Sharon Owens’s debut novel, The Tea House on Mulberry Street, landed to positive reviews on this side of the Atlantic. Her keen sense of the ambience of Belfast, the cadences of everyday life and the rhythms of ordinary people going about their seemingly mundane lives, resonate throughout the novel and bring a palpable sense of verisimilitude to the narrative.
Owens succeeds in her endeavor largely because of her empathy for the characters, who are uniformly multidimensional and, more importantly, plausible in their actions. We empathize with Johnny, who agonizes over letting Marion, the love of his life, go away to become another man’s wife. Winters, Kate and Shirley’s father, whose ordinary, predictable life is frequently shattered by his daughters’ unpredictable behavior, and who resorts to sitting alone in a cold, empty garage to cope with his predicament. There is the burglar, Lolly, whose penchant for ineptitude is both laughable and tragic.Īs Owens weaves the vignettes connecting her characters in a charming thread of unrequited love, blown hopes, despair, and insurmountable joy, the reader is drawn intensely into their lives. There are Eileen and James, Johnny’s grandparents, who watch with dismay Johnny’s plans to retire to America, only to have him come back to the ballroom under trying circumstances. There is the lovelorn Kevin, Kate’s beau, and Declan, the dashing young man who woos Shirley off her feet easily enough but faces a major moral dilemma concerning his mother, Marion, and her former flame, Johnny Hogan. The protagonists in a traditional sense are the Winter sisters – the flighty, competitive Kate, and Shirley, the dreamy, free-spirited younger sister who is transformed into a joyful and responsible bride and mother in a delectable turn of events.Īs Owens describes a myriad sequence of set pieces that affect both Kate and Shirley, she makes detours to connect various characters to the sisters. It becomes evident from the start that Owens uses the ballroom as merely a drawing card to introduce the reader to a pageant of sharply etched characters who can charitably be called idiosyncratic. In Sharon Owens’s wonderfully detailed narrative, Hogan’s ballroom is both a ray of hope for the tortured soul that he is, as well as the albatross that veers his life in strange directions. In a milieu populated by characters whose quotidian jobs are augmented by bleak weather and the hint of violence in a strife torn country never far away, Hogan’s ballroom is almost a necessity. In a town devoid of very many outlets for those seeking recreation, the ballroom is a beacon - a place to unwind after a long day’s work, a place to meet people and, more importantly, a place to be seen. Johnny Hogan, a throwback with a tormented past, runs a ballroom in Belfast, Ireland. In memory of Hayes Jackson Goehring, please visit our floral store.The Ballroom on Magnolia Street - book review He will be laid to rest at the Waxahachie City Cemetery, 300 S. at Ovilla Road Baptist Church, 3251 Ovilla Road, Ovilla, Texas 75154. Hayes is also survived by aunts and uncles, James and Elizabeth Jones, Scott and Hannah Jones, Marcus and Elizabeth Baney, Stephen and Theresa Goehring and cousins Jesse, Rylee, Hadley and Ellie Jones.Ī Memorial Service will be held Friday, Jat 10:00 a.m.
and Elaine McAfee of Mesquite, Texas and Laura Monington of Kettering, Ohio. His grandparents Jeff Jones of Coppell, Texas, Kathy Jones of Waxahachie, Texas, and Matthew and Suzanne Goehring of Belbrook, Ohio. Hayes is survived by his parents, Leslie and Seth Goehring of Waxahachie, Texas and big brother Parker.
He was loved by all and will be greatly missed. He was loved and cherished beyond measure for his short life and he brought insurmountable joy to everyone around him. Hayes was the answer to his mommy and daddy’s prayers, and they awaited his arrival with joy. Hayes Jackson Goehring was born on Thursday, Jand passed gently into the arms of Jesus on Sunday, Jat 2 days old.