"The Free, the Flow, the Frothy Freshener"

If he can say as you can
Guinness is good for you,
How grand to be a Toucan
Just think what Toucan do.

~Dorothy Sayers

I have experienced cold, frothy Guinness in a Cambridge pub, at a tale-gate party for a Keith Urban/Kenny Chesney concert, and at most all points between.  But, my favorite place is on the side-walk at McCreary's across the table from a friend...or several friends.  I love the dark, bitter stout, and I love the convivial atmosphere it helps establish among friends.  When I first heard about Stephen Mansfield's book, The Search for God and Guinness, I was immediately intrigued.  I hoped the story would prove equal to the brew.  I was not to be disappointed.

Opening the book is like boarding a magic carpet that whisks you across oceans and across time to visit brewers in Mesopotamia and Monasteries, to chase bottles to the Azores and the Arctic.  And all along the way, there are stories...surprising, heartbreaking, inspiring, remarkable stories.

I am just nerdy curious enough to have found Mansfield's crash course in the art of brewing immensely interesting.  And I loved imagining with him how this art might first have been discovered among ancient cultures, all of whom practiced it.  As a product of tee-totaling Baptist stock, I was surprised to learn how ardently Church Reformers had extolled the benefits and blessings of beer and wine, and had defended their consumption. 

"Do not suppose abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused.  Men can go wrong with wine and women.  Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?"                                                                                                             ~Martin Luther

"We are nowhere forbidden to laugh, or to be satisfied with food...or to be delighted with music, or to drink wine...It is permissible to use wine not only for necessity, but also to make us merry."                                                                      ~John Calvin

But, of course, the richest and deepest stories are those about the Guinness family, beginning with the colorful patriarch, Arthur.  This is the man who stands up to the sheriff with a pickax and "very much improper language" to defend a newly dug watercourse supplying his factory.  He is also the man who cultivates the art of brewing porter to such a level that he outsells English producers in England.  Finally, this same man begins the Sunday School movement in Ireland, heads up the Meath Hospital board, and treats all his employees, Protestant and Catholic alike, with respect and great care.  He establishes a model for generations to come: a model of fierce commitment to excellence and tireless service to others.

Each generation will serve this legacy in its own voice, but something of Arthur will remain.  Just like the yeast.  The author explains to us that yeast used for brewing beer grows in the process and can be skimmed off to use again.  The very strain of yeast used by Arthur himself has been carried to every Guinness brewery around the world and is still "festering away" and vivifying the brew you might be drinking right now.

There are far too many fascinating stories and heroic characters for me to relate even a representative sampling.  I will only say that: I adore Dr. Lumsden and his audacious, dauntless, and erudite efforts to improve the lot of the poor, and applaud the Guinness board for supporting him.  Also, that I am humbled and challenged by Rupert and Gwendolyn Guinness who, after receiving 5 million pounds as a wedding gift, moved into the slums and "launched a crusade to ease the plight of the poor."  That I owe many hours of middle school amusement to managing director, Sir Hugh Beaver, whose hunting quarrel with a friend over which game bird was fastest ultimately resulted in a publication called The Guinness Book of World Records.  Finally, that I find John Gilroy's advertising illustrations whimsically fabulous.

The author closes the book with 5 principles distilled from the stories that he terms "The Guinness Way".  These are very helpful guides for business and for life. 

I choose to close this post with a condensation of one of my favorite stories in the book.  It appeals to me on sentimental grounds as a Tennessee girl who almost always orders Jack Daniels and Coke on the flight home from any trip abroad...

During World War II the British army asked Guinness to set aside 5 percent of its production for the troops.  It was "provided free of charge to hospitals and shipped to men at the front".  And in December 1939, just before the invasion of France, "each man at the front was given a bottle of Guinness with his Christmas dinner."  Why?  A bottle of Guinness was a bit of home. But that's not the whole of the story.  Short staffed because of the war, the Guinness plant needed help to meet production. "Volunteers lined up outside the brewery gates, some of them retired Guinness employees and some veterans of World War I.  The Red Cross sent workers, and competing breweries even sent skilled men to assure that the all-important order was filled."  Wow!

Compelling book.  An absolute must read.

*All artwork in the post designed by the inimitable John Gilroy.  The title was a slogan proffered by the brilliant, if verbose, Irish novelist James Joyce, who loved his Guinness.  

Comments

[Gail Hyatt]

What a great review! You made it all come alive again.

[Iz]

I can't wait until this term is over so I have time to read this book. Thanks for the appetite! :)