Haven’t been able to stop thinking about it all week. It’s just such a harrowing book, utterly shattering.
If you haven’t heard about it, it’s set in a near-future Republic of Ireland and follows Eilish, a scientist who is married to Larry, a teacher and the deputy chairman of a trade union. Ireland’s government has recently been seized by a fascist party who have suspended the Irish constitution using new “emergency powers”. One day, Larry is visited by the police. Angered, he attends a protest. Then he disappears. The rest of the book follows Eilish trying her best to hold her family together as her country plunges further and further into madness.
I know this book didn’t work for some people because of the writing style (it’s written in long, often run-on sentences with no paragraph breaks, kind of reminiscent of Samuel Butler or James Joyce) but that only serves to up the persistent feeling of anxiety and dread that grows throughout the book.
I would struggle to recommend it to people as it is *very* heavy, but I think it’s important reading for the times we’re living in all the same.
by cremullins
3 Comments
Reading this book was a prolonged slow creep of claustrophobia and despair, and I understand the “payoff” of where the story ends isn’t everyone’s favorite. It’s a bleak story that is tough to get through at several points.
It was terrifically-written though, and it’s stuck in my head for weeks since finishing it. Definitely will also be selective in recommending it for the same reasons, but I see why it garnered award considerations.
i love bleak but this was a collection of cliches in a tedious writing
one of the worst books i’ve read recently….
Yeah, I guess being gutting is kind of the point, but it succeeds. I enjoyed the writing style. I didn’t exactly enjoy the overall experience. Worthwhile, certainly. Making the political circumstances vague felt like a choice that worked, at least for me, but I can see how the impact wouldn’t be as great if you found the setting unfamiliar. Still holds up as a work of literature and I guess war and oppression and refugees are fairly universal themes but it does feel quite timely.