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Title: Valid History wrapped in Incompetent Fictionalizing
Review: Mr Llywelyn may very well be a very thorough historian, as is evidenced by his intricate knowledge of Irish culture and hardships of the turn of the century, but he fails miserably to bring these events to light within the context of a third person narrative. The biggest single problem with 1916 is in the loose characterization. For instance, the protagonist, a fifteen year old Irish boy, is privy to insights into human nature that most very mature adults have no clue about. At one point, Llywelyn states that Ned (the boy) cringes each time he sees a particular character because he senses that the brightest candles burn out the quickest. This thought is occurring to a lad who just months before was daydreaming of pirtates attacking the cruise ship he was on. Oh yeah, did I mention that the ship was named the Titanic? If not for the gross inaccuracies in character response and interaction this novel may have been enjoyable as well as informative.
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