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kurtie 's review for:
Breakfast on Pluto
by Patrick McCabe
Reads like the memoirs of Patrick "Pussy" Braden -- a northern Irish transvestite prostitute. Chapters are letters/essays Pussy wrote for his therapist. Sometimes hard to tell if events are made-up or actual until then end of each chapter as Pussy would lie to his therapist.
Pussy has an obsession with finding his (her) natural birth mother and punishing his birth father, the latter a Catholic priest who, it is related, raped Pussy's mother. This is assumed by Pussy, the reader never hears the point of view of the priest or mother. Was it an affair? Pussy sanctifies the mother, vilifies the father.
The story (set in the 1970s) is peppered with IRA violence, often graphic and gruesome. In spite of this backdrop, McCabe is able to insert a great deal of humour. I found the work similar to McCabe's Butcher Boy. Both have main characters with mental illness. Both obsessed -- looking/hoping/wanting something. However, the Butcher Boy finds what he always wanted, albeit in an institution, whereas Pussy will never get that which he seeks.
Pussy has an obsession with finding his (her) natural birth mother and punishing his birth father, the latter a Catholic priest who, it is related, raped Pussy's mother. This is assumed by Pussy, the reader never hears the point of view of the priest or mother. Was it an affair? Pussy sanctifies the mother, vilifies the father.
The story (set in the 1970s) is peppered with IRA violence, often graphic and gruesome. In spite of this backdrop, McCabe is able to insert a great deal of humour. I found the work similar to McCabe's Butcher Boy. Both have main characters with mental illness. Both obsessed -- looking/hoping/wanting something. However, the Butcher Boy finds what he always wanted, albeit in an institution, whereas Pussy will never get that which he seeks.