Two brothers are at the centre of Rooney's latest offering. Peter is a lawyer, thirty-two. Ivan is his younger brother, ten years his junior. Peter isTwo brothers are at the centre of Rooney's latest offering. Peter is a lawyer, thirty-two. Ivan is his younger brother, ten years his junior. Peter is a ladies' man, who parties hard. But he's also depressed and anxious. He doesn't get his chess genius brother. Ivan feels disdain and thinks Peter doesn't care about him. In short, their relationship is tenuous.
Rooney masterfully unpeels and unwraps personalities, human flaws, motivations and people's ineptitude when it comes to communication.
Despite not being that keen on the narrator, I ended up feeling invested in the brothers' lives and what happened to their relationships with each other and with others around them....more
This week I read two novels written by Irish men about male fuckupdeness (not a word) in a patriarchal society and how it affects women and children. This week I read two novels written by Irish men about male fuckupdeness (not a word) in a patriarchal society and how it affects women and children.
To be honest, I'd forgotten what this novel was about, given its title and cover, I thought it'd be about the environment etc.
Water packs a lot in its 170 pages. Our protagonist and narrator is fifty-two and moved to an island to escape her past. She's changed her name and appearance. She mostly keeps to herself, takes long walks and thinks about her life, incredulous that it had turned the way it did. She's filled with guilt and anger.
Unfortunately, the issues this novel addresses are way too common.
Fortunately, with social progress that involves the church losing its corrupting dominance, and women gaining power in the workforce and at home, the abuses and coverups are taken seriously and the perpetrators get their punishment, because, enough is enough!...more
Small towns and communities are idealised these days, but we forget they're also ripe with gossip, sometimes it's vicious.
Murrin's debut novel focusesSmall towns and communities are idealised these days, but we forget they're also ripe with gossip, sometimes it's vicious.
Murrin's debut novel focuses on three different women living in a small coastal town. They're all unhappy in their marriage for different reasons but due to men. It's 1994, there's no divorce in Catholic Ireland.
Daisy is married to a handsome womaniser. She knows about his ways but she's pregnant again so what is she to do? Izzy has been married for many years to a politician, their relationship has always been volatile. And then, there's the attractive poet, Collette, who dared leave her husband, but now she's back in town, trying to repair her relationship with her two boys. Bad decisions, prejudice, double standards and the lack of options for our protagonists equal misery.
The Coastal Road was an easy read, that wasn't preachy in the least.
Thank the goddesses that the Irish have become more progressive....more
Ordinary Human Failings is seemingly a thriller, mystery.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decaOrdinary Human Failings is seemingly a thriller, mystery.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decades, it has at its centre the Greens, an Irish family who moved to London. This is a novel about disenfranchisement, mistakes that affect one’s once promising future, lack of opportunities, depression, alcoholism, loneliness to name just a few of the themes. Nolan does a great job humanising all the individuals, even the very flawed.
Ordinary Human Failings is worth checking out – the writing is masterful, the narrator, Jessica Regan, was top notch....more
3 -3.5 I'm not quite sure how to review this. On one hand, it's a relatively short novel, modern and well-written and it's about three generations of w3 -3.5 I'm not quite sure how to review this. On one hand, it's a relatively short novel, modern and well-written and it's about three generations of women - all good things in my book.
On the other hand, I'm not exactly sure what Enright was trying to say with this novel, it wasn't obvious to me and I say that as someone more interested in characterisations than plot.
This is one of those novels enjoyable enough while you're reading it, but I'm afraid I've already started to forget what it was about.
Just because this novel is popular, it doesn't mean you should read it. I should have paid more attention to the blurb, and others' reviews.
This entirJust because this novel is popular, it doesn't mean you should read it. I should have paid more attention to the blurb, and others' reviews.
This entire novel is trigger-warning worthy: child abduction, sexual abuse, torture, and mental abuse to name but a few.
I had high expectations, even though I'm not a fan of the genre. Yes, Sally is strange because she's not good with people and has poor social skills. She's set in her ways and can be very literal. I didn't find many situations amusing, but that's alright.
It's best to go into this novel not knowing much, except for the trigger warning. It's also a good idea not to read it.
I didn't love this, as I couldn't get past the atrocities. I can't imagine how someone would choose to write these kinds of stories, live and inhabit those thoughts and environments intentionally.
I'm so over reading about yet another girl, a woman being raped, tortured, gaslit, and mistreated, While I still have some of my mental faculties intact, it's very unlikely I'll ever forget those things happened and are still happening. I need to find a good female revenge novel for balance....more
3.5 This isn't easy to rate. Why? This time of the year is super busy, so my mood is not the best. This book won the Booker Prize and some expectations3.5 This isn't easy to rate. Why? This time of the year is super busy, so my mood is not the best. This book won the Booker Prize and some expectations and pressures accompany the reading and reviewing such a novel.
The plot can be summed up as a professional Irish mother and her four children, including a baby, are trying to survive the authoritarian/fascist new regime that sees her union leader and teacher husband being apprehended by authorities. On top of that, she's got to deal with her ailing, demented father. She is kind of naive in the beginning, believing in the rule of law, human rights and common sense - oh, how easily those principles of modern democracies can crumble. Her naivete was even more striking as she lived in Ireland. But we all have our blind spots and some people are the half-full type of people. Moving on.
Not to spoil it, but there's more chaos, misinformation, confusion and a lot of grief.
I couldn't help but think of those suffering through armed conflicts, bombings and other such reprehensible things inflicted by other humans on other humans.
The writing was good, but things didn't hit me on an emotional level, I'm happy to blame my mood for my lack of emotional conectiveness. Now that I try to articulate things here and to myself, I'm convinced that had Lynch used the first-person narration, the novel would have been more impactful, at least for this reader.
Also, while Gerry O'Brien was perfectly adequate, I thought it was a peculiar choice to have a male narrator deliver this novel mostly about a woman's journey.
I'm rounding this up to 4 stars as the other novels on the Booker shortlist I read were rated 3 stars but were less enjoyable/worthy....more
3.5 This is the second novel that I read by the Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern.
Alice has a special gift/curse: she can see colours and auras. When she's 3.5 This is the second novel that I read by the Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern.
Alice has a special gift/curse: she can see colours and auras. When she's young, she doesn't know what to do with them, but eventually, she realises different colours mean different things. She's the middle child, with two brothers. Their single mother, Lily, is volatile and has a drinking problem.
This novel is about Alice's journey from pre-teen to old age.
While this was readable, I found it a bit too repetitive in the middle part and uneven....more
Hands up if you felt resentment towards the father of your child/children for sleeping through the night while you're up breastfeeding or caring for aHands up if you felt resentment towards the father of your child/children for sleeping through the night while you're up breastfeeding or caring for an unsettled child.
Hands up if you felt resentment because your child's father's body and brain are unchanged, while your body is never going to be the same, your brain kind of turned to mush;
Hands up if you hate how low the bar is set for men, how the patriarchy/society punishes women/mothers while fathers' careers usually thrive.
Our narrator, who's addressing her four-year-old son, Sailor, remembers many of the early motherhood moments that were far from what advertisements and other media would have you believe. On top of that, post-natal depression, an unsettled baby, a missing in action father who works late (a more common scenario than you'd think where new fathers have no choice ;-) but work longer hours), and no other friends or support network, are a recipe for a mental breakdown.
We're constantly in the mother's head, her anxieties, tiredness, confusion, self-loathing and resentment in the open for us to judge, gawk, compare and contrast. In my case, I empathise and sympathise. It was all quite visceral and intense. I felt intense anger towards the husband, who worked long hours, even dared enjoy golf sessions for "networking", and told the wife to keep the screaming baby quiet as he had an "early start" - oh, the many small but oh so significant everyday cuts that in which the male selfishness rules supreme.
Chances are the son is probably going to be slightly better than his father, but not by much.
Soldier Sailor was an honest, intense, raw account of the many sides of motherhood. ...more
Queen Bee by Ciara Geraghty is about a menopausal Irish writer, Agatha Doyle, who's about to turn fifty. She's bamI haven't laughed this hard in years!
Queen Bee by Ciara Geraghty is about a menopausal Irish writer, Agatha Doyle, who's about to turn fifty. She's bamboozled by the changes in her body that include: insomnia, hot flashes, night sweats, extreme moodiness/crankiness, brain fog and many other smaller and bigger irritations. Why didn't anybody warn her? How is she going to write her next historical novel when she's got brain fog, and can't concentrate on anything?
This novel was delightful, that rare combination of unintentionally funny, sarcasm, language play and situational humour, with a splash of Irishiness, which made it even more charming.
From one contrary woman to another, Agatha Doyle, I salute you!
Shout-out to Angeline Ball whose splendid narration made me feel like I was in the room with Agatha.
This is going to be on my 2023 favourite reads of the year....more
Believe it or not, this is only the first Sebastian Barry novel that I read. I understand now why he's been lauded for so long, his writing is sublimeBelieve it or not, this is only the first Sebastian Barry novel that I read. I understand now why he's been lauded for so long, his writing is sublime. My list of Irish writers whose writing I love seems to be growing and growing.
Old God's Time has at its centre the now retired policeman, Tom Kettle. Tom is a widower and a loner. He doesn't see or talk to anyone. His memory goes back to the happier times with his wife and children, and, occasionally, to his unhappy childhood, as an orphan. His beloved wife suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and extreme cruelty from the nuns who were supposed to look after her and the other orphans. It was a difficult read in that respect. While it's no news to me and am lucky not to have such personal trauma to deal with, oh, it just made my blood boil at that loathsome corporation that destroyed so many lives for centuries now which is still allowed to exist. Certain things are unforgivable, what the Catholic Church did, is definitely at the top of my shit list.
If you take offence to what I'm saying, maybe you should direct that anger and rage towards the actual perpetrators.
So, while the writing was beautifully crafted, given some of its themes, it was a difficult read even though there were a few moments of levity.
Themes: child abuse, inc sexual abuse; grief, loneliness, revenge, regret.
NB: The audiobook was beautifully narrated by the Stephen Hogan....more
Tresspasses is a competently written debut novel, set in Northern Ireland. Its main character is Cushla Lavery, a teacher at a local Catholic schoo3.5
Tresspasses is a competently written debut novel, set in Northern Ireland. Its main character is Cushla Lavery, a teacher at a local Catholic school. She's in her twenties but she doesn't have much of a personal life, she's either working as a teacher or at the family's pub or staying home to look after her alcoholic mother.
The Troubles are picking up steam. Cushla and her family live in a mixed community, the sectarianism is getting more extreme. How does one navigate these tumultuous times?
Cushla enters into a relationship with an older, married man. The usual complications arising from having to hide an illicit relationship are amplified by the fact that she's mixed up with a protestant. All around, people are being killed, and bombs are being detonated. I can't even imagine the stress of having to live through such volatile times.
I had high expectations as this was lauded by many. For some strange reason, I never felt fully engaged or cared that much. The writing was good but not as literary as I expected it....more
The Colony was a mesmerising and intriguing read. It's set at the end of the 70s when the Northern Ireland conflict, also known as the Troubles, was mThe Colony was a mesmerising and intriguing read. It's set at the end of the 70s when the Northern Ireland conflict, also known as the Troubles, was manifesting across Northern Ireland and England.
Mr Lloyd, a landscape British painter, makes his way to the Island, hoping to capture it in his paintings and take his art in a new direction. Here he encounters a different world, unlike anything he was used to in London. Most people are simple and lead modest lives. Many are monolingual, they only speak Irish/Gaelic.
Mr Lloyd takes on an apprentice of sorts who turns out to be quite talented. Young James, inspired by Mr Lloyd, dares to imagine himself as an artist in London, he's over the claustrophobic, boring life on the island.
Through the French linguist, Jean Pierre, we get to ponder languages and colonialism.
The narrative is broken by news reports about people who were killed in that period of the Troubles. By focusing on the age, marital and parental status of the individuals killed in the conflict, Magee magnifies the horrors of the conflict.
This novel was filled with mundanities but also with philosophical and historical inquiries, with art playing an important role.
The Colony was both simple and complex. Read other people's better-articulated reviews.
A special mention goes to Stephen Hogan for his splendid narration....more
A quiet story about a simple man, a coal and wood merchant, in a small town in Ireland. Bill Furlong is happily married and doesn't mind having five dA quiet story about a simple man, a coal and wood merchant, in a small town in Ireland. Bill Furlong is happily married and doesn't mind having five daughters. He was raised by a single mother and never got to learn who his father was. It's Christmas time. Lately, he's been feeling uneasy and feels tired of the routine and wonders about life's purpose. A chance encounter with a girl from a nun run monastery, where "lost girls" were sent to be forgotten about makes him confront the status quo and wonder what would have happened to his own mother had her nice employer dismissed her. I appreciated Keegan's restrained and unpreachy ways, while I also needed more....more
If you think about it, the concept of marrying for love is relatively new. Not that marrying for love guarantees better outcomes. This is the story of If you think about it, the concept of marrying for love is relatively new. Not that marrying for love guarantees better outcomes. This is the story of a stale marriage. Two people who don't really know each other, and worse, don't care to know each other, get married. Eventually, kids appear. The wife is burdened by the drudgery of daily life, not getting any fulfilment from the domestic chores and having each day indistinguishable from others. The husband does the fieldwork and the cow milking and expects a good, "manly" dinner. He seems to have very little self-awareness.
This was a good story, but the writing kept me at a distance, I never fully cared, even when I empathise with certain situations.
Dreadful! I tried, I really did, I listened to 6 of the 10.5 hrs of this, solely because so many of my GR friends loved it, but I found this novel unbeDreadful! I tried, I really did, I listened to 6 of the 10.5 hrs of this, solely because so many of my GR friends loved it, but I found this novel unbearable. I don't care how topical and how much it preached to my biases, the writing felt rushed and heavy-handed.
The Pull of the Stars had many elements that I dislike: historical fiction + first-person narration a la new adult romance novels, in this case, by a holier than thou heroine who narrated every little.single.detail of her day, blow by blow, relentless nursing and medical procedures with many gorry details. I wasn't squeamish in the least, I've had kids, I've a keen interest in medicine etc. but it was so darn boring, obnoxious and unrelenting.
Sentimental and melodramatic, this will probably take the prize for my worst read of 2020....more
It took me way too long to finish this novel. This time, I can't blame it on my mood or on being busy, the writing just didn't grab me, I found myselfIt took me way too long to finish this novel. This time, I can't blame it on my mood or on being busy, the writing just didn't grab me, I found myself drifting and avoiding picking up the book again. I love lyrical writing, I love melancholy ridden books - which This Is Happiness had in abundance. There was also humour and cheekiness, but despite all these elements that I treasure in a novel, This Is Happiness failed to keep my interest and I felt it was overwritten.
I hope History Of The Rain will charm me more than this novel, which I really hoped and wanted to love....more
While I had so many other books to catch up with, I couldn't stop myself from requesting this latest novel from John Banville, although it's a police While I had so many other books to catch up with, I couldn't stop myself from requesting this latest novel from John Banville, although it's a police procedural/thriller.
Snow will probably disappoint the hardcore thriller/crime readers. I'm not one of those. I'm more interested in characterisations, atmosphere and the overall writing style - which, as I've come to expect from John Banville, were top notch. It's a bonus if I don't find any gaping plot holes - there were none.
It's 1957, Ireland. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is sent to a small village in County Wexford to investigate the gruesome murder of a Catholic priest. He was the guest of a retired protestant colonel who lived in a big, old mansion. St John a was an interesting main character, not your stereotypical smoker, drink-to-oblivion kind of detective.
Banville affords us a glimpse of the era - the divisions between the Catholics and the Protestants that penetrated every aspect of life and the overwhelming influence of the Catholic church in all aspects of life.
The novel has a good, steady pace, in keeping with the times, the era, and the season. I could easily picture the characters and the locations, I could feel the cold and the gloom.
The only thing that I found jarring was a small chapter from the deceased priest's point of view, I thought it was random and unnecessary, and I say that as someone who enjoys hearing from unreliable characters. Other than that, this was excellent, as you'd expect from such a consummate talented writer.
Many thanks to Faber and Faber for the opportunity to read and review this ARC....more
The third book in the Cormac Reilly series was better than the second one, I didn't find obvious plot holes or completely unbelievable situations.3.5
The third book in the Cormac Reilly series was better than the second one, I didn't find obvious plot holes or completely unbelievable situations. Cormac Reilly is, yet again, in trouble and gets suspended. One of his people, Garda Peter Fisher, is sent away to Galway, while he's under investigation for killing a suspect. Peter Fisher's story took a bigger slice of the novel. He's got work issues and personal issues, as he's working in his home town, next to his father, whom he despises.
Objectively, this novel wasn't bad. At times, I felt there was too much explaining and that the writing was a bit too plain for my liking - while also understanding that it works in this genre. There were some convenient coincidences that helped advance the plot.
In short, it was good but not great. In saying all that, it's not my favourite genre, so take my review with a pinch of salt.
Actress is about a mother-daughter relationship, told by the daughter. Now older than when her mother dMy first Anne Enright novel didn't disappoint.
Actress is about a mother-daughter relationship, told by the daughter. Now older than when her mother died, Norah is reminiscing about her peculiar childhood, as the only child of the famous Irish actress, Katherine O’Dell. Isn't it interesting how the older we get the more sympathetic, understanding we are towards our parents? Having our own kids, relationships allow us to see our parents in a different light. Enright balanced the narrative between Norah's childhood memories and the young adult's very well, there's melancholy, admirations, vexation while also attempting to put together the puzzle her mother was. We never really know someone completely, even more so when your mother is an actress who always adapts and changes to suit her company, usually men. While it's easy to read and digest, this is also complex and layered. I enjoyed it a great deal, so I'm going to make sure I read more Enright....more
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