This is the kind of book that I'd guess the adjective "rollicking" was invented for. Some other descriptors on the cover blurbs are: confident, gripping, a wild ride, punchy, edgy, fizzing. Yes to all of them! All so true.
Lisa McInerney is an author with a bold voice whose characters have solid identities and a lot to say. Like every Irish-authored book I've read to-date, it makes me wonder what it's really like growing up and living there. There is a certain toughness, a melancholy-yet-hopeful tone that radiates from their pages. That said, don't get me wrong; there's no way I'm saying that Lisa McInerney's writing fits into a typical mould - it's entirely original and a force of a book - it just sizzles with that hardscrabble Irish undertone that I've come to love.
In The Glorious Heresies, we meet Ryan Cusack - teenager, petty drug dealer, oldest of six, head over heels in love with his beautiful girlfriend, Karine. His mother is long dead and gone and his father, Tony, is an abusive alcoholic, so he's trying to keep his head above water. The deeper the trouble he find himself in, the harder it becomes for him to try to claw his way out. It doesn't help him any that Jimmy Phelan is running around in the shadows.
Jimmy is Tony's old friend who relies on Tony's sense of duty and need for money to help him clean up the bodies Jimmy leaves in his wake. If only Jimmy's unhinged mother, Maureen, would stop blabbing his business he'd be a lot better off. But Maureen just wants to be free of the ghosts that haunt her flat and her mind. It doesn't help anyone when, by chance, Georgie, a local prostitute, crosses her path one day and they start helping each other unravel the mysteries that plague them both. Georgie's desperately trying to find out what happened to her beloved boyfriend, Robbie, who went out one day and never came back. She's now trying to sort out fact from fiction while Maureen is looking for answers of her own. They both find themselves running away from their problems and finding themselves enmeshed in new ones.
As time passes, everyone's paths start crossing and their lives become further entrenched to the point where the evil web starts catching them all. Central to everyone's hatred is Tara Duane, a former madam, general lowlife and neighbourhood loudmouth. She's trouble from the get-go and a deliciously unlikeable character.
Everyone in this escapade is broken and needs to be taken care of, but exactly which definition of that phrase applies depends on whose perspective you're seeing it from. Everyone's running from themselves, from each other, from endless worries and insurmountable trouble. What will happen when it all catches up to them is what will keep you turning the pages.
Without a doubt, this is one of the best books I've read so far this year. I'm beyond excited to see that there is already a sequel out, The Blood Miracles. After a brief moment to catch my breath, I can't wait to jump right back into this high-strung saga and get my blood pumping again.
Judge the cover: 5/5
0 comments:
Post a Comment