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Emerald Germs of Ireland: A Novel
Pat McNab, driven by rage and despair, goes on a rampage after killing his mother and ends up murdering more than fifty people. Or is his whiskey-addled mind merely imagining these murders? Reality collides with fantasy with dizzying impact as Pat reflects on the long-gone days with Mommy, while fending off the persistent interferences of his small-town neighbors: the puritanical Mrs. Tubridy; that irascible seller of turf, the Turf Man; Sgt. "Kojak" Foley, and other unwanted snoops who could soon come to regret their inquisitive, nose-poking ways....
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
8 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Patrick McCabe
68 books315 followersPatrick McCabe came to prominence with the publication of his third adult novel, The Butcher Boy, in 1992; the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Britain and won the Irish Times-Aer Lingus Prize for fiction. McCabe's strength as an author lies in his ability to probe behind the veneer of respectability and conformity to reveal the brutality and the cloying and corrupting stagnation of Irish small-town life, but he is able to find compassion for the subjects of his fiction. His prose has a vitality and an anti-authoritarian bent, using everyday language to deconstruct the ideologies at work in Ireland between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. His books can be read as a plea for a pluralistic Irish culture that can encompass the past without being dominated by it.
McCabe is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His novels include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written a children's book (The Adventures of Shay Mouse) and several radio plays broadcast by the RTÉ and the BBC Radio 4. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan.
McCabe lives in Clones, Co. Monaghan with his wife and two daughters.
Pat McCabe is also credited with having invented the "Bog Gothic" genre.
McCabe is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His novels include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written a children's book (The Adventures of Shay Mouse) and several radio plays broadcast by the RTÉ and the BBC Radio 4. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan.
McCabe lives in Clones, Co. Monaghan with his wife and two daughters.
Pat McCabe is also credited with having invented the "Bog Gothic" genre.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 17, 2010
When did matricide become comical? When Patrick McCabe started writing about it.
Emerald Germs of Ireland is a story about Pat McNab and his sick and twisted little mind. He has a strange relationship with his mother, a little Norman Bates-esque at times. This strange relationship ultimately ends (and the story essentially begins) with Pat killing her, and his father, and then starting off into the town to knock off other "germs". The story is told through a series of short stories all revolving around Pat and his... well, experiences.
Not quite as shocking as The Butcher Boy, and it's told from a third-person perspective so the flow is different, which makes me appreciate both of these McCabe books a little more now. I read a review of this book where someone mentioned he started listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds around the time he was reading this, and that seems wholly appropriate. There's a lot of murder in this book, and most of it is actually good - not gratuitous at all, which is hard to accomplish in most writing.
Emerald Germs of Ireland is a story about Pat McNab and his sick and twisted little mind. He has a strange relationship with his mother, a little Norman Bates-esque at times. This strange relationship ultimately ends (and the story essentially begins) with Pat killing her, and his father, and then starting off into the town to knock off other "germs". The story is told through a series of short stories all revolving around Pat and his... well, experiences.
Not quite as shocking as The Butcher Boy, and it's told from a third-person perspective so the flow is different, which makes me appreciate both of these McCabe books a little more now. I read a review of this book where someone mentioned he started listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds around the time he was reading this, and that seems wholly appropriate. There's a lot of murder in this book, and most of it is actually good - not gratuitous at all, which is hard to accomplish in most writing.
August 21, 2022
It's a little hard to follow just exactly what is going on in Patrick McCabe's 2001 novel, Emerald Germs of Ireland. But that's as it's meant to be (I eventually cottoned on), as we delve inside the addled mind of Irish lad, Pat McNab.
Pat is something of a no-hoper, living on a farm with his mother (his soldiering brute of a father is dead). Pat likes a drink (or many) at the local pub, Sullivans, and his head is just not quite right. It's not completely clear whether he is somewhat nutty because he drinks so much, or whether he drinks so much because he is somewhat nutty.
But all sorts of weird and fantastical thoughts gallivant their way through the scrambled brain of Pat McNab.
His relationship with his mother is fraught - he seems to love her dearly, and seeks her goodwill, and she alternately nurtures and berates him.
But when she nags him or belittles him, his thoughts turn nasty and vindictive.
Whether he actually killed his mother and buried her body in the garden is open to conjecture. He tells others that she has gone to England on business, which is a very implausible yarn.
The book is structured such that each chapter begins with the lyrics of a song, a pop song or an Irish folk song, and the chapter evolves around a theme suggested by the lyrics.
Someone (or more than one) seems to die in each chapter, someone who has managed to find themselves on the wrong side of Pat McNab's fevered imagination, and subject to his (imaginary?) acts of vengeance.
The tone, for such a dark topic and murder and mutilation, is comic and tongue in cheek, for we are dealing with the mind of a simple and confused young man.
The writing style is articulate and cleverly crafted, but the plot - song/murder, song/murder - becomes a little predictable and implausible.
But, we are never quite sure just exactly what is going on. Some of the scenarios are so wacky as to be obvious dreams or drunken imaginings, others are perhaps more plausible.
So, just how many, if any, bodies are buried in Pat McNab's garden is really open to interpretation.
I've given this 3 stars - I just couldn't quite make it to 4, despite the quality of the writing.
Pat is something of a no-hoper, living on a farm with his mother (his soldiering brute of a father is dead). Pat likes a drink (or many) at the local pub, Sullivans, and his head is just not quite right. It's not completely clear whether he is somewhat nutty because he drinks so much, or whether he drinks so much because he is somewhat nutty.
But all sorts of weird and fantastical thoughts gallivant their way through the scrambled brain of Pat McNab.
His relationship with his mother is fraught - he seems to love her dearly, and seeks her goodwill, and she alternately nurtures and berates him.
But when she nags him or belittles him, his thoughts turn nasty and vindictive.
Whether he actually killed his mother and buried her body in the garden is open to conjecture. He tells others that she has gone to England on business, which is a very implausible yarn.
The book is structured such that each chapter begins with the lyrics of a song, a pop song or an Irish folk song, and the chapter evolves around a theme suggested by the lyrics.
Someone (or more than one) seems to die in each chapter, someone who has managed to find themselves on the wrong side of Pat McNab's fevered imagination, and subject to his (imaginary?) acts of vengeance.
The tone, for such a dark topic and murder and mutilation, is comic and tongue in cheek, for we are dealing with the mind of a simple and confused young man.
The writing style is articulate and cleverly crafted, but the plot - song/murder, song/murder - becomes a little predictable and implausible.
But, we are never quite sure just exactly what is going on. Some of the scenarios are so wacky as to be obvious dreams or drunken imaginings, others are perhaps more plausible.
So, just how many, if any, bodies are buried in Pat McNab's garden is really open to interpretation.
I've given this 3 stars - I just couldn't quite make it to 4, despite the quality of the writing.
Read
March 10, 2019DNF at 40 pages. Ugh.
February 18, 2021
Very dark, but loved this. Not the murder a chapter repetitious book that some reviews (presumably by people who didn't actually finish it) suggest. Definitely not for everyone, but great writing.
February 13, 2014
I had no idea what was going on for a while and then I realised that that was the whole point of the story. No one really knows what is real and what is imagined, the protagonist or the reader. A little annoying for a while but ultimately an enjoyable read.
If you've watched the Butcher Boy more than once you'll probably have Francie Brady in your head for a large part of this book.
If you've watched the Butcher Boy more than once you'll probably have Francie Brady in your head for a large part of this book.
August 18, 2008
Entertaining at first, and then, ya know, you get it. It becomes quite redundant by chapter 6 - Irish song and murder, Irish song and murder...
December 26, 2025
Κριτική στα Ελληνικά πιο κάτω...
This book felt kind of intrigueing at first, I "liked" the setting and the writting style, but then whatever story there was got repetitive and all over the place.
I liked the black humour and irony at some parts of the book while the glimpses to Pat's family history and childhood seemed promissing, but the narration went nowhere. It's obvious after a while that we have the point of view of a disturbed, disillutioned, unreliable main character but I was expecting we'd get some kind of explanation or conclusion by the end of the book. Nothing like that happened. Sureal, over the top incidents, -some "real" or imagined, who knows- kept piling up chapter after chapter but I got tired and frustrated after a while. Not sure what the author tried to do here(?)
Maybe some parts of the book would work better as short stories -or reworked as a series of linked stories if described by multiple points of view/focusing on different characters? I don't know. As it is, this book was a weird, disjointed and kind of boring read for me.
All that said, I have a gut feeling that this is an author I should give a second chance to though. I hope I'll like some of his other works better than this one...
Το βιβλίο μου φάνηκε ενδιαφέρον στην αρχή, μου "άρεσε" το σκηνικό και το στυλ γραφής, αλλά στη συνέχεια, η όποια ιστορία υπήρχε, έγινε επαναλαμβανόμενη και ασυνάρτητη.
Μου άρεσε το μαύρο χιούμορ και η ειρωνεία σε ορισμένα σημεία του βιβλίου, ενώ οι ματιές στην οικογενειακή ιστορία και την παιδική ηλικία του κεντρικού χαρακτήρα Πατ φάνηκαν πολλά υποσχόμενες. Όμως δυστυχώς η αφήγηση δεν οδήγησε πουθενά. Είναι προφανές μετά από λίγο ότι έχουμε την οπτική γωνία ενός διαταραγμένου, απογοητευμένου, αναξιόπιστου πρωταγωνιστή, αλλά περίμενα ότι θα καταλήγαμε σε κάποια εξήγηση ή συμπέρασμα μέχρι το τέλος του βιβλίου. Τίποτα τέτοιο δεν συνέβη. Σουρεαλιστικά, υπερβολικά περιστατικά -κάποια από αυτά "πραγματικά" ή φανταστικά, ποιος ξέρει- συνέχιζαν να συσσωρεύονται κεφάλαιο με κεφάλαιο, αλλά κουράστηκα και απογοητεύτηκα μετά από λίγο. Δεν είμαι σίγουρη τι προσπάθησε να κάνει ο συγγραφέας εδώ (;).
Ίσως κάποια κεφάλαια του βιβλίου να λειτουργούσαν καλύτερα ως διηγήματα - ή αν ο συγγραφέας άλλαζε λίγο τον τρόπο γραφής και χρησιμοποιούσε άλλες οπτικές γωνίες/εστίαζε σε διαφορετικούς χαρακτήρες να μπορούσε να παρουσιάσει μια ενδιαφέρουσα συλλογή μικρών ιστοριών, χαλαρά συνδεδεμένων μεταξύ τους. Δεν ξέρω, σκέψεις κάνω. Ως έχει, το βιβλίο με κούρασε και με απογοήτευσε.
Παρόλα αυτά, έχω μία αίσθηση ότι ο McCabe είναι ένας συγγραφέας στον οποίο πρέπει να δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία. Ελπίζω να μου αρέσουν τα άλλα έργα του περισσότερο από αυτό...
This book felt kind of intrigueing at first, I "liked" the setting and the writting style, but then whatever story there was got repetitive and all over the place.
I liked the black humour and irony at some parts of the book while the glimpses to Pat's family history and childhood seemed promissing, but the narration went nowhere. It's obvious after a while that we have the point of view of a disturbed, disillutioned, unreliable main character but I was expecting we'd get some kind of explanation or conclusion by the end of the book. Nothing like that happened. Sureal, over the top incidents, -some "real" or imagined, who knows- kept piling up chapter after chapter but I got tired and frustrated after a while. Not sure what the author tried to do here(?)
Maybe some parts of the book would work better as short stories -or reworked as a series of linked stories if described by multiple points of view/focusing on different characters? I don't know. As it is, this book was a weird, disjointed and kind of boring read for me.
All that said, I have a gut feeling that this is an author I should give a second chance to though. I hope I'll like some of his other works better than this one...
Το βιβλίο μου φάνηκε ενδιαφέρον στην αρχή, μου "άρεσε" το σκηνικό και το στυλ γραφής, αλλά στη συνέχεια, η όποια ιστορία υπήρχε, έγινε επαναλαμβανόμενη και ασυνάρτητη.
Μου άρεσε το μαύρο χιούμορ και η ειρωνεία σε ορισμένα σημεία του βιβλίου, ενώ οι ματιές στην οικογενειακή ιστορία και την παιδική ηλικία του κεντρικού χαρακτήρα Πατ φάνηκαν πολλά υποσχόμενες. Όμως δυστυχώς η αφήγηση δεν οδήγησε πουθενά. Είναι προφανές μετά από λίγο ότι έχουμε την οπτική γωνία ενός διαταραγμένου, απογοητευμένου, αναξιόπιστου πρωταγωνιστή, αλλά περίμενα ότι θα καταλήγαμε σε κάποια εξήγηση ή συμπέρασμα μέχρι το τέλος του βιβλίου. Τίποτα τέτοιο δεν συνέβη. Σουρεαλιστικά, υπερβολικά περιστατικά -κάποια από αυτά "πραγματικά" ή φανταστικά, ποιος ξέρει- συνέχιζαν να συσσωρεύονται κεφάλαιο με κεφάλαιο, αλλά κουράστηκα και απογοητεύτηκα μετά από λίγο. Δεν είμαι σίγουρη τι προσπάθησε να κάνει ο συγγραφέας εδώ (;).
Ίσως κάποια κεφάλαια του βιβλίου να λειτουργούσαν καλύτερα ως διηγήματα - ή αν ο συγγραφέας άλλαζε λίγο τον τρόπο γραφής και χρησιμοποιούσε άλλες οπτικές γωνίες/εστίαζε σε διαφορετικούς χαρακτήρες να μπορούσε να παρουσιάσει μια ενδιαφέρουσα συλλογή μικρών ιστοριών, χαλαρά συνδεδεμένων μεταξύ τους. Δεν ξέρω, σκέψεις κάνω. Ως έχει, το βιβλίο με κούρασε και με απογοήτευσε.
Παρόλα αυτά, έχω μία αίσθηση ότι ο McCabe είναι ένας συγγραφέας στον οποίο πρέπει να δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία. Ελπίζω να μου αρέσουν τα άλλα έργα του περισσότερο από αυτό...
January 15, 2018
Wacky good fun - probably a whole lot funnier if you know stock Irish problems and people. Not for someone who likes a realistic novel, or wants to read a pretty story.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
June 16, 2017
"A load of aul' shite" as the protagonist Pat McNabb might say. With a few exceptions, each of the 14 chapters starts with a song, an annoying character crossing paths with, and indeed often staying with, the aforementioned delusional, alcoholic, matricidal Pat, Pat getting thoroughly annoyed with the annoying character, Pat then killing and burying the annoying character in his garden.
It takes until about the halfway mark before there is any exposition of Pat's back story so up to that point there is no explanation given for his behaviour. I guess it's just "Ah sure he's mad and isn't it gas reading about him all the same?".
With the exception of the chapter about Pat's first love I found the whole book very tedious and the turns of phrase which I very much enjoyed in some of the author's other works sounded fake and nonsensical here.
I don't want to be so negative and started this book with high hopes but ultimately and throughout I found it very disappointing after the brilliance of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast On Pluto. In fact I'm going to read The Butcher Boy again just to remind myself of how superb the author can be but if the author's agent or editor or somebody had've nipped this in the bud they would have done me, and I suspect many others, a huge favour. "Here Pat, that's a load of aul' shite."
It takes until about the halfway mark before there is any exposition of Pat's back story so up to that point there is no explanation given for his behaviour. I guess it's just "Ah sure he's mad and isn't it gas reading about him all the same?".
With the exception of the chapter about Pat's first love I found the whole book very tedious and the turns of phrase which I very much enjoyed in some of the author's other works sounded fake and nonsensical here.
I don't want to be so negative and started this book with high hopes but ultimately and throughout I found it very disappointing after the brilliance of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast On Pluto. In fact I'm going to read The Butcher Boy again just to remind myself of how superb the author can be but if the author's agent or editor or somebody had've nipped this in the bud they would have done me, and I suspect many others, a huge favour. "Here Pat, that's a load of aul' shite."
August 10, 2011
Never before have I given 3 stars to something so well written. It has noting to do with the author's ability to tell a story, but my own preference. You would think from the books description that this is about a troubled man that drinks too much. Instead it is about a man who is completely delusional. His delusions control the narrative. So you don't know if anything described is actually happening in the story. But the way the authors writes, his choice of words and way of conveying ideas, is amazing. It just wasn't for me.
Read
August 17, 2007I picked this up without knowing a thing about it. My timing, I think, was based on my either immanent or recently finished trip to Ireland. I remember most of the book still - six years later. It left a deep impression on me - I think this was also around the time that I was starting to listen to the album Murder Ballads by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Wonderful piece of writing. I'd recommend it to anyone.
Wonderful piece of writing. I'd recommend it to anyone.
March 12, 2015
"I cordially dislike allegory" is a fine, gentlemanly way to qualify one's allegorical preference without appearing to be either a snob or a sourpuss.
"Yo Mama so ugly she had to feed you with a slingshot" is neither fine nor gentlemanly, and certainly not as subtle as "Yo Mama so ugly she made Ray Charles flinch."
So there you go. Always remember that in an age dominated by irony, conscious or not, this guy is not afraid to be sincere.
"Yo Mama so ugly she had to feed you with a slingshot" is neither fine nor gentlemanly, and certainly not as subtle as "Yo Mama so ugly she made Ray Charles flinch."
So there you go. Always remember that in an age dominated by irony, conscious or not, this guy is not afraid to be sincere.
March 4, 2008
I loved Butcher Boy so much that a thoughtful friend bought me this book. I couldn't actually finish it. There was too much flowery descriptions of an obviously mentally disturbed alcoholic. I just couldn't get into the writing, the character or the plot - which I assume would show up eventually if I had continued reading. I gave up half way through the book.
January 21, 2024
Irish Norman Bates on alcohol and drugs. After reading The Butcher Boy, which I really enjoyed, I decided to read this. A little slapstick at times, and psychological thriller in other chapters. For me I started off liking the style and story, in the middle I got a little board, but the last third of the book picked up and was entertaining
November 28, 2016
Loved The Butcher Boy. Loved Breakfast on Pluto. Wanted so much to love this and every other McCabe book I could get my mitts on. But didn't love it. Liked some parts, but no love found. Will still pick up every book that this great writer writes from here on out hoping to find the love.
July 4, 2007
Really repetitive. Not too creative. Lots of good murders, though!
January 12, 2012
McCabe is a fantastic writer but the plot itself getsa bit Norman Bates-ey toward the end.
August 30, 2009
good read
Want to read
August 28, 2010remainder mark
April 26, 2011
not Butcher Boy brilliant, but still a pleasure.
September 11, 2011
Just couldn't get into it - off to the Bookcrossing in the hope someone else can
December 4, 2012
Witty, gritty and a little twisted. Liked it enough to possibly reread it soon.
March 5, 2016
A disappointment compared to other books of McCabe's. Some of these jewels sparkle, but others read like potboilers.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews