A review by shirley_maclame
Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane

3.0

Structured more like a memoir than a novel. I read on Wikipedia, after reading it, that the story of the unnamed boy is very similar to the life of the author. If that is true, then it explains a lot. The main narrative is about the boy's family secret, and those parts of the book kept me engaged. However, there were many parts of the book that were just individual accounts of the boy's life, and although I appreciate that they were trying to give an impression of life in Northern Ireland, I probably would have put the book down before finishing if it weren't for the main narrative. Generally well written, but the paragraphs that take up an entire page caused me a bit of strain.