21st Century Literature discussion

This topic covers the first 13 chapters, so slightly less than the first half of the book. Spoilers are permitted, but only for events described in these chapters.

What were your initial impressions of
(i) the writing style,
(ii) the characters,
(iii) the setting, and
(iv) the air of futility that pervades the whole thing.

Any other thoughts and initial impressions would be welcome. Any thoughts on specific characters and how they engaged your sympathies would be welcome too.

I am a bit past the half-way mark. I find the book sort of fascinating. I wouldn't exactly say I'm "enjoying" it, but I keep reading. Learning who the characters were took some time, but putting together the puzzle pieces of their stories was interesting. I like Ryan. He receives far too much undeserved misfortune, but seems to have a real heart, and I continue to hope for better times for him.

I read the book a couple of weeks ago, so will only speak generically so as not to inadvertently reveal something from the second half. I really liked the setting. As I noted in my review, the characters, the setting, and the tone remind me of the novels and short stories of Ron Rash (southern gothic) and Bonnie Jo Campbell (rural gothic), which caused me to think of the book as "urban gothic." Ryan's an interesting character - full of self-doubt but displaying machismo.

What struck me most about the first half of this book was the structure... the way McInerney introduces characters and pieces of the puzzle in separate chapters. I was tempted to start drawing a diagram of relationships so I could keep track of the characters and their entanglements, but she struck a nice balance between enough-mystery-to-keep-me-intrigued and not-too-much-info-to-overwhelm-me. The dialogue stood out, as well--it seemed the strongest part of the writing both in terms of developing the characters and in terms of conveying ideas/humor.

I wouldn't necessarily call this first part funny, but there were humorous elements. Anybody else find Maureen humorous?

Marc wrote: "What struck me most about the first half of this book was the structure... the way McInerney introduces characters and pieces of the puzzle in separate chapters. I was tempted to start drawing a di..."

Marc, I read this a few weeks ago. I found the whole thing funny in the same way that the film "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels" is funny. In fact, I saw quite a few comparisons between this book and that film in terms of atmosphere and general story-telling. Maureen did quite a few things to make me laugh, but she's a bit of a liability really, if I remember correctly - the quintessential Irish mother (at least, as portrayed in many novels)?

Like Marc, I was tempted to draw a diagram of relationships, but that would have required putting the book down to find pen and paper, and I never got that desperate. The author provided enough information that I felt reasonably comfortable, and the remaining mysteries seemed to be part of the puzzle. I did find myself having to stop sometimes when I hit a name, and think, "who is this?" I set the book aside for a while on New Year's Eve as just too dark to start a New Year with. I should get back to it and finish it, but finding the motivation is hard, when so many other books are calling me.

Between Neil and Casceil's comments above, I think they've touched on what bothered me about the book--not funny enough to overcome the bleakness, but not really serious enough to do more than depict the bleakness. That's just my personal reaction. I do think the middle part of this book just sort of dragged (with boring overwhelming humor and bleakness), but I can't really put my finger on where that started.

I'm not sure how I'd characterize her writing style (one of the questions Hugh started us off with). It's a bit hard to describe.

In contrast to Marc and Casceil, I DID draw a diagram of relationships to help me. It felt like the kind of book where the author wanted you to know about the connections between characters that maybe they weren't aware of themselves. This might be a comment in answer to Hugh's question about the writing style because books either pull you into a story or make you a privileged observer and I felt more the latter when reading this. The advantage of this approach can be that you feel more for the characters because you know things they don't and you don't want them to get hurt. The disadvantage can be that you don't feel so connected to the story.

That's how I remember feeling as I read it. I hope I've remembered correctly - it was a couple of months ago!

Neil wrote: "In contrast to Marc and Casceil, I DID draw a diagram of relationships to help me. It felt like the kind of book where the author wanted you to know about the connections between characters that ma..."

I think you need to make your diagrams available for purchase Neil - I'd certainly be a buyer. Just started this today, and I'm with you, seems that there are lots of connections that the characters (at least so far, 75 pages in) are unaware of, but the reader is expected to be.

I'm also in the camp of finding the book humorous (albeit black humour) rather than bleak. Indeed it rather fits in generally with the current excellent wave of post Celtic tiger, Irish writing, such as (admittedly including the diaspora) Martin John, City of Bohane, The Lesser Bohemians etc.

Paul wrote: I think you need to make your diagrams available for purchase Neil..."

Hmmm...awkward moment...I normally use something call SimpleMind+ on my iPad for this kind of thing (a basic mind mapping tool that is good for capturing connections etc.) but it appears I did this book on a piece of paper (for unknown or, at least, forgotten reasons) and I have no idea where that piece of paper is! Actually I do have some idea - I think it is in the same place as all the Christmas wrapping paper I put out for the re-cycling collection recently...

I listened to the audio book last year. It was one of my favourite books of 2016. I do wonder if it would have been quite so wonderful if I had read it with my eyes - the narrator had a wonderful Irish lilt and really gave each character a distinctive voice, which definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

Yes, the setting was bleak but, for me, the humour trumped the bleakness and I actually found it quite an uplifting read all told. It's a bit too soon for a re-read but definitely worthy of one in my eyes.

Viv, that is an interesting point. I did laugh quite a lot while reading this, and some of the descriptions would work very well spoken, but on the page the bleak setting and lack of hope for most of the characters are what dominates.
Thanks to all of you for opening up this discussion with such an interesting set of comments.

Viv wrote: "I listened to the audio book last year. It was one of my favourite books of 2016. I do wonder if it would have been quite so wonderful if I had read it with my eyes - the narrator had a wonderful I..."

Viv, I too listened to it on audio and found myself laughing several times among the heartbreaking moments. It was tremendously well done between the accents and voices. I had to make sure my kids weren't within listening range!

Does anything sound bad with an Irish accent?!! I don't even like audio books and this tempts me.

Bleak isn't always bad. I thoroughly enjoyed this well written and realistic book, including its dark humor, perhaps because of my Irish heritage.

I just got to the middle point and am quite enjoying this. I really like the Ryan-Tony relationship and how we see it from both perspectives. Even though I am more sympathetic towards Ryan, for obvious reasons, I also find his dad's motivations understandable.
I did laugh out loud at some parts, especially when Georgie meets Maureen, and I find Maureen hilarious overall.
Learning quite a lot of Irish terms and slang as I am going along, which is always a delight.