Book-review post!
And now more reviews – all from Irish authors, curiously enough, and including one short story collection, two YA novels at different ends of the age-spectrum, aaaaand the latest Marian Keyes novel about the Walsh family.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir – Mother America
Super collection of short stories – lots of adultery and messiness and just beautiful intense moments or incidents captured on the page. The stories are clever while still being accessible, and there are some very interesting takes on historical figures (Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes’s post-Sylvia dalliance, speaks; Frida Kahlo is brought to life; there’s a modern-day Mary Magdalene of sorts). Although the author is Irish, the stories travel all over – especially lovely to see the New York stories. Very much enjoyed this book.
Denise Deegan – And Actually…
This is the third volume in the Butterfly Novels series, focusing on the ‘together’ Rachel this time. We’ve heard from Alex and Sarah in previous volumes, so now it’s over to the problem-solver of the group – who turns out to have a problem of her own. Haunted by bullying she experienced in primary school, Rachel is forced to confront her past when she finds herself working with one of her tormentors on the set of an Irish medical drama. The real-life emotions are mixed in wonderfully with the more glamorous aspects of acting, and it’s great to see Sarah and Alex’s stories continue in this volume as well. Really enjoyed reading this and seeing the girls’ friendship from this perspective – and even though the second book is certainly the saddest one, this has some tearjerker moments too.
Anna Carey – Rebecca’s Rules
Rebecca Rafferty is a ‘hollow shell of a girl’. Paperboy has departed for Canada with his family – and not only that, but Rebecca is guilty of having ignored her friends’ angst and suffering in lieu of her own hollow-shell-ness. There’s only one thing for it – to be a better friend and to do something new and exciting with Alice and Cass. The school musical seems like the perfect opportunity – but it’s there that Rebecca meets a new boy. He is Deep. And an Artist. And Soulful. And a pretentious git. The kind that can be mightily appealing (and intimidating) when one is a certain age. (I think one is supposed to grow out of it at some point – will keep you posted.) This is one of the best and funniest explorations of That Kind Of Boy that I’ve ever seen in teen fiction, and there’s a really good grasp on the small details of teenage life and how significant they can be. A superb follow-up to The Real Rebecca.
Marian Keyes – The Mystery of Mercy Close
I may have mentioned a couple of hundred times here that I am wary of hype. I kept hearing about how great this book was, in the couple of weeks leading up to the release date. Lots of praise. So I had high hopes for it, but also a kind of confidence that the book would live up to those hopes – oh, and it did. It did so very much.
Mercy Close focuses on Helen Walsh, youngest of the Walsh sisters. We first met her in Watermelon, seventeen years ago; she is now in her mid-thirties and has hit hard by both the economy and a bout of depression, but is still snarky and grumpy and talks back to Mammy Walsh and has a slightly askew take on the world. She’s a private investigator whose ex-boyfriend has recently taken over managing cheesy boyband Laddz (who, like the Walsh family, have featured in Keyes’ novels previously); there’s a set of reunion concerts next week and Wayne Diffney, ‘the wacky one’, has gone missing. Helen gets sucked into the case mostly for the money, but finds herself growing more intrigued by Wayne and his disappearance. The mystery is a satisfying one, taking us through the book alongside Helen’s own issues – dating a single father, working alongside her ex, wanting to kill herself. While Keyes has written about depressed heroines before (Lucy in Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Ashling in Sushi for Beginners, Lola in This Charming Man, two of the characters in The Brightest Star in the Sky) this does an extraordinary job at portraying both the illness and the responses people have to it (Helen has them categorised – her sister Claire is the ‘laugh it off’ variety, for example). But like those other books, it’s not just ‘a depression novel’. It is very, very funny – any time Helen adds anything to her Shovel List, for example, or any time Bella (her boyfriend’s youngest daughter) appears, or the portrayal of the musicians and other media types in the book (Maurice McNice! Frankie!). And it is very, very readable. One of the very best books I’ve read this year.
