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Posted on December 27, 2021February 16, 2023

Wunderland by Caitriona Lally. I love when you get a gift of a book that


Wunderland by Caitriona Lally.
I love when you get a gift of a book that you maybe would not have picked up yourself. Thank you to @hamsterfox, fellow book-nerd and very fast reader too.
I've heard of Caitriona Lally, of course. She's won some pretty big writing prizes and Wunderland is her 2nd novel.
I really really liked many things about this book.
I admired Caitriona's ability to tell a unique, often untold and not understood story of depression, mental lllness and suicide. Yes, it's a hard read but I read it quickly.
The story centres around a brother and sister. The brother has been effectively banished by his family to Hamburg and his sister stays with him for 6 days. Roy, the brother is a cleaner in a Wunderland museum, a museum of miniature lands and people. Gert, the sister is running away from her married life, her children and her husband who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide many times.
Gert and Roy rub off each other in bad ways. They annoy each other. At times they dislike each other.
Roy is also odd, different, strange. He is building his own miniature world in his bedroom which culminates in a wonderfully paced ending. And the ending is great. It dangles a small bit of hope yet it reminds us we can never run away from what's in our own heads. What's in the head needs to be dealt with first.
As I said I did really like this. Caitriona writes inner thoughts superbly. At times I thought the inner thoughts could have been pulled back a bit and I would have liked to see why Roy and Gert were so wounded. Their parents were quite normal. But maybe that's the point.
@newislandBooks

Posted on October 23, 2021February 16, 2023

I think that books you read on a holiday become very special. A book that


I think that books you read on a holiday become very special. A book that is average can be enhanced by a holiday vibe. And prosecco. And a rooftop view of the Parthenon in Athens but it sounds like I'm boasting a bit now.

However, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke needs no enhancing. I'm finding it riveting and mind bending. Oh and easy to read.

Posted on October 23, 2021May 22, 2022

I think that books you read on a holiday become very special. A book that


I think that books you read on a holiday become very special. A book that is average can be enhanced by a holiday vibe. And prosecco. And a rooftop view of the Parthenon in Athens but it sounds like I'm boasting a bit now.

However, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke needs no enhancing. I'm finding it riveting and mind bending. Oh and easy to read.

Posted on September 4, 2021February 16, 2023

Me and the big house. The festival of writing and ideas runs, in pre pandemic


Me and the big house.
The festival of writing and ideas runs, in pre pandemic times, every June.

We have been attending it for ten years now. Every year!

This year the 2021 managed to go in August.

It was much smaller in terms of attendees but the original small festival feel was back in force with the artists, writers, musicians and speakers all mingling on the lawn.

My best talk was John Banville who seemed to be in jovial form.
I'd still prefer it to run in June though as August is birthday city in our family in August but either way we thoroughly enjoyed it and soaked up the ideas and debated /argued as normal after the talks.
Thank you @writingandideas

Posted on September 4, 2021May 22, 2022

Me and the big house. The festival of writing and ideas runs, in pre pandemic


Me and the big house.
The festival of writing and ideas runs, in pre pandemic times, every June.

We have been attending it for ten years now. Every year!

This year the 2021 managed to go in August.

It was much smaller in terms of attendees but the original small festival feel was back in force with the artists, writers, musicians and speakers all mingling on the lawn.

My best talk was John Banville who seemed to be in jovial form.
I'd still prefer it to run in June though as August is birthday city in our family in August but either way we thoroughly enjoyed it and soaked up the ideas and debated /argued as normal after the talks.
Thank you @writingandideas

Posted on April 26, 2021February 16, 2023

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession Leonard and Hungry Paul is Dublin’s One City,


Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession

Leonard and Hungry Paul is Dublin’s One City, one book for 2021. It has been recommended to me by two friends. They recommended it to me with such happiness and excitement that I had to get started.

It is a very quiet book about two unremarkable men with two unremarkable lives. Leonard’s mother passes away on the first page. Nothing much happens to Hungry Paul on the first page. I read the book quickly, really savouring its low key pace and most of its characters. I think a little bit more direction could have been given to Hungry Paul’s sister, Grace for she does represent a conventional type of Irish woman who is mad to get married. However she is described as being unique, quirky and different at many points by the author but I just didn’t see that.

The dialogue dragged along slightly as it seemed like it was being replicated from real conversations people have. On occasion, I did not care what the characters were talking about as it seemed like normal life. Thereby it lacked tension, drama and emotion at times though in others it sang of these things.

Leonard and Hungry Paul is very funny. It takes a lot to make me laugh while I am reading but I did here. There were many beautiful pieces of writing throughout and many beautiful quotables that would look wondrous in a frame. I thought about this book with a real fuzzy feeling after reading it but I do think I wouldn’t be keen to read a similar type of quiet, uneventful type book again as if this was merely replicated it could become tedious as a style. Even though it was set in Ireland, I thought it smacked of a British setting aka Arian Mole territory. I am not sure if these type of folk exist very much in Ireland or maybe I just don’t bump into them.

Hession’s writing is witty yet can be affecting within two sentences of his prose. His observations of life and the human condition are spot on and I loved the whole meditation theme throughout but I wonder do we want our fiction to be unremarkable, mainstream and normal humdrum? I will leave that to you. It’s a taste thing.

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession is published by Blue moose

Posted on April 26, 2021May 22, 2022

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession Leonard and Hungry Paul is Dublin’s One City,


Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession

Leonard and Hungry Paul is Dublin’s One City, one book for 2021. It has been recommended to me by two friends. They recommended it to me with such happiness and excitement that I had to get started.

It is a very quiet book about two unremarkable men with two unremarkable lives. Leonard’s mother passes away on the first page. Nothing much happens to Hungry Paul on the first page. I read the book quickly, really savouring its low key pace and most of its characters. I think a little bit more direction could have been given to Hungry Paul’s sister, Grace for she does represent a conventional type of Irish woman who is mad to get married. However she is described as being unique, quirky and different at many points by the author but I just didn’t see that.

The dialogue dragged along slightly as it seemed like it was being replicated from real conversations people have. On occasion, I did not care what the characters were talking about as it seemed like normal life. Thereby it lacked tension, drama and emotion at times though in others it sang of these things.

Leonard and Hungry Paul is very funny. It takes a lot to make me laugh while I am reading but I did here. There were many beautiful pieces of writing throughout and many beautiful quotables that would look wondrous in a frame. I thought about this book with a real fuzzy feeling after reading it but I do think I wouldn’t be keen to read a similar type of quiet, uneventful type book again as if this was merely replicated it could become tedious as a style. Even though it was set in Ireland, I thought it smacked of a British setting aka Arian Mole territory. I am not sure if these type of folk exist very much in Ireland or maybe I just don’t bump into them.

Hession’s writing is witty yet can be affecting within two sentences of his prose. His observations of life and the human condition are spot on and I loved the whole meditation theme throughout but I wonder do we want our fiction to be unremarkable, mainstream and normal humdrum? I will leave that to you. It’s a taste thing.

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession is published by Blue moose

Posted on March 27, 2021February 16, 2023

A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion. I have always admired Una's short fiction so I


A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion.

I have always admired Una's short fiction so I was excited to get my hands on her debut novel.
It doesn't disappoint though it's a slow, slow start and it remains slow but by the time you get to end, you will enjoy that relaxed pace as it suits the story and the characters.

Libby is out for a drive at night with her siblings. Her mother is driving. We feel the tension but when Ellen, Libby's younger sister frustrates her frazzled mum, her mum basically dumps Ellen on the roadside and speeds off.
 
The story rocks on from this one awful decision and we learn about Libby and her connection with her father who has passed away.

This novel, set in an 80s rural Philadelphia, has all the feels of a  Goonies movie or an episode of Stranger Things. Una's writing never falters but I found the descriptions of nature and trees a little bit lengthy at times. It's clear she revels in writing about nature.

Overal, I found it to be a mesmerising read. Una's writing is carefully placed throughout and her plotting is excellent.

Posted on March 27, 2021May 22, 2022

A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion. I have always admired Una's short fiction so I


A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion.

I have always admired Una's short fiction so I was excited to get my hands on her debut novel.
It doesn't disappoint though it's a slow, slow start and it remains slow but by the time you get to end, you will enjoy that relaxed pace as it suits the story and the characters.

Libby is out for a drive at night with her siblings. Her mother is driving. We feel the tension but when Ellen, Libby's younger sister frustrates her frazzled mum, her mum basically dumps Ellen on the roadside and speeds off.
 
The story rocks on from this one awful decision and we learn about Libby and her connection with her father who has passed away.

This novel, set in an 80s rural Philadelphia, has all the feels of a  Goonies movie or an episode of Stranger Things. Una's writing never falters but I found the descriptions of nature and trees a little bit lengthy at times. It's clear she revels in writing about nature.

Overal, I found it to be a mesmerising read. Una's writing is carefully placed throughout and her plotting is excellent.

Posted on March 9, 2021February 16, 2023

Shuggie Bain is a debut novel by Douglas Stuart and it is surely an outstanding


Shuggie Bain is a debut novel by Douglas Stuart and it is surely an outstanding book. Its writing, its characters and its plot are basically perfect. The opening scene of the main character, Shuggie Bain and the supermarket chicken deli he works in captured me straight into the depraved world of the Bain family.

Poor ten year old Shuggie has a hard life, he lives in  the city of Glasgow in the1980s during the Thatcher era with his two siblings and mother, Agnes Bain in complete poverty and misfortune. This is what happens when society forgets about people and children. 

Agnes Bain has a particularly hard life. Agnes is an alcoholic and this story is hers and Shuggie’s. There are so many touching and caring scenes between the two with Shuggie caring for her all the way that it can be hard to forgive Agnes for her failings as a parent. But, none the less Shuggie Bain is a tragic love story and we all know what happens in a good tragedy.

I found this book heartwrenching to the point I was afraid to pick up the book as I wasn’t sure how much more pain and hardship I could take. There are some humorous moments scattered but otherwise this book is not to be described as uplifting. I never shy away from sad books that deal with suffering and the ending does give us a glimmer of hope for poor Shuggie. 

I also don’t think books should be happy and fix the reader’s emotions. Reading a book like Shuggie Bain and the experiences of a family that live in utter poverty and depravity give the reader hope and gratefulness for their own lives. Well, it did for me anyway. It might for you too.

The writing in this book is so good, so good that if you are a writer, it might just make you want to throw your efforts away and go back to the day job. But don’t, the way Douglas Stuart writes setting and character in every line, every paragraph, every page will make you catch your breath, writer or non-writer. There is so much to learn from Shuggie, whether it is the atmosphere it paints or the strong emotions and connection for the characters.

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Rozz's books

Tender
3 of 5 stars
Tender
by Belinda McKeon
Davy Byrnes Stories 2014
4 of 5 stars
Davy Byrnes Stories 2014
by Sara Baume
Foster
5 of 5 stars
Foster
by Claire Keegan
Superb, perfect short story telling from the genius of the form.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
4 of 5 stars
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
by Wells Tower
hilarious and dark and funked up!
The Good House
1 of 5 stars
The Good House
by Ann Leary

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