A review by serendipitysbooks
Close to Home by Michael Magee

emotional reflective medium-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

4.25

 Close to Home is a debut novel set in contemporary Belfast. It opens with a bang - literally - as Sean assaults a fellow partygoer knocking him to the ground. There’s a lot more to Sean than this opening scene might suggest. He is from a working class background, went to Liverpool and earned a degree in English literature. Finding a job has been a struggle so he’s back home, working at a bar, hanging with his old crowd, drinking too much and taking too many drugs. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the role these facts played in the assault. I really enjoyed this novel. Sean, despite his flaws and poor behaviour, was a likeable character and I spent the book rooting for him to get a break and to make good choices. The exploration of themes like toxic masculinity, men suppressing their emotions, the reliance on drugs and alcohol to mask emotional pain, the class divide, the impact of economic recessions, the legacy of the Troubles, sexual abuse, divided families and the lack of positive male role models for boys, were all handled well. Magee has painted a really nuanced picture of Sean as a young man caught between two worlds - trying to get a foothold in the world of writing, arts and university but being beset by rejections and constantly feeling pulled back to his old life of poverty, theft, poor insecure housing, substance overuse, and casual violence. Definitely gritty in places but realistic, relevant and important. The hopeful ending prevents it from feeling unbearably bleak. 
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