The easy to read, simple and enjoyable first volume of The Country Girls Trilogy is the mildly entertaining story of the childhoods of two Irish Country girls. O'Brien writes with precision and occasional humour. Apparently the book, along with the two subsequent volumes, caused a storm when first published in 1960 for discussing issues not normally spoken of publicly in Ireland ie: almost anything to do with the lives of women and girls. Hard to see now, though, what the fuss was about, but interesting because of it nevertheless.
