"Keane creates characters as believable as they are quietly decent and wise. Never heavy-handed, she allows us to journey with them as they slowly accumulate bits of life knowledge: Whether you stay or leave, everything changes. Even when you find a better place, some around you will still long to be elsewhere. And as Michael, the ex-itinerant, comes to understand and wishes he could have explained to his restless tinker father, “We don’t settle in places. We settle in people.” The understanding that dawns on Greta is even more basic: “Love, it turned out, was disarmingly simple, straightforward.” And so, as it happens, are the muted charms of this thoughtful story."
-- The Christian Science Monitor, June 19, 2009
"Mary Beth Keane takes the title of her earnest, ambitious first novel from "the walking people" -- "Travellers. Wanderers. Tinkers. Thieves." -- who were Ireland's gypsies, nomads who moved restlessly through the countryside, doing odd jobs, stealing odd provisions, generally making themselves unwelcome among ordinary country people... "The Walking People," once it gets its central characters to the United States, is set in New York, but it shares with its distinguished predecessors a sense of the Irish as a race apart, yearning to become wholly American yet unable to resist "the tug from Ireland," the connection to their ancient roots that proves just about unbreakable... "The Walking People" is thoughtful and appealing... a solid, intelligent piece of work."
-- reviewed by Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post May 10, 2009
"From 2005 Pushcart Prize nominee Keane, a richly moving first novel about Irish immigration to America in the late 20th century. Keane gives her characters range and complexity so that there are no victims or villains.
Sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes joyous and tender—one of those stories that lingers in the reader’s memory as a lived experience."
-- Kirkus - Starred Review (4/01/09 issue)
"This is a richly detailed, powerfully evocative novel about two young sisters from a poor, rural family in western Ireland who dream of coming to America. Keane tells an archetypal American story about penniless European immigrants seeking opportunity here, and she brings it robustly to life in ways that help us to see its long-lasting ability to inspire. There is a gritty, courageous immediacy to Keane's realism, as she renders scene after scene with great emotional intensity. The story spans many years (from 1956 to 2007), and Keane skillfully handles the shifting, deepening dynamics within this close-knit family. The central relationship is between the two sisters: older sister Johanna, who is impetuous and self-involved, and Greta, the slightly odd yet deeply sympathetic younger sister, who adores Johanna. Keane masterfully follows Greta's changing relationship with Johanna across the decades-beginning with worship and ending in estrangement-and the reader feels the power of these changes profoundly. Keane's first novel is as powerful as it is relevant. Enthusiastically recommended."
-- Library Journal (2/15/09 issue)
"In her debut, Keane marries a deliciously old-fashioned style of storytelling with a fresh take on the immigrant experience. … Tracking the family from 1956 to the present, Keane gives a heartfelt account of their pain and their joy while also minutely exploring varied settings and occupations. A warm, involving family drama that makes a triumph of Greta's transformation from misfit to capable wife and mother."
-- Booklist (3/1/09 issue)
"Debut author Keane offers an extended meditation on leaving, finding and making home in a novel focused on the new Irish immigrant experience. … Greta is an appealing character lacking in nostalgia. Her romance is also authentic and unsentimental … her coming-of-age reflects a fresh take on the lives recent immigrants can create."
-- Publishers Weekly (1/12/09 issue)
"It’s always exciting to read a debut novel when it displays as much promise as "The Walking People." A tale of two families, author Mary Beth Keane’s new novel moves deftly between Ireland and the U.S. in this tale of family secrets and the steep price they exact. When timid Greta Cahill leaves Ireland for a new life in America she succeeds beyond her wildest dreams. She falls in love, raises a family, and earns a living – but at a great cost: a long interred secret means she must always keep her American life separate from her Irish past, even among the people she is closest to. Keane has written a novel in the old manner, full of plot points and reversals and revelations, and she’s done so with so much skill that there can be no doubt that her voice will only strengthen and dazzle with each new book."
