creative process. Though when fame came it didn't sit well with him, and he eyed it suspiciously. At the Cannes film festival when "The Usual Suspects" won best film, with the flashbulbs still popping in his eyes and ears, he and the black dog locked themselves in a plush apartment for several days. He was unable to reconcile the sudden interest and adoration from strangers of himself, as a person, with all the doubts and insecurities all of us have.

He's a fascinating dichotomy.

He doesn't shy away from his demons. He neither glorifies nor makes excuses for them. They are simply a part of him, at different points in his life.

There is a quiet humour underlying these vignettes. Some of the book is downright funny. There is also an open sadness. A bittersweet melancholia. There are such deeply personal moments written about here, that you can't help but ponder on your own profound moments. Those that either make or break you. Perhaps both. And that you always carry around. Childhood sexual abuse, plunging into alcoholism, the loss of a dear sister due to mental health issues, the passing of both parents. Friendships that have fallen to the wayside and past loves are remembered. It’s unflinching.

"The clock on the wall ticks the seconds away. The seconds become minutes, time relentlessly moving forward, no matter what you think or wish."

Despite all this, his recollections are both thoughtful and soulful. Never bitter. I can well imagine being somewhere, a drink at fingertip’s distance, watching the sun set, sitting back, and listening to him talk. That’s how this biography reads. A friend telling you their story. Sharing their experiences. Looking back on times long past, recalling them as though they'd occurred only yesterday.

"How to contain the minutes, the hours, the seconds, to make them last forever?"

"They say the songs you love when you're young will break your heart when you're old."

PUBLICATION DATE: 12.Jan.2021

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Grove Press and the author Gabriel Byrne for the opportunity to read this advance copy - an uncorrected proof - in exchange for an honest review.

My review can also be found on Goodreads at
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3625382793

#WalkingWithGhosts #NetGalley #GrovePress

Life can shatter you. It can also be exquisitely beautiful. I started to read this before I had even an inkling that my world would be turned upside down. I was halfway through reading this when our beautiful Mum took ill (a month ago today), and I completed this book after we lost her. I simply could not read a word for weeks. It’s also taken me several days to put this review together, as I did not know how I could do so coherently. Everything was too raw. There's so much more I wanted to say, but I didn't know how. This memoir has affected me deeply. In my mind, it will always be intrinsically entwined to this period of my life. I understand Gabriel’s reminisces all too perfectly. Especially the last few pages. They broke me. They are like a stab to the heart, in their tenderness and beauty.

For Mum, I love you to the Moon and back 💖

(3.5 stars) I adore Gabriel Byrne's acting work, with one of my favorites being In Treatment, this recounting of his life helped me see why he was so great in that role. He is a man who has lived through a lot and has dealt with some of the heavier parts of life. He holds nothing back. As I read, I pictured him as this stark Irish narrator staring at the sea recounting his life to you after one too many pints. He meandered around telling stories that linked to other stories in quite a nonsensical way and yet it all wove together in a beautiful way. I appreciated the way he weaved his religious upbringing throughout, as I strongly identified with how it shaped his view of the world. I think I would have enjoyed this book better as an audiobook as it would have felt like sitting in a pub in Dublin for an afternoon of craic with a wizened old soul.

This was a well done memoir. He doesn't write in a linear way and I have to admit that this forms tends to bug me in most books, but I really enjoyed it here. I understand he is working on a book of fiction now and I will definitely be on the look out for that title.

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Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne is a memoir by the famous Irish actor. Mr. Byrne is an award-winning actor, who has been in over 80 productions.

I did not think I’d like this book as much as I did.

When I started reading the memoir it seemed pretentious, as if the author was trying to be overly poetic, stylistic, and overly flourished. After a few pages though, I started to appreciate the prose and the memories it brought forth. It’s extremely difficult to write memories of your life on the page and have readers be in your head, this book succeeded with polish and heart.

The narrative is unique, yet works wonderfully for the memoir. Mr. Byrne tells his life story in short vignettes, each one from beginning to end. The reader can clearly see how something that occurred in his childhood in Dublin, Ireland has later on impacted a decision he made in his life. Something which occurs to all of us, but is really difficult to capture, especially with such grace and elegance. This means that the narrative is not told in a linear fashion, but it works.

I enjoyed taking this outstanding journey together with Mr. Byrne down memory lane. I’ve enjoyed the descriptions of “his” Dublin, the colorful characters from his working class neighborhood, and his struggles and success. The little stories he tells about his behind the scenes experience (not many, but enough) do more to serve the giants of English thespians than himself, but does let us, the readers, know more about the author and, once again, how something small and insignificant to one person had a huge impact on one’s future, probably unbeknownst to the first.

Walking With Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne works on many levels, the mediation on fame and the traps it comes with, the ghosts of his childhood, his career, and his personal life. The memoir is well written, stark, vivid and extremely introspective. One gets a feeling that writing it was some sort of catharsis for Mr. Byrne, and as a result we, the readers, get to know him unfiltered.

I wanted to love this book because I've always been a Gabriel Byrne fan. However, it was just too choppy for me to enjoy. I liked the reminiscences but would have preferred them in a more traditional memoir layout as opposed to snippets. It didn't hold my attention .

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I am not someone who cares for short stories. This is not a book of short stories, rather it is a memoir told in vignettes, as though life is lived through a series of short stories. It is reminiscent of spending time with Gabriel Byrne and having a conversation. And every so often during that conversation, he throws in a "by the way, did I ever tell you about the time...?" It is informal, personal, linear without being too formulaic. I enjoyed his voice and his story.

Well written memoir by an Irish actor, Gabriel Bryne, famed for his many roles.

The memoir narrates the author's growing up years in Ireland.

The book was easy to read and follow. I loved the book.

Very honest, non-gossipy memoir of an icon. I loved hearing about his childhood and living the sober life in the arts.

Gabriel Byrne really came to my awareness for his stand-out performance in <i>The Usual Suspects</i> (1995). Although I can't as readily recall any of his many other film roles - he always stands out for a nuanced, understated delivery, to me. So, I was intrigued to read this memoir from him. I expected a typical actor's autobiography: filming locations, behind the scenes anecdotes, characterizations of producers and directors, that sort of thing. This is much different, and much better with greater depth. Recalling life up to now, Byrne tells of growing up in Ireland, life in Dublin and some real dark and disturbing incidents climaxing in letting the drink take him just as his career was accelerating. I hope that is some catharsis for Byrne here, and a second volume comes. His writing style is light and nearly poetic - telegraphing well the moods and feelings evocative and formative memories summon in all of us. The luminous, dreamlike recollections explored are moving reading - I literally reeled a bit at the sudden ending as I was lost in the telling.

This Memoir was antithetical to what I was expecting. Whenever I saw that Byrne was to appear on Broadway, I moved heaven and earth to get tickets. So it wasn’t unreasonable to think his Memoir would give some insight into the character he played in “Moon for the Misbegotten” and how he paired and fared alongside his co-star Cherry Jones. I wanted to understand where and how he found the chops to take on “Long Days Journey Into Night”. After all, he is an accomplished actor of the Irish persuasion interpreting Eugene O’Neill, an American playwright and writer of Irish descent. They both draw from tragedy and experience with the downtrodden. Byrne admits to finding refuge in imagination, stories being his safety net from hurt and loneliness.

Oh well, I didn’t find the answers I was seeking but I did wade through the most extraordinary stream of consciousness and was better able to see the man as a whole, well as much as he allowed. But damn I really would love to know what he thought about O’Neill and those parts he played to near perfection.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Press for a copy