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steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Much heat around this novel, a Booker winner nonetheless, and I can understand the perspectives from both sides, most carrying loads of presumption about what a reading experience should be. I prefer, so much as I can, to allow each book to speak to its purpose on its own terms, and then my reviews mark it to how well it was accomplished.
To begin, I too, was off-put by the novel's style, at first: massive single-paragraph blocks with dialogue mashed in, the craftings of image or moment buried in unlooked-for details somewhere inside them. What was Lynch thinking? Shouldn't this be a gripping story of terror as a family falls victim to a growing autocracy and war?
Yes, it is. Claustrophobic, even suffocating, experiences a monumental blur, every event of life piled on top of another demanding our attention with equal fervor, who are we to understand and sort it out? This sense of overwhelm, as so many of us experienced during the politics of the pandemic, is tripled here. In brief, this is as much a reading experience as it is a literary novel of plot and theme.
Little need to detail the events of this woman whose men (father, husband, sons) are swept away by various circumstances to places dark and uncertain. Desperately she accepts her role of holding her family together, and at some point (you decide when but we will all disagree) her noble strength becomes ignorant folly. As the country and family slip apart, as the four children each suffer their trauma in unique ways, as tightly as the narrative camera focuses in on her, we see how easily--how anonymously--she might become a statistic of war, her story lost, disappeared.
And this growing tension is absolutely relentless. We might argue how many choices were actually available, about what sacrifices would "reasonably" be made when all is unreasonable. We might even argue responsibility for the suffering. But we will agree: the events are entirely too plausible, too hyperreal, too close to our fears and too (f)actual for communities who do suffer (and against whom we build walls).
Build what you want. Lynch takes these walls apart, and some of us will still not believe.
To begin, I too, was off-put by the novel's style, at first: massive single-paragraph blocks with dialogue mashed in, the craftings of image or moment buried in unlooked-for details somewhere inside them. What was Lynch thinking? Shouldn't this be a gripping story of terror as a family falls victim to a growing autocracy and war?
Yes, it is. Claustrophobic, even suffocating, experiences a monumental blur, every event of life piled on top of another demanding our attention with equal fervor, who are we to understand and sort it out? This sense of overwhelm, as so many of us experienced during the politics of the pandemic, is tripled here. In brief, this is as much a reading experience as it is a literary novel of plot and theme.
Little need to detail the events of this woman whose men (father, husband, sons) are swept away by various circumstances to places dark and uncertain. Desperately she accepts her role of holding her family together, and at some point (you decide when but we will all disagree) her noble strength becomes ignorant folly. As the country and family slip apart, as the four children each suffer their trauma in unique ways, as tightly as the narrative camera focuses in on her, we see how easily--how anonymously--she might become a statistic of war, her story lost, disappeared.
And this growing tension is absolutely relentless. We might argue how many choices were actually available, about what sacrifices would "reasonably" be made when all is unreasonable. We might even argue responsibility for the suffering. But we will agree: the events are entirely too plausible, too hyperreal, too close to our fears and too (f)actual for communities who do suffer (and against whom we build walls).
Build what you want. Lynch takes these walls apart, and some of us will still not believe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, War, Violence, Torture, Hate crime, Grief, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Dementia
adamtjeerdsma's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I loved this book. The writing style through me off at first but it really worked to help get into Eilish's head. Everything was essentially a stream of consciousness but it was still easy to decipher what was going on the whole time.
(Light spoilers below)
This story did a great job of getting inside someone's head when they live in an increasingly authoritarian government and later a peaceful town transitioning into a warzone. You understand Eilish's rationale for every decision she makes even when you, as an outsider looking in, don't agree, you still understand.
Pulling from one of the last pages (pg. 302 in my edition), I think Mona really sums up the thoughts and feelings of Eilish (and yes, this is all one sentence):
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Child death, Murder, Violence, War, Death, and Police brutality
ronanmcd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Hans Fallada's Alone in Dublin
It's almost too much to read. It's affecting my sleep. It's affecting how I'm looking at my surroundings.
I never take stock of prizes, but it's easy to see how this has been winning awards. You are in it. It's inescapable.
It's set in local places, Mount Temple, Joey's school, the promenade in Clontarf. And nothing happens for stretches, but real fear simmers. That's what makes it so powerful. It's believable. It captures so well the boiling frog metaphor. Changes come in and are accepted, however begrudgingly, until it's too late and everything has changed. It's not hard to see this happening around us, particularly as the Overton window has been shunted aside.
There are moments of clarity throughout, that leap from the text. Simon, Eilish's deteriorating father, points out none of this is new. There has always been a wing that will deny truth and facts, until they are irrelevant and unverifiable. Until you believe their lies, but even then truth comes back, as facts cannot be overruled.
And later Eilish's son, Mark, says fear attracts exactly what it is most afraid of.
But then...
The book changes when war comes. It becomes a story of a claustrophobic war in a small country. I read this as Israel bombarded Gaza, going far beyond a response to rocket attacks. And with politicians and members of the press cashing for Gaza's obliteration. ll the while politicians in Ireland acquiesce to the far right and discuss the "immigration question'
We see what brings this migration about, what it's really like to be forced to leave your own place, why we do it, why we try not to. The book's aims are huge.
But it is exceedingly grim.
It's almost too much to read. It's affecting my sleep. It's affecting how I'm looking at my surroundings.
I never take stock of prizes, but it's easy to see how this has been winning awards. You are in it. It's inescapable.
It's set in local places, Mount Temple, Joey's school, the promenade in Clontarf. And nothing happens for stretches, but real fear simmers. That's what makes it so powerful. It's believable. It captures so well the boiling frog metaphor. Changes come in and are accepted, however begrudgingly, until it's too late and everything has changed. It's not hard to see this happening around us, particularly as the Overton window has been shunted aside.
There are moments of clarity throughout, that leap from the text. Simon, Eilish's deteriorating father, points out none of this is new. There has always been a wing that will deny truth and facts, until they are irrelevant and unverifiable. Until you believe their lies, but even then truth comes back, as facts cannot be overruled.
And later Eilish's son, Mark, says fear attracts exactly what it is most afraid of.
But then...
We see what brings this migration about, what it's really like to be forced to leave your own place, why we do it, why we try not to. The book's aims are huge.
But it is exceedingly grim.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Death of parent, Dementia, and War
kiwichill's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Bullying, Kidnapping, Violence, War, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Torture, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Eating disorder, Gore, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Dementia, Deportation, and Death
Moderate: Misogyny, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual harassment, Mass/school shootings, Gaslighting, and Medical content
nessreadsalot's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
In this dystopian story Ireland is falling under a tyrannical government party who draw the country into a civil war.
Mother of 4 Eilis, is the main protagonist in this story and we follow her journey coming to terms with the changes and eventual collapse of society and her struggle to keep her family safe and together.
I found the unconventional writing style a little off putting to start but once I got settled into the story I found it added to the building feeling of claustrophobia and urgency. I really would have liked chapters shorter than 30+ pages though as someone who likes to use chapters as stopping points.
Eilis frustrated me so much at times with her insistence that everything was going to be OK soon but my heart was utterly broken for her by the end.
I can't say that I enjoyed this book because it's not an enjoyable subject. It was a book to be experienced that gives that little nudge to the fear that we are lucky by accident of birth that this is not our current reality.
"the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore,”
Mother of 4 Eilis, is the main protagonist in this story and we follow her journey coming to terms with the changes and eventual collapse of society and her struggle to keep her family safe and together.
I found the unconventional writing style a little off putting to start but once I got settled into the story I found it added to the building feeling of claustrophobia and urgency. I really would have liked chapters shorter than 30+ pages though as someone who likes to use chapters as stopping points.
Eilis frustrated me so much at times with her insistence that everything was going to be OK soon but my heart was utterly broken for her by the end.
I can't say that I enjoyed this book because it's not an enjoyable subject. It was a book to be experienced that gives that little nudge to the fear that we are lucky by accident of birth that this is not our current reality.
"the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore,”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Torture
Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Death, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Medical content, Grief, War, Vomit, and Trafficking
rei_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, and Child death
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Torture and Vomit
paperknotbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
… we’re the lucky ones seeking a better life, there is only looking forward now, isn’t that right, perhaps there is a little freedom to be found in that thought because at least you can make the future your own in your own thoughts and if we keep looking back we will die in a way and there is still some living to be done…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Forced institutionalization, War, Violence, Police brutality, Death, Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Confinement
katieana_210's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
One of the best books I’ve ever read. I truly was in awe of the writing, the story, the way the characters broke me apart. This book is a lessen in why fiction is so important. Lynch is so deserving of the Booker Prize. I won’t be able to stop thinking about this book. I won’t be able to stop suggesting to people!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Emotional abuse, War, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Medical content, Blood, Violence, Grief, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse
danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I will be thinking about this book for a long long time.
An audacious story about the rise of fascism and descent into civil war in Ireland told not through the eyes of those in power, but through the quotidien life of the Stack family.
An audacious story about the rise of fascism and descent into civil war in Ireland told not through the eyes of those in power, but through the quotidien life of the Stack family.
The book did an incredible job of portraying the escalation into war through the lens of everyday choices, capturing so well the constant question of when is the point of no return? When is leaving no longer an option?
The way the author first set up normal life and then took the reader on the ride of a slow drip of conflict escalating into a food, with such emotionality, and with such attachment to character, was incredible. And as the war spiraled out of control, I couldn't help but think of Kfar Aza, and Gaza City, and Damascus, and Mariupol, and everywhere war touches, intruding upon and often destroying the lives of those who just want to live in peace, safety, and dignity.
And this was clearly an intentional choice, keeping the contours of the conflict hazy, and in effect it could be about anywhere, which allows the book to serve as both prophecy and warning. And while at first I found the fact that it didn’t use any paragraph breaks or quotation marks to be difficult, by the time I got to the second half of the book, its effectiveness as a literary device became clear, making the reader feel as if they are in the same panicked stream of consciousness as the characters, bringing us into their emotional state.
It is no wonder this book won the Booker. A truly triumphant work of fiction.
And this was clearly an intentional choice, keeping the contours of the conflict hazy, and in effect it could be about anywhere, which allows the book to serve as both prophecy and warning. And while at first I found the fact that it didn’t use any paragraph breaks or quotation marks to be difficult, by the time I got to the second half of the book, its effectiveness as a literary device became clear, making the reader feel as if they are in the same panicked stream of consciousness as the characters, bringing us into their emotional state.
It is no wonder this book won the Booker. A truly triumphant work of fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Police brutality, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Dementia, War, Blood, Grief, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Eating disorder and Sexual harassment
esalan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, War, Murder, Violence, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Blood, and Dementia
Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Vomit, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Alcohol, and Confinement
Minor: Rape