This was a suuuper slow burn. I actually only made it 3/5 of the way through before my loan was up and had to go to the back of the queue to re-borrow it to finish it. But I didn’t mind because I wasn’t invested. I didn’t really like Cass and I was worried about PJ but that ended up fine before moving to Imelda where things started to get pieced together. Which was interesting enough but not exactly gripping. Same with when it moved to Dickie.
It only really got gripping in the last section. All that groundwork for the final couple of pages. Kudos to Paul Murray, it really did become a frantic page turner at the end.
Speaking of the end, I was actually ok with it? The more I thought about it, it didn’t really matter if Dickie managed to hit anyone or not. The point was they had even gotten to this point. And once he pulled the trigger there would be no going back regardless of the outcome. I did like reading other people’s interpretations of what they thought happened and the basis of their predictions.
So this was a tragicomedy but I didn’t find any of it funny? Except maybe the final line about ‘doing it for love’ which got a derisive ‘hah!’ out of me. Don’t lie to yourself Dickie, you did it out of shame.
I’m not sure if I enjoyed the story that much since there was a looot of generational trauma involved which is always depressing. I did like the structure though, where everything slowly became clearer with each character’s section. Although I understood why the characters were the way they were, I can’t say I liked any of them except PJ. He felt like the biggest victim, but he was also the most worthy of respect. The part where he talks down the bullies because he has important things to do for the sake of his family made me so proud. And while he was naive about Ethan, he was clued in enough to get the hell out once the penny dropped. Seriously that was the scariest part of the story for me.
The thing I hated the most in this book was Cass’s relationship with Elaine. So toxic and unfulfilling.
I think this is the second Irish novel I’ve read this year and they were both depressing 🤣
Categories: Book Reviews
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