Rating: 4/5
Review:
Very good
I enjoyed this book very much. I had a couple of reservations about it, but
it's very well written, readable and with some important things to say.
Be warned, the book is set among the criminal and drug
worlds of Cork, so there's squalor,
sex and what the BBC would describe as Very
Strong Language – all of which seems utterly appropriate to me. Lisa McInerney paints vivid and convincing
portraits of her characters in this milieu, and this is one of the great
strengths of the book. She has an
unflinching but often compassionate eye and I became very involved with some of
the main characters, even if they were badly flawed.
The plot is rather complex but begins with a killing and
concerns the consequences of that as its effects ripple over the next five
years or so. It's well done, if a little
over-long and very over-reliant on coincidence throughout. At one point a character murmurs "Small
world…" and I'm afraid I thought, "Yes, but not that
small." Nonetheless, it's a pretty
gripping read.
One of the other fine features of the book is its take on
contemporary Ireland. It's a bleak and cynical take, with some
excoriating attacks on the oppressive effect of the Catholic church,
hypocritical and cruel morality, economic mismanagement and corruption, but
it's done with fire and genuine wit at times which makes it very compelling.
Lisa McInerney is plainly immensely talented and I look
forward to more of her work. Meanwhile,
I can recommend this as a very good book.
(I received a free ARC via Netgalley.)
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