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amslersf's review against another edition
5.0
As a high school teacher, I'm taking a summer class on on teaching reading and we reviewed a list of the 'pleasures of reading.' And the first two had to do with the pleasure associated with knowing the correspondences between letters and sounds and the pleasure of the sounds themselves as you read aloud. Barry's novel, for all it's atmosphere and impact in the literary circles, reminds me of those first two pleasures. Barry is mostly known as a short story writer, and it shows. On each page the slang, the syntax, the imagery are stunning. Within the first two pages: "There was an evenness to his footfall, a slow calm rhythm of leather on stone... Mouth of teeth on him like a vandalised graveyard but we all have our crosses. It was a pair of hand-stitched Portuguese boots that slap his footfall, and the stress that fell, the emphasis, was money." Listen to this dialogue as two folks in the Hartnett Fancy gang talk about some possible trouble: "Cusacks gonna sulk up a welt o' vengeance by 'n' by and if yer askin' me, like? A rake o' them tossers bullin' down off the Rises is the las' thing Smoketown need." I'll stop writing already. Go read the book.
OK, I do want to say something else. The Irish don't have sole proprietorship on nostalgia. Talk to any local in my neighborhood and within in 10 minutes you'll be talking about what the folks in the City of Bohane call the "lost times." You'll be talking about what shop was where, how much a burrito used to cost, and where the best places were for music. For the Irish of Bohane though, the lost times were invariable violent. And the violence gave them a gravity. Yet the violence was rarely remembered for the honesty of loss and was looked forward to mark the passing of time. "y'sure 'bout that, H? 'nother winter a blood in Bohane, like? "Ah sure it'll make the long old nights fly past."
The fatalism is felt deep in Bohane. "Whatever's wrong with us is coming in off the river. No argument: the taint of badness on the city's air is a taint off that river." Barry's book is set in the future, but the ideas have a deeper history in Irish literature and culture. And if Barry's plot structure is any indication, things won't be changing much.
OK, I do want to say something else. The Irish don't have sole proprietorship on nostalgia. Talk to any local in my neighborhood and within in 10 minutes you'll be talking about what the folks in the City of Bohane call the "lost times." You'll be talking about what shop was where, how much a burrito used to cost, and where the best places were for music. For the Irish of Bohane though, the lost times were invariable violent. And the violence gave them a gravity. Yet the violence was rarely remembered for the honesty of loss and was looked forward to mark the passing of time. "y'sure 'bout that, H? 'nother winter a blood in Bohane, like? "Ah sure it'll make the long old nights fly past."
The fatalism is felt deep in Bohane. "Whatever's wrong with us is coming in off the river. No argument: the taint of badness on the city's air is a taint off that river." Barry's book is set in the future, but the ideas have a deeper history in Irish literature and culture. And if Barry's plot structure is any indication, things won't be changing much.
tommooney's review against another edition
4.0
Dystopia... Kevin Barry style.
Peaky Blinders meets A Clockwork Orange. Brilliant.
Peaky Blinders meets A Clockwork Orange. Brilliant.
andrew61's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this up having seen it in a bookshop whilst on hol in Ireland and thinking it looked interesting, a 'Gangs of New York' style novel about a west coast Ireland town. Halfway through I realised it was set in 2053 and presented a dystopian view of a town ruled by violence but with bitter feud about to erupt whilst a former gangster returns after 20 plus years exile to renew his love of one of the other gang leaders wives.Lots of fun characters and good descriptions of place and mood with interesting costume thrown in. Despite my complete adjustment as to the type of book overall it was a good read and I'd probably try more by the author although not normally keen on the genre.
bgg616's review against another edition
4.0
I would rate this 3 and 1/2 if that were an option. This book is more visual with rich descriptions of a future diatomic Ireland. I found it very readable but not easy to keep track of the characters. It'd probably make a good film though there'd have to be more happening. Perhaps it's like an Irish Clockwork Orange.
btmarino84's review against another edition
4.0
Loved it. Very funny book with a unique sense of language. It was definitely an exercise in stylistic cool and at times was silly in its attempts to be hip and such. But at other times it was INCREDIBLY cool, exciting and interesting. It had a few of the most cinematic fights/battles I've ever witnessed, and that includes in the cinema. Also it's Irish. Finally it even managed to be sneakily heartfelt at times. There were moments of sadness in it and i cared about some of the characters (even if none of them were that brilliantly defined).
aifricom's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. As an Irish girl, I was constantly trying to figure out where Bohane was based on! The language was clever and funny -I could understand if people didnt quite understand it but it reminded me slightly of my summer's out West ! Loved Kevin Barry's writing. It made me laugh throughout. My dad found it very difficult to read and couldn't finish it. It took me just over a month to read this which is quite for me. Couldn't get enough
alba_marie's review against another edition
3.0
This is my second go - read it in physical form a few years ago and didn't love it. But since then I have become a Kevin Barry fan, so decided to give the audiobook a try. Sti didn't love it, but thought it was a little bit better. The book is essentially a dystopia futuristic gang war that is somehow reminiscent of present Ireland, a futuristic society and also 1920s gangsters. Written in a bizarre, made up slang, the book was more palatable as an audiobook but I still struggled to really pay attention or stay interested in the story or any of the thoroughly unlikeable characters. All in all, a fascinating début novel (at least I think it was his first) and well read by the author (I love his voice /accent!) but Kevin Barry has since done better.
Fun fact - realised I was listening to Barry read his audiobook as I biked past his house
Fun fact - realised I was listening to Barry read his audiobook as I biked past his house
bracky's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5