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A review by lambsears
The Abstainer by Ian McGuire
4.0
This novel is a mid-19th century noir thriller - and it seriously focuses on the 'noir' part of that description. It's as dark as they come.
Hugely well researched, and vividly descriptive, The Abstainer begins with the executions of the Manchester Martyrs in the 1860's, with the city itself a significant character. The novel looks at the underground Fenian struggles there at the time, before branching out across the Atlantic towards the end of the novel.
Very blokey, with women scoring only bit parts, this book examines class, and the grinding poverty suffered by much of the population of the time, and the casual damage done - both by the class structures themselves, and those trapped within them.
Grim, quite grim.
Hugely well researched, and vividly descriptive, The Abstainer begins with the executions of the Manchester Martyrs in the 1860's, with the city itself a significant character. The novel looks at the underground Fenian struggles there at the time, before branching out across the Atlantic towards the end of the novel.
Very blokey, with women scoring only bit parts, this book examines class, and the grinding poverty suffered by much of the population of the time, and the casual damage done - both by the class structures themselves, and those trapped within them.
Grim, quite grim.