Kevin Barry (1) (1969–)

I’m not sure that I would have read this book if I hadn’t already read and enjoyed several of Barry’s short story collections, so be prepared to give it a good go to get into its rhythm and language.

Bohane, a city in West coast Ireland, divided into four areas - Back Trace, Northside Rises (Norrie), Smoketown and New Town, with the Big Nothin’ as the rural beyond. Characters include:
• Logan Hartnett (aka the Albino, aka the Long Fella), from the Back Trace, the man of the moment in this mean city
• Gant Broderick, from the Big Nothin’, the gangster returning after twenty five years, whose heart has been hurt
• The Cusacks, from the Northside Rises, gunning for Hartnett
• Miss Jenni Ching, from Smoketown, playing the long game
Set in 2053-54, futuristic Irish noir - is that a thing? Barry makes it so.

It’s very seedy and very foul mouthed, with low down newsmen and middlemen moving the story forward through a year of changing allegiances. With language that sings in its newness but familiarity, and a future time that has degenerated from our own.
And it’s fun, with little conceits and jokes, such as Barry invoking the Norrie tower blocks in chapter 4: Got the MacNiece, the Kavanagh, the Heaney.

It’s just a good time story of the turning of the wheel, in the city Bohane.… (lisätietoja)

"She spoke hardly at all of home or family. Her name was really Katarzyna, she said, but since childhood she had preferred the English version—Poland was crawling with Katarzynas. The small extent of her belongings was sorrowful. They didn’t take up a quarter of the space in the back of his van. He thought the heart was going to explode in his chest as he watched her shyly fold away her underwear in the drawer he had cleared for her. He came in close behind and kissed her neck. She sighed at his kiss as though in sadness but turned and held him and told him that she loved him, and Seamie Ferris was sucked through a hole in the universe."… (lisätietoja)

Barry's inventive structure propels the reader through a kaleidoscopic narrative that jumps between time and place freely. Barry paints engrossing scenes that engage the reader through each of these vignettes that peel back a layer of backstory from the two main characters.

While Barry's throwing of caution to the wind when it comes to form is laudable, there's a dissatisfaction that remains once you reach the end. The emptiness isn't from a want for a resolution to the story, which there isn't. Instead you're left with a desire to have continued jumping through the messy timelines and the varied places between Spain, Morocco and Algeria.

3.5/5 … (lisätietoja)