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kimbofo 's review for:
The Thing About December
by Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan's second novel The Thing About December is set in rural Ireland during a single year in which the Irish economy is booming and property speculation is a national obsession.
It’s told from the point of view of Johnsey Cunliffe, a simple, child-like man in his 20s, who lives on the family farm with his widowed mother.
Johnsey is lonely and has no friends — indeed, he was bullied at school and those same bullies, headed by the nefarious Eugene Penrose, continue to torment him when he has to walk past them on the way home from work. His crime? He has a menial job at the local co-op, while they are on the dole, hanging out in the village square because they’ve got nothing better to do with their time.
But there are small mercies. His father was great friends with Mr Unthanks, who owns the local bakery, and the Unthanks family treat him like one of their own. He often visits the bakery for lunch. It’s a place where he feels welcome — and loved.
When Johnsey’s mother unexpectedly dies, he seems ill-equipped to cope. His grief, and the shock of his loss, following just a year after his beloved father’s death, is palpable. But the Unthanks step in to provide him with hot meals, and “his aunties and a small army of biddies” make all the funeral arrangements, clean the house and sort out all the accounts so he doesn’t have to worry about anything.
Later, when Johnsey lands in the hospital, the result of a brutal beating by Eugene and his mates, he makes two friends who become fixtures in his life, not just in the ward but in the outside world when he is discharged many weeks later.
Mumbly Dave, a fellow patient, and Siobhan, his nurse, visit him regularly. But this pair’s motivations are somewhat murky, and even Johnsey is slightly confused and wary of their attention. Is Siobhan using him to strike up a romantic liaison with Mumbly Dave? Or maybe she’s after Johnsey himself? Is Mumbly Dave just hanging out with him because he’s got nothing better to do?
Other unwanted attention comes in the form of a consortium of local villagers who want to buy the land that Johnsey has now inherited following the death of his parents. While no one approaches him directly, rumour has it he’s been offered 20 million euro and TURNED IT DOWN.
This leads to all kinds of ill will against him. The local newspaper casts him as villain number one, staking out his house and writing vile stories about him.
Johnsey, naïve and inexperienced, seems unable to fathom that the greed at the heart of other men may result in his complete downfall.
The Thing About December is a beautifully told tale, ripe with tension and the unspoken rules of living in a small village where everyone knows everyone else’s business — or thinks they do.
In contrasting the simplicity of one man against a complex, money-hungry world, it asks essential questions about what gives meaning to our lives and the importance of love and connection in sustaining us.
And the ending, right out of left field, comes like an unseen hammer blow: it’s devastating.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
It’s told from the point of view of Johnsey Cunliffe, a simple, child-like man in his 20s, who lives on the family farm with his widowed mother.
Johnsey is lonely and has no friends — indeed, he was bullied at school and those same bullies, headed by the nefarious Eugene Penrose, continue to torment him when he has to walk past them on the way home from work. His crime? He has a menial job at the local co-op, while they are on the dole, hanging out in the village square because they’ve got nothing better to do with their time.
But there are small mercies. His father was great friends with Mr Unthanks, who owns the local bakery, and the Unthanks family treat him like one of their own. He often visits the bakery for lunch. It’s a place where he feels welcome — and loved.
When Johnsey’s mother unexpectedly dies, he seems ill-equipped to cope. His grief, and the shock of his loss, following just a year after his beloved father’s death, is palpable. But the Unthanks step in to provide him with hot meals, and “his aunties and a small army of biddies” make all the funeral arrangements, clean the house and sort out all the accounts so he doesn’t have to worry about anything.
Later, when Johnsey lands in the hospital, the result of a brutal beating by Eugene and his mates, he makes two friends who become fixtures in his life, not just in the ward but in the outside world when he is discharged many weeks later.
Mumbly Dave, a fellow patient, and Siobhan, his nurse, visit him regularly. But this pair’s motivations are somewhat murky, and even Johnsey is slightly confused and wary of their attention. Is Siobhan using him to strike up a romantic liaison with Mumbly Dave? Or maybe she’s after Johnsey himself? Is Mumbly Dave just hanging out with him because he’s got nothing better to do?
Other unwanted attention comes in the form of a consortium of local villagers who want to buy the land that Johnsey has now inherited following the death of his parents. While no one approaches him directly, rumour has it he’s been offered 20 million euro and TURNED IT DOWN.
This leads to all kinds of ill will against him. The local newspaper casts him as villain number one, staking out his house and writing vile stories about him.
Johnsey, naïve and inexperienced, seems unable to fathom that the greed at the heart of other men may result in his complete downfall.
The Thing About December is a beautifully told tale, ripe with tension and the unspoken rules of living in a small village where everyone knows everyone else’s business — or thinks they do.
In contrasting the simplicity of one man against a complex, money-hungry world, it asks essential questions about what gives meaning to our lives and the importance of love and connection in sustaining us.
And the ending, right out of left field, comes like an unseen hammer blow: it’s devastating.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.