John the Revelator

Synopsis: John Devine yearns for escape. Stuck in a small town, he's worried over by his chain-smoking, bible-quoting single mother Lily and the sinister Mrs Nagle. So when Jamey Corboy, a self-styled boy-wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly fills with possibilities. But as they dream and scheme is John simply hiding from the reality of his mother's ill health, and the terrible dilemma that awaits him? Brilliantly evoking all the frustrations and pent up energy of a parochial adolescence, "John the Revelator" also gradually becomes the story of Lily herself, and the secrets of her past. Suffused with eerie imagery, black humour and told in hypnotic prose, "John the Revelator" is a novel to fall in love with.

Review: I don't know why me and this book didn't get on more, it has nothing to do with the writing which was superb, I think it was just that I wasn't in the mood for something fairly dark and depressing.

It's got a definite touch of the Roddy Doyle's about it (which under normal circumstances I would love,) it has his ironic humour and also his way with words, with short, punchy, matter of fact, sentences. I liked the way John's relationship with his mum Lily was played out and I loved Lily's dark Irish wit - she worries about him and he worries about her (with good cause as it turns out.) She says things like 'I knew you were a boy .. heartburn. Sure sign of a man in your life' and her answer for 'what's for dinner?' is 'pigs feet and hairy buttermilk'. They are protective of each other in a way that single parents and lone children often are .. they only have each other but Lily is unwell and increasingly so and John (who is fifteen) is naturally concerned. John is, by nature, a loner but when a new boy, James Corboy, comes to town, he recognises a kindred spirit and they join forces. John is happy to escape from his burdens for a while especially as James is cool and a little bit different and more daring than he, but he's not escaping, he's only hiding and sooner or later reality is back to claim him. James writes short stories and they, as well as John's nightmare dream sequences, are woven into the story supplying further insight and bolstering up a sort of creeping menace that builds as the story progresses.

Very melancholic and atmospheric, with a strong supernatural element weaving through. In a different frame of mind I might have loved this book but sadly as it got darker I began to wish for it to be over. I did love John and Lily and would have been happy to eavesdrop on their banter for ages ... but that probably wouldn't have made much of a story.

Something Special

Synopsis: Yvonne believes there's more to life than marriage to Sam, the young man who's courting her. But when she tries to have fun, she gets caught up in a fracas in a bar. Sam's idea of "something special" meanwhile is to take her to St Stephen's Green later that night to show her a ghostly tree!

Review: I borrowed this from the library because I was enjoying reading The Sea, The Sea so much and because it's so short I read it in about half an hour. To say that Yvonne is less than enthusiastic about marrying Sam would be an understatement, she wants to have some fun and excitement. Sam thinks he will take Yvonne for a romantic moonlit walk by the river Liffey and then to see a fallen tree but Yvonne wants none of it, her idea of a good night out is to go to Kimballs and explore the slightly seedy downstairs bar and she's determined to have her way. Yvonne's mum and uncle just want to see her married to a decent man. A funny little story, set in Dublin, beautifully illustrated throughout with Michael McCurdy's lovely woodcut engravings.

A Star Called Henry (Audiobook)

Synopsis: Born in the Dublin slums of 1901, his father a one-legged whorehouse bouncer and settler of scores, Henry Smart has to grow up fast. By the time he can walk he's out robbing and begging, often cold and always hungry, but a prince of the streets. By Easter Monday, 1916, he's fourteen years old and already six-foot-two, a soldier in the Irish Citizen Army. A year later he's ready to die for Ireland again, a rebel, a Fenian and a killer. With his father's wooden leg as his weapon, Henry becomes a Republican legend - one of Michael Collins' boys, a cop killer, an assassin on a stolen bike.

Review: 'My mother looked up at the stars. There were plenty of them up there. She lifted her hand. It swayed as she chose one. Her finger pointed. There's my little Henry up there. Look. I looked, her other little Henry sitting beside her on the step. I looked up and hated him. She held me but she looked up at her twinkling boy. Poor me beside her, pale and red-eyed, held together by rashes and sores. A stomach crying to be filled, bare feet aching like an old, old man's. Me, a shocking substitute for the little Henry who'd been too good for this world, the Henry God had wanted for himself. Poor me.'

This is an account of The Easter Rising and the subsequent War of Independence as told by Dubliner Henry Smart. The writing is brutal and shocking but also at times poetic and darkly humorous. It's not an easy read, although having Roddy narrate it brought a real authenticity to the story. It's totally unflinching and intense with, as you would expect given the subject matter, copious amounts of violence. The language is explicit and colourful and so is the graphic content but somehow Roddy threads the story with so much wit and absurdity that it doesn't feel as bleak and savage as it otherwise might and it is studded with absolute gems of characters like Miss O'Shea and Granny Nash. Also he writes so evocatively that you feel like you're there experiencing it first hand, which is fairly disturbing as, on the whole, they're not situations you'd like to find yourself in. Being one of the evil English it did have me wincing a bit and some of the depictions of violence were hard to swallow but all in all it's an incredibly accomplished piece of writing. It has the ability to shock you to your very core and make you laugh all in the same paragraph. I just loved the ongoing piece of business involving his fathers wooden leg .. genius.

I'd quite like to find out what happens to Henry Smart and so I probably will seek out the sequels at some point.

Tatty

Synopsis: Hailed by the critics as a masterpiece, Tatty is a devastating, yet hilarious, depiction of a troubled Dublin family told through the lively, charismatic voice of a little girl. With brutal honesty, Tatty tells the story of her life with her beloved, feckless Dad, her tormented Mam, her five siblings and the booze that brings them down. This not just an entertaining tale, but also a heartbreaking account of a disturbed childhood that makes for compulsive reading.

Review: I loved this book from the start. The book is narrated by Tatty, a young Irish girl growing up in the 1960's. Tatty's 'voice' is absolutely convincing, she narrates the whole story so the reader is always with her, we know her innermost thoughts, her observations and all her little worries (which get larger). She has a lively, chatty, humorous style but for all that Tatty is incredibly lonely and fearful.

I grew so fond of her that it was painful to read about how isolated and sad she becomes. Tatty's real name is Caroline, her nickname comes from the phrase 'tell-tale-tattler' because she is always putting her foot in it and blurting out truths when the people around her would rather keep secrets. She's not malicious she just doesn't always know when to keep quiet.

'You get funny dinners in other people's kitchens. Dinners that don't taste the same as Mam's. It might be the same stuff, but they match it a different way on the plate. The woman who makes you your dinner might ask you your business. And even though Mam always warns her, "Don't be telling those noisy oulones all your business", sometimes she gets mixed up and forgets. And it's hard to know what you're allowed to tell or not, because one minute it's "tell the truth and shame the devil". The next minute it's: "Ah what did you have to go and tell them that for? I could kill you stone dead"

Her Aunties are the stuff of Bertie Woosters nightmares, Auntie Winnie is too handy with the sloppy slipper, Auntie Betty has a cane hanging behind the kitchen door that she's itching to use and Aunt June threatens to put mustard on her tongue.

Tatty has two older sisters, Jeannie and Deirdre, and three younger brothers, Luke, Brian and Michael. Jeannie is clever, domesticated and has lots of friends, Deirdre is mentally handicapped and suffers frequent fits, she's the 'special child' that 'Holy God sent to us because he loves us so much'. Her little brothers are all typical rough and tumble boys.

When she's put into a new school Tatty finds it hard to make friends, in fact she doesn't make any and is unhappy. Her Dad keeps asking her if she has any new pals, she doesn't like to tell him the truth. She needs to make up some names, she can't use the girls name's in her class incase her Dad gets to talking to their Dads, the only thing she can think of is to use the names of the girls in her favourite books ...

"Well" she says, "there's Dinah and Lucy-Ann, Georgina .. we call her George. And Daisy, Carlotta, Bobby .. her real name's Roberta. Then there's Hilary, Belinda and let's see Marjorie and, and ... that's all". "My God", dad goes, "they're fancy names, I must say". "Oh", well the twins have plain names". "Twins as well, TWINS! Didn't I tell you you'd make pals' didn't I tell you? And twins, if you don't mind". "Yes, Pat and Isobel O'Sullivan". "Oh, that's very good indeed"

She's the apple of her Dad's eye and they're the best of friends, but even he is neglectful of her. Their close relationship is just another source of irritation to her Mam. Mam and Dad are always fighting, he spends most of his time in the pub or at the races and Mam is slowly drowning in booze and becoming swipey. The fights and arguments increase until there is no end or beginning to them, they're just continuous. Tatty lies on her bunk bed listening to them screeching insults and recriminations at one another, her head aching. Her desperation to have a friend leads Tatty to do something deceitful and as a consequence she is sent away from home to boarding school, but things take a turn for the better there, she likes the teachers, she progresses with her schoolwork and she makes some friends at last.

The book reminded me a lot of Roddy Doyle's writing, comedy and tragedy all skilfully blended. The story has such an authentic feel that you really could be reading someone's memoirs.

click here to continue review - possible spoilers

I was so saddened by the ending, there looked to be light at the end of the tunnel for Tatty but it really only highlighted her desperate situation. Any chance of happiness was snatched away from her and wrapped up as a blessing. I don't like happy ever after endings if they seem too convenient, but I hated to leave Tatty in that blank space to be perpetually lonely, scared and downtrodden. I wanted to know she had a bright future. All the same I loved it, I felt emotional about her, she got under my skin.

Brooklyn

Synopsis: It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time. Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love.

Review: Having read and loved Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes's books I was looking forward to this one. I love a bit of literary Irish charm and humour.

It's quite an old fashioned story set in the 1950's about Eilis who emigrates to Brooklyn USA. Her family want a better life for her, and when Eilis takes a temporary job in a shop in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, alarm bells ring in the heads of her mother and sister, they want more for her than a life spent behind a shop counter and before Eilis knows it she is embarking on a journey that will take her to America.

At first she finds it hard to settle in, everything is new and strange to her and she doesn't make friends easily. And then she meets Tony. Tony is from Brooklyn but his parents are Italian, soon he and Eilis are meeting several times a week and becoming closer and closer, she's also studying hard for her book-keeping exams. But just as she begins to really settle and enjoy being in America, she receives terrible news from home.

I had a bit of trouble warming to Eilis, firstly her name,I couldn't think how to pronounce it, everytime I read it on the page I stumbled over it which got in the way of the text. I should have just googled it, I did when I was halfway through and found that it is pronounced Aylish (although there are variations) and I was happier once I'd got this into my brain. But also she seemed a bit of a cold fish, a bit wishy-washy. I was perplexed by some of her actions, she made me at times want to shake her to get her to wake up. No disrespect to Colm Tóibín but she seemed to be a female character that was definitely written by a man, in as much as her feelings seemed to run only so deep and no deeper, there was no fathoming her.

The story quietly hums along, it's not rivetting but it's very readable. It's a bit mundane in places, but Colm Toibin has a lovely descriptive style that seems to compensate for the lack of any real drama. At no point was I bored or wanting it to finish. I did feel though that some characters were not always fleshed out well, I wanted to know more about Eilis's sister Rose and her mam. However others, like Georgina who was only on the boat crossing, were fantastic (I'd love to have heard more from her) and there are some great gossipy characters.

It's a bit of a contradiction of a book, nothing much happens and it's quite a simple tale but it's still compelling.

I realise that this review sounds less than glowing and that's unfair to the book really because I did enjoy it, it kept me up late last night because I wanted to finish it. True to the rest of the story, there was no big ending and the temptation to throttle Eilis grew but it was consistent and oddly satisfying.