Reviews

One way of getting away from deathly and dull East Belfast is to escape into your imagination. If you have an easy ability to write and it all comes flowing out, with what's called a "rapier wit" in the form of scathing remarks about the surrounding environment and what goes on in it (lying politicians, takeaways) then you have the equipment to construct a large novel about childbirth and the love of a child, but converted into something horrific that threatens to end in an unthinkably monstrous act. Spoiler alert: it doesn't happen so you're all right letting yourself go with the flow. Flow is really what I appreciated most about Jan Carson's prose. She has the gift of writing beautifully without selfconciously trying to and despite her avowed admiration for magical realist writers like Salman Rushdie, she has none of their look-at-how-clever-I-am pretentiousness. When I said "environment" I meant the East Belfast that surrounds the two main characters, both of them at the end of their tethers and heading for catastrophe, each in his own way because yes, they're both men and sympathetically dealt with as victims - victims of the hands they have been dealt. Sammy is a violent extreme Protestant who spent his earlier years beating people up and torturing them for not being Protestants. The other fellow is a medic, a General Practitioner who happens to be Sammy's GP. The climax of the book, I think, is where Sammy's inner drama, as he strives to save his son from a life of misdeeds, comes to a crisis point and he goes to see the GP for what the GP thinks is going to be just another tedious consulation but turns out to be a confrontation man to man. In the meantime the GP is mothering (rather than fathering) a baby that was born in a sort of hallucinatory maelstrom and has no mother. But in a way this is all neither here nor there. It's the novel itself as it bowls along, with brilliantly funny asides of sarcastic Belfast wit, such as the prospect of going out to beat people up as a way of defending your culture. But in the end I don't know if there's a big idea in this book, a big human emotion. If there is, it didn't emerge for me. But a most enjoyable and entertaining read.

pias_library's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

ellathelibrarian's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

Pretty mind-blowing. My heart is still racing!

corinnab953's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

More...