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greybeard49's review against another edition
5.0
I lived in Ulster for the duration of the ‘Troubles’ and have read several books on that period. None of them conveyed the emotions and atmosphere of those times as well as Jennifer Johnston does in her small book. She really hits ‘the nail on the head’ - characters, dialogue, locational description and storyline are all excellent. She takes you by the hand and walks and trails and bundles you through working class Derry/Londonderry and does it so well.
Powerful stuff!
Powerful stuff!
rojaed's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
alic59books's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
linhinbooks's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
aliceliddle1865's review
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
bgg616's review against another edition
5.0
This book was deservedly shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize. The author still lives in Derry, the site of this story. It is a simple story revolving around a boy and a female friend, a teacher, his brother, who is in the IRA, his semi-invalid father (supposedly an IRA hero), and his hardworking, bitter mother. The poverty of life in working class Derry permeates the book, a poverty worsened by the unrest of the Troubles. There are shootings nearly every day, yet young Joe walks back and forth to school around and through it. While the Troubles permeate the lives of people, particularly poor Nationalist residents, simultaneously people carry on living and working. Joe is a lonely boy who daydreams in school, and writes poems in his head. His unlikely friendship with a young, lonely teacher, a woman from another place, is believable, and is definitely of this time, the 1970's and place, Derry. Johnston is a genius at wroughting portraits of lonely people in the stark landscape of Northern Ireland of the time.
jakesf98's review against another edition
4.0
After having studied 'The Illusionist' for my A-levels, I decided to read more of Johnston's prose as I really enjoyed the Illusionist after the second reading (Johnston's style is somewhat hard to grasp upon first reading).
As many reviews have said, I really do adore Johnston's economical but poignant writing style. She can portray very psychologically nuanced characters without going on some pompous stream-of-consciousness as some writers have a tendency to fall into.
I really enjoyed the fact that this novel took place quite close to home, in Northern Ireland. It was interesting to read such beautiful prose describe issues so familiar to me. I suppose this may make the themes or plot somewhat harder for people not Northern Irish to understand.
One thing I will say that could be a negative is that Johnston's plots aren't very fanciful, they're often simple and take place in only a few locales. I think it's her depth of insight into her characters which makes her books, for me, enjoyable. At least with 'The Illusionist' and this novel.
However, it didn't fail to leave me in suspense at the end, and it was crushing but not surprising to learn what happened to Kathleen. The ending was certainly very poignant, and I feel that Johnston was really able to understand this loss of innocence that a lot of us (Northern Irish or no) can relate to.
As many reviews have said, I really do adore Johnston's economical but poignant writing style. She can portray very psychologically nuanced characters without going on some pompous stream-of-consciousness as some writers have a tendency to fall into.
I really enjoyed the fact that this novel took place quite close to home, in Northern Ireland. It was interesting to read such beautiful prose describe issues so familiar to me. I suppose this may make the themes or plot somewhat harder for people not Northern Irish to understand.
One thing I will say that could be a negative is that Johnston's plots aren't very fanciful, they're often simple and take place in only a few locales. I think it's her depth of insight into her characters which makes her books, for me, enjoyable. At least with 'The Illusionist' and this novel.
However, it didn't fail to leave me in suspense at the end, and it was crushing but not surprising to learn what happened to Kathleen. The ending was certainly very poignant, and I feel that Johnston was really able to understand this loss of innocence that a lot of us (Northern Irish or no) can relate to.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
5.0
Disclaimer: Digital ARC of the Open Road Media edition read via Netgalley.
This book was apparently shortlisted for the Man Booker prize but to call it a book is slightly misleading for it is rather short. The sheer length or lack of length of the work is misleading because despite its shortness it is a heavy, morality tale that focuses on the Trouble and the conflicts that occurred not so much between Catholic and Protestant but between families as each member and the friends try to find a place to stay in the shifting morass.
The Open Road Media release of the book (formatted eBook) is especially apt considering the recent events concerning the Boston University tapes of IRA troubles and the investigation into the murder of a mother, whose children still live near those who killed her mother. It is impossible not to think of that story when reading this work. It is important that the reader doesn’t lose sight of that.
Joe is a student of indomitable age. He has to be close to thirteen at the youngest and fifteen at the oldest. He lives with his mother and father. The family situation is strained because Joe’s mother works, the only source of income for the family. Joe’s father is sick, or at least claims he is, and lives only for his glory days in the cause, though Joe’s mother has a slightly different take on this. Joe is his mother’s child, her golden boy, who is going to do well in school, and unspoken as it is, get out and live a good life.
Joe has a talent for poetry and no real talent for maths or more rigid schoolwork, and it is this lack of interest that causes him to stay late at school and on his way home meet Kathleen. Kathleen is older and burns brighter than Joe. Unlike his house which is beset by the darkness of the Troubles, they seem to roll off Kathleen’s back like water. If Joe’s mother represents passive disinterest and dislike, the mother losing everything and only seeing the cost, while his father (and eventually his brother) represents active battle, Kathleen represents peace. She isn’t a hippie, though she is far freer than anyone else Joe has met. She just is and she accepts me.
It is a strange relationship to have at the heart of the book. Perhaps it says more about my American view that what the initial stumbling block for me was the age difference. She might not be Joe’s teacher, but she is a teacher at a girl’s. There is a vague whiff of inappropriate behavior to me, that is quickly dispel because Kathleen is looking for a kindred spirit to be friends with, and Joe is such a spirit. For others, for those who lived though the troubles, the stumbling book might be the friendship between the Protestant Kathleen and the Catholic Joe, though Kathleen’s Protestantism is something that she seems to wear as lightly as Joe wears his Catholicism.
While Kathleen’s interest in Joe may, at most, be that of an older sister for a younger brother, Joe’s interest in Kathleen is accurately and painfully reminder in such a way that the reader is more fully aware of the depth of emotion than Joe is. Joe wonders about his actions, his jealous and his dislike of his older brother that comes from something other than Joe being forced to step up when, quite frankly, he should be free to be a teen. When he commits a wrong, it is a wrong that any teen, any young person regardless of gender would make. It is action borne out of jealous and hate and one that is seen every day, everywhere. However, because this is Ireland during the Troubles, well, the action has harsher effects that Joe thought it would.
The book works because of the dialogue. By conveying must of the action though talk, Johnson is able to transport the reader to the neighbor, to that section of Northern Ireland in a far better way than simply describing place and time The reader becomes another member of the area, less obvious and more secretive, but more aware than Joe simply because of age and experience.
Crossposted on Booklikes.
This book was apparently shortlisted for the Man Booker prize but to call it a book is slightly misleading for it is rather short. The sheer length or lack of length of the work is misleading because despite its shortness it is a heavy, morality tale that focuses on the Trouble and the conflicts that occurred not so much between Catholic and Protestant but between families as each member and the friends try to find a place to stay in the shifting morass.
The Open Road Media release of the book (formatted eBook) is especially apt considering the recent events concerning the Boston University tapes of IRA troubles and the investigation into the murder of a mother, whose children still live near those who killed her mother. It is impossible not to think of that story when reading this work. It is important that the reader doesn’t lose sight of that.
Joe is a student of indomitable age. He has to be close to thirteen at the youngest and fifteen at the oldest. He lives with his mother and father. The family situation is strained because Joe’s mother works, the only source of income for the family. Joe’s father is sick, or at least claims he is, and lives only for his glory days in the cause, though Joe’s mother has a slightly different take on this. Joe is his mother’s child, her golden boy, who is going to do well in school, and unspoken as it is, get out and live a good life.
Joe has a talent for poetry and no real talent for maths or more rigid schoolwork, and it is this lack of interest that causes him to stay late at school and on his way home meet Kathleen. Kathleen is older and burns brighter than Joe. Unlike his house which is beset by the darkness of the Troubles, they seem to roll off Kathleen’s back like water. If Joe’s mother represents passive disinterest and dislike, the mother losing everything and only seeing the cost, while his father (and eventually his brother) represents active battle, Kathleen represents peace. She isn’t a hippie, though she is far freer than anyone else Joe has met. She just is and she accepts me.
It is a strange relationship to have at the heart of the book. Perhaps it says more about my American view that what the initial stumbling block for me was the age difference. She might not be Joe’s teacher, but she is a teacher at a girl’s. There is a vague whiff of inappropriate behavior to me, that is quickly dispel because Kathleen is looking for a kindred spirit to be friends with, and Joe is such a spirit. For others, for those who lived though the troubles, the stumbling book might be the friendship between the Protestant Kathleen and the Catholic Joe, though Kathleen’s Protestantism is something that she seems to wear as lightly as Joe wears his Catholicism.
While Kathleen’s interest in Joe may, at most, be that of an older sister for a younger brother, Joe’s interest in Kathleen is accurately and painfully reminder in such a way that the reader is more fully aware of the depth of emotion than Joe is. Joe wonders about his actions, his jealous and his dislike of his older brother that comes from something other than Joe being forced to step up when, quite frankly, he should be free to be a teen. When he commits a wrong, it is a wrong that any teen, any young person regardless of gender would make. It is action borne out of jealous and hate and one that is seen every day, everywhere. However, because this is Ireland during the Troubles, well, the action has harsher effects that Joe thought it would.
The book works because of the dialogue. By conveying must of the action though talk, Johnson is able to transport the reader to the neighbor, to that section of Northern Ireland in a far better way than simply describing place and time The reader becomes another member of the area, less obvious and more secretive, but more aware than Joe simply because of age and experience.
Crossposted on Booklikes.
fictionophile's review
5.0
Not exactly uplifting, this novel was nevertheless a book that will remain in my memory for a very long time. Jennifer Johnston writes with great skill and empathy.
My complete review of "Shadows on our skin" can be found on my blog:
Fictionophile
My complete review of "Shadows on our skin" can be found on my blog:
Fictionophile