Love and Sleep

by Sean O'Reilly

Sean O'Reilly's debut novel is a journey into the dark pysche of Niall, a young man on the run from the past and denying himself a future. Arriving in Derry, years after he left for a wandering life - from city to city in Europe, from woman to woman - Niall finds that little has changed. The streets are still blighted by sectarian violence and the pubs in the city still cater for the lost and lonely in this grey and unforgiving world. Just as his memories, fears or desires threaten to consume him, Niall enters into a dangerous relationship with Lorna, a committed socialist with a dark side of her own. Haunted by a past that only gradually gives up its secrets and insensate through a cocktail of booze and drugs, Niall lives his life to extremes, testing the limits of those around him and pushing himself ever closer to destruction. Love and Sleep confirms O'Reilly's reputation as a writer of rare lyrical power and urgency.

Genres: Fiction

199 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Ellie Rose McKee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where do I even begin? ...I couldn't finish this. I couldn't even "get into it". To call it a romance is to call a match a fire. I know some people (John Green) say that you don't have to like a main character to love a book, but I do think you need to relate to them on even some small level. I could neither like nor relate to Niall. He makes nonsense ramblings, and thinks terrible things of people while doing terrible things to them. Because Niall's point of view is so warped, I find myself not knowing what's going on. One minute you're at a funeral for someone never identified, with a woman he's spent some time with, and then you go on to read how he met that woman. And all the while there are references to things that happened in the past with very little context. It's enough to melt your head and make it drip out your ears. And what's the deal with not using quotation marks. Very annoying!

[Far · Rating 3 out of 5]

well, i wouldn't call it a romance. I wanted to like the main protagonist but why write about a city you hate, why be with someone you find repulsive?.Niall is not a lover, hes not a revolutionary, hes worse than a tramp. My favourite character in this book would have to be Sunshine. The one relief. What i find extraordinary is how O'Reilly has written. Story told in first person by Niall but hes appalling yet i love lorna even though be never for a moment stops painting an awful picture of her. Im still thinking about his choice of words in creating a compelling book but its moody as hell and does the exact opposite of what its apparently convincing you of. This is how he describes making love to lorna "our sex that night was morbid and violent. Her eyes rolled in her head; i thought she was losing control, finally, but a moment later she screamed in rage and pounded my face with her fists. The loneliness that drove me towards her - it was barely an echo in the haunted cavern of her life. My come froze into stalactites inside her" Marvelous! Other moments of genius: "the hand of suffering is not strong enough to slap the arse of the world into being"

[Frances · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not read this book if you are feeling remotely depressed. It paints a very bleak portrait of Northern Ireland's second city. The main protagonist, Niall, is vile and has no redeeming features. He forms a twisted and destructive relationship with Lorna. She is not very likeable either, but she does not deserve his cruelty. Both characters are facing some kind of breakdown and their story is disturbing.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book full of despair and self destruction. On the one hand, it is understandable as the author was born in Derry in 1969 and grew up in the heart of "the Troubles". It is also full of desperate sex which I attribute to the fact he wrote this novel in his early 30's. However I still give it a 3 because in some way it does convey the dark place that Derry was in the late 90's when it is set. I was in Derry in 2009; it is a tiny city. It is hard to believe the ferocity of the conflict there. It is the only intact walled city in Europe and has an award-winning museum with very passionate staff, the Tower Museum. There is a new performance space, the Millenium Forum, which is a huge asset to the cultural life of this small city. Derry is not the desperate place anymore that O'Reilly describes.
BTW, Goodreads links to the WRONG Sean O'Reilly for this book.