The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue

 47%

29.09.24

I didn't really get the point of this book. It read as if it was semi-autobiographical but that doesn't make the tedious non-dramas of self-indulgent young adults who behave like children any more interesting or deep. The quality of the writing was fine but I was left thinking, so what?

And I've only just realised the also-disappointing All Our Hidden Gifts is by the same author.

All Our Hidden Gifts - Caroline O'Donoghue

 55%

29.06.24

The ideas were interesting but it felt a little underdeveloped and messy without a clear structure or narrative drive. Its attempts to cover some serious themes seemed forced and worthy rather than naturally integrated into the story. All in all, it read like a promising early draft that needed some more editorial intervention. 

(And an accidental second Irish book in a row - very different to the previous one.)

Our Little Cruelties - Liz Nugent

 61%

23.06.24

When I gasped and rolled my eyes, and shouted a silent 'No!', it wasn't because of bad writing, for once - far from it. The time-hopping and head-hopping structure worked well in slowly revealing the full - and awful - implications of these three brothers' selfishness, even if it was pretty hard to tell their voices apart. I'm not sure the story was totally satisfying in the end but it was certainly well constructed.

Unravelling Oliver - Liz Nugent

 63%

02.03.24

Another distraction from the slog of Ordinary Monsters, this was deceptively engaging - it was only afterwards that I realised what a dark story it was. But then it wasn't particularly realistic or subtle - Oliver was such a pantomime villain and most of the other narrators were so 'nice' that their behaviour wasn't very convincing and 'what happened and why' wasn't very satisfying. But it was a good read.

Listening Still - Anne Griffin

 59%

12.04.23

I quite enjoyed this, and its theme of communication (or lack of it), but it could have been... more. Some readers didn't warm to the main character, and it's true she spent most of the book crying, but my problem was more with everyone else - the awful husband and boring love interest, the token autistic brother, the obligatory quirky yet supportive best friend, the played-up Irishness that didn't really ring true. (I can imagine the publisher urging the writer to 'make it more Irish'.) The details about the undertaking of undertaking were interesting - although I presume the dead don't normally chat so much. 

A Man With One of Those Faces - Caimh McDonnell

56%
03.01.18

This exuberant romp has the potential to be really good - but the fact that it clearly hasn't been edited makes it almost unreadable in places, and I nearly gave up on it. Its engaging Irishness is certainly a selling point and perhaps other readers are willing to overlook its structural, character and grammatical issues but, personally, I cannot.

Love, Rosie/Where Rainbows End - Cecelia Ahern

50%
30.10.16

I thought it was high time I read a Cecelia Ahern book and it was just as I expected - readable and undemanding chick lit. Though I wonder if my take-home message that the book was about lives wasted for no reason whatsoever is the one that's intended.

Four Letters of Love - Niall Williams

58%
01.08.15

When I was young and romantic, I was a big Niall Williams fan. The photo isn't of my copy but it's battered enough to be. But now I'm older and more cynical, I demand more from my novels than dreamy lyricism and a dash of magic realism. The poetry, however beautiful, isn't enough to sustain the story, and it's ultimately an unsatisfying read.

The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry

48%
10.02.13

In which characters are cruelly buffeted by the winds of fate and subsequently either die young and tragically or live long and miserably. Yes, we know that in Catholic Ireland some priests were of dubious morality and some women were treated unjustly but it all seemed too far-fetched and metaphorical to gain any emotional involvement from the reader.

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

53%
29.08.10

Underwhelming. So New York is different to Ireland. And also very similar. I'm not asking for car chases or intense lyricism or even startling insights into the human condition (although that would be nice), but this was so damn detached that it was hard to anchor any point to it at all.

Lamb - Bernard Mac Laverty

41%
07.02.10

This book is so heavy-handed that reading it is like getting beaten up. The outlook couldn't be bleaker, the metaphors couldn't have been more laboured, the characters couldn't have been more symbolic. It's the sort of book students have to write essays about - but not enjoyable on any level.

A Bit on the Side - William Trevor

53%
18.11.08

Ironically, I don't have the time or patience for short story collections, and this hasn't changed my mind. More vivid characterisation than in most 300 page novels, whole lives summed up in a few words, but the actual stories were mostly bland and depressing.

The Case of the Missing Books - Ian Sansom

47%
06.08.08

Bad in a different way to the Coelho. Not pretentious - quote the opposite - but written too much with an eye to conversion into a Sunday evening family drama series. Underdeveloped characters, and too many of them, and an unpleasant 'anti-hero'. At least it only took 3 or 4 hours to read so not too much time wasted.

The Fall of Light - Niall Williams

60%
02.01.03




I'm not a great fan of magic realism. As an expression of cultural identity, it usually seems pretentious and inauthentic. Niall Williams does it better than most, but this story of a family struggling to reunite during the Irish potato famine soon becomes wearisome with its clogged metaphors, endless comparisons and oppositions, and relentless earnestness. Not a bad novel - just not to my taste.