What happens when a story is pared down to its absolute essentials? There is nothing here in Donal Ryan's tale of rural Ireland that does not ring of truth. Each of the interior monologues shaves the skin off the apple. Even the monologue of the dead. I cannot think of another writer since William Faulkner who tells me what real people are thinking even as the characters are woven in their own words, then the words of their neighbours and relatives. There is no real present tense here. There is the impetus of the past folding these people into the future, like scraggly lines of DNA, or neurons of some colossal brain. ( )

I enjoyed this book but did find the different characters voices made for a disjointed telling of the story. It does come together in the end. ( )

John Lennon once sang :
If you had the luck of the Irish
You'd be sorry and wish you were dead
You should have the luck of the Irish
And you'd wish you was English instead!

I don't think the characters making up this novel would go that far, but they are all certainly down on their luck. During the "Celtic Tiger' period of the mid 90ies to early 2000 the Irish economy was booming and life seemed great for everyone. But in 2008 the bubble burst and a deep recession caused suffering for all. It's at this point where the book begins with Bobby's chapter. Most of the novel centers around Bobby,but there are 20 more chapters that each tell the plight of the village from a different point of view. That's what I found so brilliant about this book. Each character gets about a, 6 pages or so, chapter all their own. And yet so much is revealed about them in these short chapters. What is particularly fascinating is the is a vast diversity of the characters. Some we hate right from the start, some have our full support, but they're all just so miserable and so down on themselves. One of the darkest, bleakest, and depressing works of fiction I've read in a long time. But still a worthwhile read because the characters have an honesty and sense of perseverance about them. The Irish have suffered many hard times throughout the centuries, but they always keep up the good fight. ( )

Winesburg, Ohio or Spoon River Anthology writ Irish and set in hard times after the big bubble economy burst. Lots of characters to follow and so I ended up thinking of them as "types"...desperate, or outraged, or defeated...depending on which of these timbres they sang in.

Ultimately, not to my taste. I like opera, less so oratorio. The interconnedtions of characters are often more interesting to me than the characters themselves, most especially when they're moaning and groaning about broadly similar things. ( )

Mal was neueres an irischer Literatur zur Einstimmung auf den St. Patrick's Day.

Neuer aber doch altbekannt ist die Stimmung, sind all die Probleme der Iren in dieser Geschichte, die so plötzlich und unerwartet ein paar Schattierungen düsterer wird. ( )