Himself by Jess Kidd
Blending strange kindnesses, casual violence and buried secrets: an unforgettable debut from a dark new voice in Irish fiction.
When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies.
His arrival causes cheeks to flush and arms to fold in disapproval. No one in the village – living or dead – will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite Mahony’s certainty that more than one of them has answers.
Between Mulderrig’s sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and darkly comic debut novel creates an unforgettable world of mystery, bloody violence and buried secrets.
My Review
Back to Audible and I’m reading Jess Kidd’s first novel, Himself. The story takes place in 1976 when Mahony returns to the place of his birth, Mulderrig on Ireland’s West Coast, to try and find out what happened to his promiscuous, teenage mother Orla Sweeney. Everyone says she left town, dumping her ‘illegitimate brat’ at the orphanage. Mahony – that very same ‘illegitimate brat’ – is not convinced.
He enlists (actually I think she enlisted him) the help of aging actress Mrs Cauley, who believes Orla was murdered, but then she loves a drama. There are those in the town who want to run him out, those with something to hide. They hated Orla for shamelessly flaunting her bastard for the whole town to see. The vile Father Quinn in particular, and nurse Annie Farrelly amongst others.
And did I mention that Mahony *…’sees dead people… walking around like regular people’ (*quote from The Sixth Sense). In my review of The Hoarder I said I hoped someone sees ghosts, and I certainly got a lot, particularly six-year-old Ida and Mrs Cauley’s last ‘partner’ creepy Johnny.
Three books in and I’ve come to the conclusion that the author’s favourite word is ‘arse’. I’ll have to leave this off my Amazon review in case they are offended and refuse my musings. When said with a soft Irish lilt it never fails to bring a giggle – how childish of me, I know.
I absolutely adored this book, so on to The Night Ship, and once again I hope for plenty of superstition and the supernatural.
About the Author
Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, published as Mr. Flood’s Last Resort in the U.S. and Canada was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Her latest book, the Victorian detective tale Things in Jars, has been released to critical acclaim. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’
