- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (July 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 078671235X
- ISBN-13: 978-0786712359
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.1 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 286 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,306,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
Pain and rage engulf Niall when he returns to Derry after years of living on the continent. He doesn't attend his father's funeral, much to brother Michael's disgust, and it isn't long until Michael throws him out after the police dump Niall at the door after one of his hostile drunken binges. Niall's world--Northern Ireland in the early 1990s, just after the first IRA ceasefire ended--is dark, disordered, and despairing. So when he encounters passionate socialist Lorna, she rouses no sexual interest in him. Indeed, she seems drawn to her older mentor in the movement. Yet the two younger people eventually drift together in aimless, nihilistic ennui, shot through with bouts of furious yelling and well lubricated with drink. O'Reilly is especially good at evoking the anonymous longing of the disenfranchised young and at times recalls the existential angst of Jean-Paul Sartre, with a dollop of Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov for good measure. Readers whose tastes run toward such stuff will be rewarded by a complementary richness of language and texture. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
As metaphors for a still troubled. . . society go, this is a powerful and disturbing one, whose resonance lingered long after I'd finished the book. -- Observer, 17 February 2002
At a time when much Irish fiction is predictable and safe, readers should welcome and celebrate the fact that there are writers prepared to take such risks. -- Irish Times, 16 February 2002
I think that Sean O Reilly is a truly original writer. It is great to read someone who uses language with such energy and courage. I really like his work. -- Jennifer Johnston
O'Reilly's minimalist, lyrical voice is exceptionally powerful. -- Waterstones Books Quarterly, Issue 3
O'Reilly... combines a smart modern eye with a lavish lowlife sensuality that makes the Bogside sound as vibrant as Trastevere. -- Independent, 9 February 2002 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
At a time when much Irish fiction is predictable and safe, readers should welcome and celebrate the fact that there are writers prepared to take such risks. -- Irish Times, 16 February 2002
I think that Sean O Reilly is a truly original writer. It is great to read someone who uses language with such energy and courage. I really like his work. -- Jennifer Johnston
O'Reilly's minimalist, lyrical voice is exceptionally powerful. -- Waterstones Books Quarterly, Issue 3
O'Reilly... combines a smart modern eye with a lavish lowlife sensuality that makes the Bogside sound as vibrant as Trastevere. -- Independent, 9 February 2002 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Joy of Bleak, July 25 2011
By Ms. Mary O'donnell - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: Love And Sleep (Paperback)
Well-written novel. Language beautiful, arresting and succinct. This is the book's main attraction. The activity (there is no plot) depends a lot on the fact of the war in the North of Ireland being of interest in itself, which it isn't necessarily. The characters caught within the hopelessness of their social and political milieu are solid, young, and even passionate in an odd way, if passion can have a negative value. In a world of tranquillising mush that often passes for fiction, the strength of this work is in its tonal bleakness.
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