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katewhite77's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I don't know what took me so long
Social Commentary with humour. A novel imagining the criminal underworld of cork.
We start with a new arrival to the city accidentally killing someone with a statue of the virgin Mary. Course it helps in situations if your son also happens to be Mr Big.
There follows an explanation of how poverty can so easily lead to criminal activity because of lack of choice and also how religion still plays a massive role in women's lives.
Full of characters you can't help but route for, but are also aware have massive flaws, it is a salutory reminder we are all just a mass of grey area.
I always find, that if you have important points that you want to make then, it is best to do so while making someone laugh as the message will stay longer thqt way. This novel will stqy with me for quite some time.
Social Commentary with humour. A novel imagining the criminal underworld of cork.
We start with a new arrival to the city accidentally killing someone with a statue of the virgin Mary. Course it helps in situations if your son also happens to be Mr Big.
There follows an explanation of how poverty can so easily lead to criminal activity because of lack of choice and also how religion still plays a massive role in women's lives.
Full of characters you can't help but route for, but are also aware have massive flaws, it is a salutory reminder we are all just a mass of grey area.
I always find, that if you have important points that you want to make then, it is best to do so while making someone laugh as the message will stay longer thqt way. This novel will stqy with me for quite some time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, and Pregnancy
deedireads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brutal, raw, and incredibly told, The Glorious Heresies will grab your heart when you’re not looking and then crack it wide open. I can see why it won so many prizes.
For you if: You read literary fiction that examines what it means to be human in a way that’s hard to look away from.
FULL REVIEW:
TL;DR REVIEW:
Brutal, raw, and incredibly told, The Glorious Heresies will grab your heart when you’re not looking and then crack it wide open. I can see why it won so many prizes.
For you if: You read literary fiction that examines what it means to be human in a way that’s hard to look away from.
FULL REVIEW:
“He left the boy outside its own front door. Farewell to it, and good luck to it. From here on in it would be squared shoulders and jaws, and strong arms and best feet forward. He left the boy a pile of mangled, skinny limbs and stepped through the door a newborn man, stinging a little in the sights of the sprite guiding his metamorphosis. Karine D’Arcy was her name.”
^^ So begins The Glorious Heresies, which I read as part of the #ReadingWomen challenge; it won the Women’s Prize in 2016. And with opening lines like that, it’s easy to see why.
The book introduces us to several characters who become randomly interconnected when an older woman hits an intruder in the head, killing him, and her mobster son makes it disappear for her. Our characters are the woman, her son, the dead man’s girlfriend (who is a prostitute), and her teenage her drug dealer, and his father, who is also the man whom the mobster hired to help dispose of the body. Keeping up? lol.
Anyway, what Lisa McInerney has done in this novel is extraordinary in that I didn’t realize how attached I was to the characters until my heart was breaking wide open for them. And once the gutting started, it didn’t stop. These characters are imperfect and struggling and they have a lot of trauma. They’re not particularly good people, but she shows the nuggets of good in their hearts that make you want them to all just live happily ever after, for goodness sake. Ryan — the son/drug dealer — got me the hardest. Literally my heart hurts just thinking about him.
This is very, very much a character-driven plot. It doesn’t race ahead, and yet it’s propulsive nonetheless. Expertly crafted and beautifully rendered, as they say. As one who wins the Women’s Prize does.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Child abuse; Hard drug and alcohol usage; Alcoholism; Abortion; Rape
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Child abuse
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