A page-turning novel set in 1920's Scotland...Cronin's protagonist is a brilliant scientist content to save the world, but makes a discovery that cause his scientific ordeals to take a backseat: a forbidden love. Cronin really puts us there, Dr. Shannon (our protagonist) is hilarious in his observations of the idiots around him....All in all a great read, and impossible to put down for the last 20 chapters...You'll feel better for the read....

Shannon's Way is a book about Dr Robert Shannon who lives for his experiments and finds love that nearly tortures him as much as a failed experiment six months in the making. Great Book!

An extremley superior Mills and BOOM! All the necessary ingredients for kicking off your shoes on a wet Sunday afternoon. Love, reglion, a medic and a woman mad for it. The climax of the book is when our herione gets scarlet fever, but Dr. Shannon (probably with bronzed torso toboot!) saves the girl, saves the book, saves you finishing the entire bag of wine gums and any other excuse you need to waste your life.

Read it. Live it. SORT IT!

I cannot recommend this book too highly... There is everything in it; love, joy, fulfillment, exhilaration, achievement, renewed faith... and also, despair, disappointments, loss of faith... all said in the inimical way of A.J.Cronin.. a real worhthwhile book!!

This is A.J. Cronin's biography; the life of a medical doctor who barely manages to make a living and how he turns into a world renowned best-selling and beloved author. Every book he ever wrote is well worth reading; some more than others. But this book is a treasure because it is a true story. I laughed, I cried, and so will you. I cannot recommend it too highly. What a loss to the world that Cronin has passed on, but what a treasure trove of books he has left to us. Do yourself a favor; read the A.J. Cronon books. You'll be glad you did.

A Pocketful of Rye tells the story of Lawrence Carroll, whose childhood A Song of Sixpence so brilliantly described. Carroll is now in the early years of his career as a doctor - something Cronin in the tradition of Conan Doyle and Raubelais knows well.

Lazy, opportunist, yet with a redeeming sense of humour, he obtains the perfect sinecure as medical director of a clinic for sick children in Maybelle, Switzerland.

But he has forgotten how swiftly the fabric of comfort, from his cheery Swedish lover to his nightly touch with Kirsch, can be worn away. Carroll's Puritan blood and Catholic conscience, for he is a product of Levenford's distinct societies, tug at him from his roots in urban Clydeside.

Most dangerous of all is the clinging affection of a remarkable small boy called Daniel. His arrival, with his mother Cathy Davigan from Caroll's past, disrupts the young doctor's Swiss idyll and threatens the easy future he has so cleverly contrived for himself.

Cronin writes best about fictional Levenford, based on the small west coast town of Dumbarton; with its descriptions of Carroll's earlier life the book fairly comes alive. His vision and touch for a European life almost extinct is also sound, and excuses his rather epiphanous conclusion. Fine work from a master.

A.J. Cronin depicts a tale of a simple advanced teenage boy. Perhaps some of it is autobiographical . . . Cronin is deeply in love with the story, it is told with such affection for each character. The young boy grew up through out the British isles he, Laurence Carrroll, meets some very engaging persons. Terence, the dashing swindling cousin; Pin the teacher; Nora, his second love and cousin. His mother is Laurie's first love, pushing him in all sorts of things, with great admiration for it all.
Miss. Greville, is the most interesting and astonishing of all. Upon Laurence and his mother losing their house, Miss. Greville takes them in. With Miss. Greville's lunatice antics and empty promises coupled with some of the most enthralling experiences, Laurence becomes infatuated with everything she has to teach him.
The story grasps you immediatly when Laurence and the reader experience two very disheartening deaths and he is moved shortly thereafter to live with his odd Uncle Leo. Experience the game of cricket and a summer of botany he begins to love himself and the world.
A Song of Sixpence was not what I expected. I was expecting a parody or an advanced version of the classic poem but it was neither. In fact, nothing of the nursery rhyme was mentioned. Clever, indeed! Although Cronin never wrote about pockets full of rye or black birds, Cronin's tales is just as silly and engaging as one could imagine!!

AJ Cronin (author of Citadel and Hatters Castle), tells the story of a Catholic Missionary to China. If you're not Catholic and, therefore, think this book is not for you, guess again. Father Francis Chisholm is an exemplary Christian of any genre. Though he faces trial, tribulation and persecution from early childhood through late adulthood, he stands firm and unwavering in his faith. As is always the case, AJ Cronin makes his characters come alive right off the page.

I've been an admirer of A.J. Cronin since I was a teenager in the early 1960's. He was an author who knew the meaning of his craft. Starting with Hatter's Castle in the early 1930's and concluding many books later in the 1970's, Cronin just kept improving and expanding as a writer.

The Keys to the Kingdom is one of my favorites of his works. It is the story of Francis Chisholm, son of Alec Chisholm a Catholic in Presbyterian Scotland. Francis is orphaned at a young age when his father and mother are killed in a wave of anti-Catholicism. After his boyhood love commits suicide, young Francis decides to be a priest.

His vocation is an example of humility, love, compassion and tolerance--virtues which are contrasted with the worldliness and superficiality of the ambitious clergyman, Anselm Mealy. Cronin is a master at portraying the character of Scottish people whom he loves in spite of his succint insight and commentary on their faults and foibles.

I highly recommend this book to those who want to know more about Catholicism at its best.

This is an unforgettable story whose message will stay with you long after the last page has been turned. Father Francis Chisolm is truly the epitome of someone living their faith. This was a beautiful book with a main character that I came to love.

A beautifully written novel. Warm yet heartwrenching, uplifting and tearjerking it propels the reader to a deeply satisfying conclusion: The doctor is ready to battle on for the good of us all. Dr. Manson is a man of deep convictions. His honesty and guts in the end allow him to defeat the temptations of greed and an undemanding, lush lifestyle. If you don't understand the mindset and heart of a "liberal" thinker, read and understand Dr. Andrew Manson. I loved this book. I'd love to see both the Masterpiece theater presentation and the movie by the same title.

I picked up this book because it was mentioned in my great-grandmother's diary from 1941. Written in the 30s, it tells the tale of a young Scottish doctor in the 20s, as he goes from a small-town doctor in a rough situation to a well-paid London doctor with a fancy office.

The story's written with intelligence, as the doctor ponders various ways to deal with the bureaucracy he faces. He deals with incompetent doctors, old doctors that have no desire to learn new treatments, young doctors more concerned with money and prestige than patient care.

And, as he gets absorbed into the system, the doctor begins to be lured in by the money. He starts to prescribe the 'easy' solution to patients, even if it's not the right answer, so that they're happy and he gets more cash. He does finally realize, in the end, that working for the patients is more important than gaining lots of cash, but only after some hard lessons.

I have a few small complaints with the story. One is that the wife could have been a really interesting character, but she's a little flat. She is sad when he becomes money-hungry, and draws back, but that's it. She was a schoolteacher when he met her, and it's made clear that she's very intelligent. But still she just sort of goes along with him, making his meals, wishing things could be better, but far be it for her to actually help out. She tries to get his friends to see him one night to bring back his old ways, but when that fails, "ah well".

My other complaint is that he slides far too easy from a passionate patient-first attitude into a "cash is nice" mentality. But that was necessary for the plot to progress.

Definitely a great book to read to learn about life in the 20s to 40s, from the small towns of Wales to the busy streets of London. Interesting details about the damage that mines caused to the lungs of the mineworkers, and the ways that doctors worked with each other and treated their patients. A great read!

An excellent read. I couldn't put down this book about the life of a young Scottish doctor right out of medical school. The book is punctuated by lots of heartwarming moments, but the author also gives us some thoughts on the ethics behind the medical profession. Highly recommended.

Stars Look Down obviously is not the best known book by A.J.Cronin who is known for writing books mainly about miners or medicine (such as Citadel), but it's definately one of the best ones.

It's about a young man who comes from a miner family. He has lost some family members and collegues due to bad conditions in mines and he feels like there has to be something done about it, so he wins in the local election and goes to the London. He really wants to make his people life better, he wants to change the whole mining system, make reformations but in the Parliament his ardency is killed by people who are interested in nothing except for power, i.e., money and show no interest for this outstanders pains to fulfill his ideals. As he couldn't win the fight with them he had to go home and become a miner again; he had lost his wife and he had got nothing.

I personally was very touched by the story itself as well as with the way Cronin tells it. Although you know how it's going to end if you've read some other Cronin's books (the thing I really suggest to do), you are so deep in it you are not thinking about it. Stars Look Down is not the new-age kind of book-the one you take, read and put in the bookshelve and never take again, it's got the classical value-you think of it again and again and you recall it when you feel absolutely miserable about your dreams and things you're trying to do or reach.

4 stars instead of 5 cos I really hoped for a better ending, although 4,5 would fit better as it was a realistic one.

I recomend it if you're a serious reader, otherwise you'll simply be bored.

This novel was first published in the 1930s and it is a measure of the author's achievement that it still reads wonderfully today. The story has a breadth to it that amazes me, and a cast of memorable characters that linger in the memory. I love it!

It is set in an English mining town over a number of years before and after the First World War. It follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of several families, from the wealthy mineowner's, to a humble family where the father and three sons are all miners. There are some wonderfully drawn characters, some doses of realism that shock the reader, and some moving passages which bring tears to your eyes. But there's nothing cliched or sentimental about the book, so if you like television mini-series or the kind of 'feel good' romantic stories that Hollywood specialises in, this is not for you.

But if you want a taste of real life from nearly a 100 years ago, written by an author who was there (he was a doctor in a mining village for a time and many of his books come from out of his medical background) then this is the book for you. Get Amazon to find you a copy!

I sum up this novel to friends by saying it is so great an achievement that I feel it could only have been written by God. I'm probably the only person who thinks so, but perhaps it really is the greatest novel of the 20th Century.

Warmed over Maugham, with a touch of Goethe.

My grandmother sent me this novel ten years ago. I read it in day, and ten years later reread it in a day. It is a good visual novel that digresses into the small-time life of turn-of-the-century Scotland while creating a modestly suspenseful plot centered about the tribulations of an alienated youth compelled to live as an outsider amongst modestly eccentric personalities.

Yet the moral aspects are done better by Maugham (Of Human Bondage), while the visual images of windy crags and intense emotion are done better by numerous people, especially Goethe.

A fun, but second-rate novel.

Randomly picking this book from the shelf in the library, I knew nothing of the novel or author, and was hoping I had not picked a second-rate novel. Pleasanlty, I was surprised! The plot is realistic centering around a richly developed Catholic boy. Though book one was somewhat slow developing the plot and characters, books two and three were well worth the wait and made me anxious to continue reading. However, I was somewhat dissapointed with the anticlimax end, but you'll have to read it to see for yourself!

I started because I couldn't find the book I actually wanted to read, and to my surprise, found that it was an engrossing and well-written novel.

It reminded me, as it did the reviewer below, of Maugham's excellent "Of Human Bondage," but I thought it was actually better. It lacked the cynicism of Maugham's book, and instead of endless philosophizing, it simply provided the reader with good thought-provoking material and left him to draw his own conclusions, if he wished.

It was also consistently enjoyable, though some sections were rather depressing.

The characters were realistic and vital. Most of them were multi-dimensional, while a few of them were deliberately done in one dimension. As in real life, one was constantly changing one's opinions about the characters. It was unusually good in this respect.

The plot, finally, was engrossing and, again, realistic. I recommend the book, noting that in my opinion at least, it is far superior to the author's most famous work, "The Keys of the Kingdom."

-Stephen

How anyone could not appreciate this (in my opinion) literary masterpiece is beyond me. This book is filled with description, but far beyond that the strength of characters that A J Cronin depicts along with the pervadingly dark message to me makes compulsive reading. This was the first of Cronin's novels that I have read and most definately will not be the last.

This is truly a great book, it is true to life also, you peoplethat don't realize that, must have been raised in a bubble.My husbandis now reading the book and cannot put in down, do yourself a favourand buy this book, you will not be sorry. I have read ten Cronin books this one is the best yet! END

I have read all of A J Cronin's books, this one stuck in my mind because it was just so depressing. A lecture on the sin of pride, it is about a businessman (a hatter) who commits the cardinal sin of trying to better himself and be "in" with some very stern Scottish upper class people. He is of course a total tyrant to his family (mad old mother, downtrodden wife, two gormless daughters, and a feckless son). But of course things cannot go well for such a proud man, who will not accept rude customers, long opening hours, etc in his shop, or allow his daughters to receive visits from boys he thinks are not good enough for him. Therein lies his downfall!

Trains containing pregnant women's husbands drop off bridges in the middle of the night, businesses go bust, people go into debt, the man becomes a drunkard,etc etc. Every time you think that things cannot get worse for this unfortunate family something even more dreadful seems to happen.

As usual the characters are extremely one dimensional, but don't let this stop you reading the book if you have a nice cosy chair to curl up in, a warm fire, a box of chocolates and it's raining outside.

Cronin learns to get his melodramatic, pedagogic tendencies under control in his later works but frankly, I enjoyed this book simply because of these attributes. Talk about ramming a point home! It's a case of someone letting their imagination run wild, but at least it keeps the attention. Go on, give it a try. You'll be amazed at the destinies he thinks up for all of his unlovely characters.