readivine's review against another edition
3.0
"You couldn't go wrong with hippies. Their philosophy hinged on their empathy."
Truth be told, I have a frustrating love-hate relationship with this book. I believe this isn't for everyone who really wants to read for instant entertainment. You have to have the patience to fully appreciate this one.
I personally love the writing style and it's a bit out of my comfort zone but I was reading it easily so fast without even noticing it. Most of all, I love the commentary it offered on modern-day Christianity and emphasized the importance of privilege. The Glorious Heresies relishes on divulging the ugly truths and nitty-gritty lives of those in the lower tier of the food chain and those underneath them and so on and so forth.
It's a refreshing novel for me and truly one of a kind but I can't say I loved it. However, I kind of see how it garnered an award. Like I said, this book isn't for everyone.
---------------
03/24/2020
I'm reading this as a part of the #ReadingWomen2020 Challenge hosted by Women's Prize for Fiction. Basically, it has a TBR of past winners and compiled in celebration of it's 25th Anniversary. I'm not much a fan of literary fiction but I started my reading year w/ a lot of books outside my comfort zone though so I'm very excited about this! ((Also, I actually love the writing style so far in this book! Plus that cover!!!))
Truth be told, I have a frustrating love-hate relationship with this book. I believe this isn't for everyone who really wants to read for instant entertainment. You have to have the patience to fully appreciate this one.
I personally love the writing style and it's a bit out of my comfort zone but I was reading it easily so fast without even noticing it. Most of all, I love the commentary it offered on modern-day Christianity and emphasized the importance of privilege. The Glorious Heresies relishes on divulging the ugly truths and nitty-gritty lives of those in the lower tier of the food chain and those underneath them and so on and so forth.
It's a refreshing novel for me and truly one of a kind but I can't say I loved it. However, I kind of see how it garnered an award. Like I said, this book isn't for everyone.
---------------
03/24/2020
I'm reading this as a part of the #ReadingWomen2020 Challenge hosted by Women's Prize for Fiction. Basically, it has a TBR of past winners and compiled in celebration of it's 25th Anniversary. I'm not much a fan of literary fiction but I started my reading year w/ a lot of books outside my comfort zone though so I'm very excited about this! ((Also, I actually love the writing style so far in this book! Plus that cover!!!))
nerdyrev's review against another edition
5.0
I am just getting back into the country after being in Montreal for a few days and where I read only one book, which will be reviewed tomorrow, but I finished The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney right before I left and it is a book that stuck with me the entire week.
I have passed by this book in the bookstore several times. I would pick it up, read the back, and for some reason would put it back on the shelf. The next week, I would pick it up, go back and forth, and then put it down. When I saw it on Blogging for Books, I figured I would give it a try as it was now fate. When I started the book and even when I finished it, I didn't much care for it. It is a really IRISH book. I don't write that in a derogatory way, but many Irish books and movies are dark in tone with a bit of black comedy running throughout. The characters are often working class with troubled lives. Irish books are often more real in a world where escape is usually in order.
This book is a very Irish book in that sense. We are in Cork a working class town, where Jimmy is a big mobster and he has just put his mother Maureen into a house he owns. The house used to be an old brothel where Georgie, a 16 year old run away now prostitute who is hooked on drugs used to work. Georgie winds up in a religious commune after her boyfriend/pimp/drug dealer disappears. There is also Ryan a 14 year old who sells drugs because he doesn't want to wind up like his father who is an alcoholic.
The story is Maureen has accidentally killed an intruder with a holy stone. The intruder is now dead in her kitchen and she has to call her son to help clean the body up. The body is the connecting point to all the stories as Maureen accidentally learns the victim's name. She feels the need for penance for what she has done. She goes to a priest (a very funny scene), but winds up feeling the need for more.
The writing in this book is so good. The book has won many awards for McInerney's writing and deservedly so. As stated earlier, it is both funny and dark at the same time. The world of Cork just comes to life as these characters begin interacting with one another and nothing seems out of place.
The tone of the book though is difficult. I started it on a bright day in summer with birds singing and big fluffy clouds overhead and I am reading about a 16 year old who gets dragged into prostitution after simply wanting a place to sleep and being offered a bed to sleep in. I am reading about Ryan who doesn't see a way out of his life, except through drug dealing, and doesn't believe his father as his father attempts to clean up his life. For these characters, there are few places for upward mobility. This might be the best life they are living and that is so difficult to read about. It stuck with me though to the point that I will probably want to re-read it in the future. It simply is a book that one has to be in the mood for though and I don't recommend a fluffy cloud day for this one. As stated, I didn't enjoy it at first, but the more it settled, the more and more I liked it.
Overall, I gave this one 4.5 stars.
*I want to thank BloggingforBooks and Tim Duggan Books for the opportunity to read this. I received a review copy of this for free in exchange for an honest review.
I have passed by this book in the bookstore several times. I would pick it up, read the back, and for some reason would put it back on the shelf. The next week, I would pick it up, go back and forth, and then put it down. When I saw it on Blogging for Books, I figured I would give it a try as it was now fate. When I started the book and even when I finished it, I didn't much care for it. It is a really IRISH book. I don't write that in a derogatory way, but many Irish books and movies are dark in tone with a bit of black comedy running throughout. The characters are often working class with troubled lives. Irish books are often more real in a world where escape is usually in order.
This book is a very Irish book in that sense. We are in Cork a working class town, where Jimmy is a big mobster and he has just put his mother Maureen into a house he owns. The house used to be an old brothel where Georgie, a 16 year old run away now prostitute who is hooked on drugs used to work. Georgie winds up in a religious commune after her boyfriend/pimp/drug dealer disappears. There is also Ryan a 14 year old who sells drugs because he doesn't want to wind up like his father who is an alcoholic.
The story is Maureen has accidentally killed an intruder with a holy stone. The intruder is now dead in her kitchen and she has to call her son to help clean the body up. The body is the connecting point to all the stories as Maureen accidentally learns the victim's name. She feels the need for penance for what she has done. She goes to a priest (a very funny scene), but winds up feeling the need for more.
The writing in this book is so good. The book has won many awards for McInerney's writing and deservedly so. As stated earlier, it is both funny and dark at the same time. The world of Cork just comes to life as these characters begin interacting with one another and nothing seems out of place.
The tone of the book though is difficult. I started it on a bright day in summer with birds singing and big fluffy clouds overhead and I am reading about a 16 year old who gets dragged into prostitution after simply wanting a place to sleep and being offered a bed to sleep in. I am reading about Ryan who doesn't see a way out of his life, except through drug dealing, and doesn't believe his father as his father attempts to clean up his life. For these characters, there are few places for upward mobility. This might be the best life they are living and that is so difficult to read about. It stuck with me though to the point that I will probably want to re-read it in the future. It simply is a book that one has to be in the mood for though and I don't recommend a fluffy cloud day for this one. As stated, I didn't enjoy it at first, but the more it settled, the more and more I liked it.
Overall, I gave this one 4.5 stars.
*I want to thank BloggingforBooks and Tim Duggan Books for the opportunity to read this. I received a review copy of this for free in exchange for an honest review.
gorecki's review against another edition
4.0
Me before starting the book: I’m not a huge fan of the gangster-dealer-prostitute-crime genre, but I got it from a good friend, and he’s never been wrong so far.
Me 50 pages in: All my prejudices surface - of course you’re a super intelligent 14-year-old drug dealer with daddy issues, playing the piano; sure, you’re a gangster with a heart of gold, lovingly caring for his mammy; and yes of course you’re a prostitute who has a family sitting somewhere in the country side, worrying sick, while you do tricks in town because “you have no other option”. At least it’s going fast, I’ll finish it relatively quickly.
Me 150 pages in: Oh my god, I don’t care it’s past midnight, I can’t stop reading now, I don’t want this book to end.
I admit I was prejudiced. I believed I will not like this book because I’m not a fan of the genre. Contemporary topics such as gangsters, drug dealers, and prostitution do not fall in my circle of interest when it comes to fiction. I always feel that such characters cannot be portrayed as anything but clichés – they are either extremely crude and cruel, or sensitive and genius, but unappreciated. The latter was a bit true for Glorious Heresies, but somehow, I ended up loving the book anyway.
After the murder of Robbie O’Donovan, his body disappears, but his name doesn’t. Maureen Phelan, 59 and my favourite character in this novel, accidentally kills a man who’s broken into her home in Cork, and this sets off a series of events that will change the lives of a few people: a teenage runaway prostitute (Georgie), a teenage drug dealer (Ryan), his alcoholic father (Tony), and their neighbor (Tara), who is the living proof for the saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. And even though the victim has been considered a nobody, a person of such low status, that even the police doesn’t want to investigate his disappearance, he still meant something to someone. And so in the span of five years, he becomes a ghost haunting all of the characters in the book and setting them against each other even when they’re working together to cover or uncover the story. This is a book of people unconsciously wrecking each other’s lives, while at the same time believing they’re actually doing good. That they are making things better. But as Atwood puts it perfectly in her “Handmaid’s Tale” – “Better is never better for everyone.”
McInerney does an incredible job creating her characters. Not only are they easily distinguishable and come to life on the pages of the book with their own personalities. Her writing often makes a difference and contrast between how they perceive themselves and how others see them. I was pleasantly surprised by Glorious Heresies. It taught me not to judge a book not only by its cover, but also by its plot summary.
Me 50 pages in: All my prejudices surface - of course you’re a super intelligent 14-year-old drug dealer with daddy issues, playing the piano; sure, you’re a gangster with a heart of gold, lovingly caring for his mammy; and yes of course you’re a prostitute who has a family sitting somewhere in the country side, worrying sick, while you do tricks in town because “you have no other option”. At least it’s going fast, I’ll finish it relatively quickly.
Me 150 pages in: Oh my god, I don’t care it’s past midnight, I can’t stop reading now, I don’t want this book to end.
I admit I was prejudiced. I believed I will not like this book because I’m not a fan of the genre. Contemporary topics such as gangsters, drug dealers, and prostitution do not fall in my circle of interest when it comes to fiction. I always feel that such characters cannot be portrayed as anything but clichés – they are either extremely crude and cruel, or sensitive and genius, but unappreciated. The latter was a bit true for Glorious Heresies, but somehow, I ended up loving the book anyway.
After the murder of Robbie O’Donovan, his body disappears, but his name doesn’t. Maureen Phelan, 59 and my favourite character in this novel, accidentally kills a man who’s broken into her home in Cork, and this sets off a series of events that will change the lives of a few people: a teenage runaway prostitute (Georgie), a teenage drug dealer (Ryan), his alcoholic father (Tony), and their neighbor (Tara), who is the living proof for the saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. And even though the victim has been considered a nobody, a person of such low status, that even the police doesn’t want to investigate his disappearance, he still meant something to someone. And so in the span of five years, he becomes a ghost haunting all of the characters in the book and setting them against each other even when they’re working together to cover or uncover the story. This is a book of people unconsciously wrecking each other’s lives, while at the same time believing they’re actually doing good. That they are making things better. But as Atwood puts it perfectly in her “Handmaid’s Tale” – “Better is never better for everyone.”
McInerney does an incredible job creating her characters. Not only are they easily distinguishable and come to life on the pages of the book with their own personalities. Her writing often makes a difference and contrast between how they perceive themselves and how others see them. I was pleasantly surprised by Glorious Heresies. It taught me not to judge a book not only by its cover, but also by its plot summary.
shannen_m's review against another edition
3.75
Very funny and utterly bleak. It's Cork in paperback.
giselav's review against another edition
4.0
Not a book I could relate to in terms of plot or characters so I found it hard to really get into it. The story is quite gritty: murder, drugs, prostitution, addiction; you name it and it probably features. It is quite well-written, dramatic without ever going over the top, but overall I felt disconnected from it.
gnothiseauton's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Rape
Moderate: Trafficking and Suicide attempt
keehansmith's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jlong021's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0