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andrew_russell's review
3.0
The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes, is a beautifully crafted story of famililial relationships, sacrifice and grief.
The main protagonist and narrator, Doharty Black lives with his parents and has one sibling, Cormac. Cormac is booksmart, where Doharty has resigned himself to life on the farm that his father runs. The father, called 'The Chief' throughout by Doharty (who is called 'Hart' by close friends and family), is struck down by a crippling illness and the events which play out in the wake of this form a core element of Hughes' novel.
It's worth paying tribute to Hughes' prose-writing here. When I described this work in the opening sentence of this review, as 'beautifully crafted', I was referring to Hughes' extraordinary ability to use simile and metaphor to paint a stunning picture of setting and character. This is never done gratuitously, adding to the tale, rather than distracting the reader from it. Hughes will use one word where other, more verbose authors, would use ten...and yet at the same time, the prose remains as eloquent as any reader could expect. I didn't highlight much of this novel (which is often a sign that I'm too engrossed to care to do so) but the words below reinforce my point.
Then he’d look down his bucked nose at me, like a horse that couldn’t be fucked to lep the last fence for the sugar cube reward.
Grief and the path leading towards that grief, is a key theme within this novel. There is more than one scene, where the unbearable sense of loss and the heartbreaking anticipation of such loss, made my eyes slightly damp. Most people of my age (41), have experienced loss at some point in their life - it's hard not to recall such losses while reading The Wild Laughter.
The other aspect that is dealt with by Hughes relates to the events following the bereavement which Hart and his family suffers. Unfortunately, this almost felt like it played second fiddle to the 'grief' element of the book. It certainly was shorter in terms of length and almost felt rushed in comparison. This was a shame - it played no lesser a role within this story and had Hughes written another fifty to a hundred pages, it would really have lifted the work to another level.
In conclusion, this is certainly worth reading and is beautifully written but had it been structured slightly differently, it could well have been one of my favourite books so far this year.
The main protagonist and narrator, Doharty Black lives with his parents and has one sibling, Cormac. Cormac is booksmart, where Doharty has resigned himself to life on the farm that his father runs. The father, called 'The Chief' throughout by Doharty (who is called 'Hart' by close friends and family), is struck down by a crippling illness and the events which play out in the wake of this form a core element of Hughes' novel.
It's worth paying tribute to Hughes' prose-writing here. When I described this work in the opening sentence of this review, as 'beautifully crafted', I was referring to Hughes' extraordinary ability to use simile and metaphor to paint a stunning picture of setting and character. This is never done gratuitously, adding to the tale, rather than distracting the reader from it. Hughes will use one word where other, more verbose authors, would use ten...and yet at the same time, the prose remains as eloquent as any reader could expect. I didn't highlight much of this novel (which is often a sign that I'm too engrossed to care to do so) but the words below reinforce my point.
Then he’d look down his bucked nose at me, like a horse that couldn’t be fucked to lep the last fence for the sugar cube reward.
Grief and the path leading towards that grief, is a key theme within this novel. There is more than one scene, where the unbearable sense of loss and the heartbreaking anticipation of such loss, made my eyes slightly damp. Most people of my age (41), have experienced loss at some point in their life - it's hard not to recall such losses while reading The Wild Laughter.
The other aspect that is dealt with by Hughes relates to the events following the bereavement which Hart and his family suffers. Unfortunately, this almost felt like it played second fiddle to the 'grief' element of the book. It certainly was shorter in terms of length and almost felt rushed in comparison. This was a shame - it played no lesser a role within this story and had Hughes written another fifty to a hundred pages, it would really have lifted the work to another level.
In conclusion, this is certainly worth reading and is beautifully written but had it been structured slightly differently, it could well have been one of my favourite books so far this year.
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