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Ryan Cusack #1
The Glorious Heresies
One messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland's post-crash society. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father Tony, whose obsession with his unhinged next-door neighbour threatens to ruin him and his family. Georgie is a prostitute whose willingness to feign a religious conversion has dangerous repercussions, while Maureen, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after forty years in exile to discover that Jimmy, the son she was forced to give up years before, has grown into the most fearsome gangster in the city. In seeking atonement for the murder and a multitude of other perceived sins, Maureen threatens to destroy everything her son has worked so hard for, while her actions risk bringing the intertwined lives of the Irish underworld into the spotlight . . .
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland's twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland's twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 9, 2015
About the author
Lisa McInerney
20 books321 followersLisa McInerney’s work has featured in Winter Papers, The Stinging Fly, Granta and BBC Radio 4 and in the anthologies Beyond The Centre, The Long Gaze Back and Town and Country. Her debut novel The Glorious Heresies won the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize. Her second novel, The Blood Miracles, is published by John Murray in April 2017.
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February 14, 2020A book and tale to be reckoned with! I gobbled this up and mourned the last page. Completely fulfilling.
February 2, 2018
A gloriously moving, blackly comic, filthy and vibrant story from the award winning Lisa McInerney set in the rough port city of Cork in Ireland. 15 year old drug dealer Ryan Cusack has no intention of being anything like his violent and alcoholic dad, Tony, and he is mad for Karine, and wonder of wonders, she likes him. There is the unspeakable horror that is the larger than life neighbour. Maureen Phelan is the mother of Jimmy, the king of the criminal underbelly of Cork, and finds herself committing the unintended murder of an unfortunate intruder. The mess created by the dead body needs cleaning up, for which Jimmy plans to hire Tony to help him. The murder sets off a series of consequences that bring mayhem and danger to a number of characters. You cannot have a book set in Ireland without reference to the Catholic Church, there is Georgia, a prostitute who finds religion while McInerney adroitly reveals the hypocrisies of the church. Essentially, this is a colourful tale of sex, drugs, alcohol, crime and religion, and delivered with such panache with its 'in your face' earthy and gritty style.
McInerney creates a cracking set of unbelievably complex and charismatic characters, not all are likeable, but you cannot help but find them desperately compelling. This book is not likely to appeal to readers who are easily shocked, but for the rest of us, this is an outstanding, unmissable and wildly irreverent read of a group of people in search of redemption. The beautiful and intense prose, often lyrical, is a real joy. A simply brilliant novel that comes highly recommended! Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.
McInerney creates a cracking set of unbelievably complex and charismatic characters, not all are likeable, but you cannot help but find them desperately compelling. This book is not likely to appeal to readers who are easily shocked, but for the rest of us, this is an outstanding, unmissable and wildly irreverent read of a group of people in search of redemption. The beautiful and intense prose, often lyrical, is a real joy. A simply brilliant novel that comes highly recommended! Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.
August 9, 2016
This story caught my interest right away with 15 year old Ryan and a girl who had been in his class for the past three years. Ryan thought Karine D'Arcy was "whip-smart and as beautiful as morning and each time he saw her he felt with dizzying clarity the blood in his veins and the air in his lungs and his heart beating strong in his chest".
Karine liked Ryan too....( a little happy shocker to Ryan's 15 year nerves). "She--Jesus--'LIKED' him".
When they were at Ryan's house for the first time, Karine notices a piano.
"His mam's piano stood by the wall, behind the door. It could just as easily have been his. He put the hours in, while she fought with his dad or threatened great career changes or fought with the neighbors or threaten to gather him and his siblings and stalk back to her parents. She used to pop him onto the piano stool when ever she needed space to indulge her cranky fancies, and in so doing had left him with
ambidexterity and the ability to read sheet music. Not many people knew that about him, because they'd never have guessed".
"He could play for Karine D'Arcy, if he wanted to. Some classical piece he could pretend was more than just a practice exercise, or maybe one of the pop songs his mother had taught him when she was finding sporadic employment with wedding bands and singing and hotel lobbies during shitty little art festivals. It might even work.
Karine might be so overwhelmed that she might take all her clothes off and let him fuck her right there on the shitty-room floor".
"Something empty about that fantasy, too. The reality is she was here in this house on a Monday lunchtime, and a million zillion years from morphing into a horny stripper.
That's what he had to deal with: Karine D'Arcy really-really being here".
Maureen Plelan had another problem to 'deal' with. She had just murdered her surprise
guest with a Holy Stone. The floor will need scrubbing, ( and someone to clean the floor). The grout will need replacing (heck, she will need a 'new' floor). Well, grandma Maureen may have been strong enough to kill her intruder when her adrenaline was running high, but she needs some help cleaning up her mess).
Along comes Jimmy. Jimmy governs the criminal underworld of Cork. So, Jimmy is the guy in charge of his mother's cover-up.
And....of course Jimmy isn't going to do the work alone. He hires help. Jimmy's best man for the job is Tony Cusack....( haha...BEST MAN DRUNK). Tony is good for the bottle and violence.
A little about 'Cork': Cork is Ireland's second city.....but it is first in every important respect according to the locals. They refer to 'Cork' as the 'real capital of Ireland'. It's a liberal youthful and cosmopolitan place that was badly hit by economic recession but is now busily reinventing itself with spruced-up streets, revitalized stretches of waterfront and -- seemingly --an artisan coffee bar on every corner".
Author Lisa McInerney picked a very hip city to try to dispose a dead body. But....just how 'hip' are the Irish about gangster Jimmy and his buddies?
The head on collision keeps on rolling. Or -- at times I got the picture of bumper cars - crash or avoid a crash--- everyone is threat in the underworld of Cork.
Ryan is not only in love at age 15...with musical talent...but he's 'dealing' drugs.
Most of us just hoped our kids were not using drugs. The funny part is Ryan's 'reason' for being a drug dealer: he doesn't want to become an alcoholic like his father, Tony!
Isn't it a 'little' funny how the mind works? The reasoning have a 15-year-old kid?
I haven't introduced you to Georgie yet. She's a sex- worker ( nice way of saying prostitute don't ya think?), who joins a religious 'born again' cult. And 'her' reason?
[Funny how the mind reasons again]....is to escape her drug habit.
Are you getting the picture yet???? This is not 'only' a book about crime, prostitution, alcoholics, drugs, and sex...and cursing, there is something else going on underneath the underworld.
While this book filled with saucy -shameless - fearless - gritty - "glorious" naughtiness.....a deeper moral complex story is spinning around and around...until we realized there there is reason for all this chaos in Cork. The underworlders are trying to repent. I cared about the characters and what happened to them. I cared for their city, too. By the end of the book -I realized this big brassy story felt both dreamlike and realistic.
"The Glorious Heresies" is a romp...humorous and intense...grappling with complex
themes....like how to be true to oneself -and how do we live up to others expectations - and how does our heritage and culture shape who we are. There are many eye opening moments.
I thought this was an exceptional unique comic/tragic story. My heart was hurting at times...( I was laughing and feeling sad at the same time). When I got to the last few pages....I was getting more sad...it was at this point when I knew - I didn't want to leave these guys yet. I didn't want the book to end.
The writing is intoxicating-magnificent. "Every pounded ass, every rough hand grasping blonde extensions, every bitch and whore was a weight on his chest".
My heart was often "pounding" too.
The intensity and energy in Lisa McInerney's writing throughout is spectacular!!!
And....
Who knew I could feel mushy about a story that plays out in a criminal underworld?/!!!
Karine liked Ryan too....( a little happy shocker to Ryan's 15 year nerves). "She--Jesus--'LIKED' him".
When they were at Ryan's house for the first time, Karine notices a piano.
"His mam's piano stood by the wall, behind the door. It could just as easily have been his. He put the hours in, while she fought with his dad or threatened great career changes or fought with the neighbors or threaten to gather him and his siblings and stalk back to her parents. She used to pop him onto the piano stool when ever she needed space to indulge her cranky fancies, and in so doing had left him with
ambidexterity and the ability to read sheet music. Not many people knew that about him, because they'd never have guessed".
"He could play for Karine D'Arcy, if he wanted to. Some classical piece he could pretend was more than just a practice exercise, or maybe one of the pop songs his mother had taught him when she was finding sporadic employment with wedding bands and singing and hotel lobbies during shitty little art festivals. It might even work.
Karine might be so overwhelmed that she might take all her clothes off and let him fuck her right there on the shitty-room floor".
"Something empty about that fantasy, too. The reality is she was here in this house on a Monday lunchtime, and a million zillion years from morphing into a horny stripper.
That's what he had to deal with: Karine D'Arcy really-really being here".
Maureen Plelan had another problem to 'deal' with. She had just murdered her surprise
guest with a Holy Stone. The floor will need scrubbing, ( and someone to clean the floor). The grout will need replacing (heck, she will need a 'new' floor). Well, grandma Maureen may have been strong enough to kill her intruder when her adrenaline was running high, but she needs some help cleaning up her mess).
Along comes Jimmy. Jimmy governs the criminal underworld of Cork. So, Jimmy is the guy in charge of his mother's cover-up.
And....of course Jimmy isn't going to do the work alone. He hires help. Jimmy's best man for the job is Tony Cusack....( haha...BEST MAN DRUNK). Tony is good for the bottle and violence.
A little about 'Cork': Cork is Ireland's second city.....but it is first in every important respect according to the locals. They refer to 'Cork' as the 'real capital of Ireland'. It's a liberal youthful and cosmopolitan place that was badly hit by economic recession but is now busily reinventing itself with spruced-up streets, revitalized stretches of waterfront and -- seemingly --an artisan coffee bar on every corner".
Author Lisa McInerney picked a very hip city to try to dispose a dead body. But....just how 'hip' are the Irish about gangster Jimmy and his buddies?
The head on collision keeps on rolling. Or -- at times I got the picture of bumper cars - crash or avoid a crash--- everyone is threat in the underworld of Cork.
Ryan is not only in love at age 15...with musical talent...but he's 'dealing' drugs.
Most of us just hoped our kids were not using drugs. The funny part is Ryan's 'reason' for being a drug dealer: he doesn't want to become an alcoholic like his father, Tony!
Isn't it a 'little' funny how the mind works? The reasoning have a 15-year-old kid?
I haven't introduced you to Georgie yet. She's a sex- worker ( nice way of saying prostitute don't ya think?), who joins a religious 'born again' cult. And 'her' reason?
[Funny how the mind reasons again]....is to escape her drug habit.
Are you getting the picture yet???? This is not 'only' a book about crime, prostitution, alcoholics, drugs, and sex...and cursing, there is something else going on underneath the underworld.
While this book filled with saucy -shameless - fearless - gritty - "glorious" naughtiness.....a deeper moral complex story is spinning around and around...until we realized there there is reason for all this chaos in Cork. The underworlders are trying to repent. I cared about the characters and what happened to them. I cared for their city, too. By the end of the book -I realized this big brassy story felt both dreamlike and realistic.
"The Glorious Heresies" is a romp...humorous and intense...grappling with complex
themes....like how to be true to oneself -and how do we live up to others expectations - and how does our heritage and culture shape who we are. There are many eye opening moments.
I thought this was an exceptional unique comic/tragic story. My heart was hurting at times...( I was laughing and feeling sad at the same time). When I got to the last few pages....I was getting more sad...it was at this point when I knew - I didn't want to leave these guys yet. I didn't want the book to end.
The writing is intoxicating-magnificent. "Every pounded ass, every rough hand grasping blonde extensions, every bitch and whore was a weight on his chest".
My heart was often "pounding" too.
The intensity and energy in Lisa McInerney's writing throughout is spectacular!!!
And....
Who knew I could feel mushy about a story that plays out in a criminal underworld?/!!!
February 10, 2017
It took me a while to read this novel, a month to be precise. The reason was not the quality of the book but me being in a reading slump. It is true that I went skiing for a week where I did not have too much time to read but this is not my main issue. The recent political problems from my country sucked me dry of any will to do anything else than be in the street and fight against corruption. If you don’t know what I am talking about here is a link from the Economist that explains the situation:
Ok, I am done with the politics. Let’s get to the review. I have to thank 21st Century Literature Goodreads group for choosing to read Glorious Heresies as I probably would had never gotten the chance to read it otherwise and that would have been a pity.
The first thing that stood out for me was the language since the book contains a big amount of Irish slang. The Oxford English Dictionary on my Kindle proved itself useless so I had to use the Urban Dictionary more than ever. I consider the language a good thing; it is always interesting, although a bit tiring, to discover different types of English.
The author chose to set the plot in Cork, Ireland. I was lucky to have visited the city two times already so I could easily imagine the depressing port town while immersing in the world created by Lisa McInerney. Obviously, I only saw the touristy parts and did not cross path with the underworld of the town, which is the subject of this novel. However, after being there, reading about the unseen face of the city does not surprise me too much.
The author traces the lives of different members of the port’s underworld and their struggle for redemption. I was surprised when I realized that I was starting to care for Ryan, the 15 years old drug dealer, Maureen, the mother of the town’s drug lord that killed an intruder to her house or for Robbie, a prostitute who tries to find salvation with a Christian cult.
The plot is complex but the quality of the writing is what makes the book shine. The author talks about her characters with humor, emphatically and really got me invested emotionally. I admit that it took a while due to my emotional state but I am sure it would have been another story if I had read at another time. Of particular impact to me was her insight into the much too Catholic Ireland and the problems it causes.
Ok, I am done with the politics. Let’s get to the review. I have to thank 21st Century Literature Goodreads group for choosing to read Glorious Heresies as I probably would had never gotten the chance to read it otherwise and that would have been a pity.
The first thing that stood out for me was the language since the book contains a big amount of Irish slang. The Oxford English Dictionary on my Kindle proved itself useless so I had to use the Urban Dictionary more than ever. I consider the language a good thing; it is always interesting, although a bit tiring, to discover different types of English.
The author chose to set the plot in Cork, Ireland. I was lucky to have visited the city two times already so I could easily imagine the depressing port town while immersing in the world created by Lisa McInerney. Obviously, I only saw the touristy parts and did not cross path with the underworld of the town, which is the subject of this novel. However, after being there, reading about the unseen face of the city does not surprise me too much.
The author traces the lives of different members of the port’s underworld and their struggle for redemption. I was surprised when I realized that I was starting to care for Ryan, the 15 years old drug dealer, Maureen, the mother of the town’s drug lord that killed an intruder to her house or for Robbie, a prostitute who tries to find salvation with a Christian cult.
The plot is complex but the quality of the writing is what makes the book shine. The author talks about her characters with humor, emphatically and really got me invested emotionally. I admit that it took a while due to my emotional state but I am sure it would have been another story if I had read at another time. Of particular impact to me was her insight into the much too Catholic Ireland and the problems it causes.
February 6, 2017
Cold-cocked by an old lady wielding a Holy Stone, a hapless intruder has the temerity to die right there on Maureen's tile floor. What a mess. It will get cleaned up, but not without repercussions that will end up putting lives at risk and in turmoil.
Raw, raucous, and raunchy as all get-out. Cretins and slatterns, a mule-headed mob boss, a prostitute who dotes on detective novels with their 'cheesy gasbaggery', and a perfect horrorshow of a neighbor. Full of gritty goodness, this one.
Raw, raucous, and raunchy as all get-out. Cretins and slatterns, a mule-headed mob boss, a prostitute who dotes on detective novels with their 'cheesy gasbaggery', and a perfect horrorshow of a neighbor. Full of gritty goodness, this one.
February 14, 2019
My introduction to the fiction of Lisa McInerney is her debut novel The Glorious Heresies, winner of the Baileys Women's Prize For Fiction. Published in 2015, this is an example of a book that didn't surprise me at any turn but I kept reading, that wanders around with an awkward amount of coincidence but I kept reading, that I thought was okay but I kept reading. The next thing I knew, I had to finish it to find out what would happen to the characters. McInerney opened the door to a world that was foreign to me in terms of geography as well as language, splashing some vivid and very exciting English across the page.
The gritty story takes place in present day Cork City on the waterlogged southwestern coast of Ireland where over the next six years, the lives of several characters intersect. Ryan Cusack is a canny, handsome fifteen-year-old whose potential as a musician is quickly fading into the distance in favor of a livelihood as a drug peddler. Orphaned by a boozing Italian mother who died drunk behind the wheel and a boozing Irish father who's rarely home to care for Ryan or his five siblings, the boy falls into a tempestuous relationship with a classmate named Karine D'Arcy whose family feels she can do much better.
Meanwhile, a brigand named Jimmy Phelan receives a phone call from his mother Maureen. Recently reunited after a twenty-year separation in which Maureen fled to London and left her out-of-wedlock baby to her parents, Jimmy is trying to be the good son and sets his mother up in an apartment building he owns. On the bathroom tile he finds the body of a strange man bludgeoned to death by his mother with a cheap "Holy Stone" that has the Virgin Mary painted on it. Jimmy reveals that the apartment was once a brothel, outraging a woman whose guilt is already plaguing her. To get rid of the body, Jimmy reaches out to an old running partner named Tony Cusack.
Back when Jimmy was in Iron Maiden T-shirts, Tony Cusack had been the useful kind of scamp, eager to prove he could hang around with the big boys by virtue of his keen eye and malleable morals. He'd been Jimmy's messenger when he was small enough to be fleet, but as he got bigger they'd drink together, or get stoned, and shoot the breeze about easy women and anarchy. When Jimmy was twenty-four, a coagulation of bad luck convinced him to head to London for a while, where he could carry on as before only with a shiny coat of anonymity, and, having fuck all else to do, Cusack had gone with him.
London had been good to Jimmy. It had given him cause to aim high. London had been good too to Tony, in its own way. He'd met a beour, impregnated her and brought her home with him, instead of staying put where the sun was shining.
His path had seldom crossed Jimmy's since. Christmases, here and there, they'd spotted each other in pubs. Jimmy had been known to send over a drink, but he'd taken care not to be too inviting. The charming laziness that had once defined Tony Cusack had morphed into dusty apathy; as a thirtysomething he was clumsy and morose, taxidermy reanimated. It was no secret that Cusack had pissed away what good London had given him. Even while his wife--had he even married her?--had been around, he had been steadily eroding his liver and the goodwill of every vintner in the city.
Which made him a good man for secrets, for who'd believe him if he talked? Who'd even listen to him?
Meanwhile, a sex worker named Georgie Fitzsimons grows concerned that a waster she'd been couch surfing with for six years named Robbie O'Donovan has disappeared. Desperate for a new dealer, Georgie reaches out to Tara Duane, a woman who once recruited her. Tara turns Georgie on to a dealer named Ryan Cusack, son of her neighbor Tony. Tara also knows that Tony hits the same pubs as Robbie and reaches out to him for information on the missing man. Tony not only knew Robbie but recognized his face while helping Jimmy Phelan dispose of him. Wrapped up in guilt for his act, Tony shares the man's identity with Maureen Phelan, who seeks redemption for her sins as well.
Two qualities of The Glorious Heresies that leap off the page are Lisa McInerney's content and her writing. As an American, I always value the opportunity for my literary passport to be stamped by an author as they immerse me in a culture foreign to my own. While I was occasionally baffled by common nouns (Dust bin? A&E? Taytos? Ohhh. You mean dumpster, ER and Doritos, like?) I cultivate authors who know their territory and know things that I don't. I still haven't Googled "Leaving Cert year" but have a good idea of what this is for a teenager. Readers who need everything spelled out for them might keep going.
There's a terrific rush of truth in The Glorious Heresies. McInerney is fascinated by people stuck in poverty, where alcohol and abuses of the Catholic Church have harmed more than helped. Drug abuse, alcoholism, abortion, child abuse and murder are all examined, but at no point did the book become a downer for me; her writing contains a welcome dose of wit. The degree to which these characters keep bumping into each other strained credulity, yet I kept turning the pages. I needed to know what would become Ryan and Karine and Tony, whether they'd pull things together or go down trying. And the writing is so good.
Easier get a taste for arson than murder.
Maureen accidentally-on-purpose left the candles by the curtains and burned her house down. It had, at the time, been a means to an end but she'd really enjoyed the spectacle once it got going.
With murder she found a definite crossed line, and it was hair-breadth. One second there was life, the next it was gone. The ultimate in finality. Once you cross over you can never go back.
Arson was a different thing and a glorious thing. It was a monument to its own ritual. Once the fire caught it etched a statement into the sky. There was time to savour it and time, too, to quench it, if second thoughts were your thing.
She watched the brothel burn from a broken doorstep across the river. The fire brigade was almost as punctual as the amateur photographers. There was a reverent hush and she longed to cross the bridge to tell the rubberneckers that there was no one inside, no one would die, but she had to stay still and discreet. Modest, even. It was her handiwork but there would be no medals.
Length: 96,542 Words
The gritty story takes place in present day Cork City on the waterlogged southwestern coast of Ireland where over the next six years, the lives of several characters intersect. Ryan Cusack is a canny, handsome fifteen-year-old whose potential as a musician is quickly fading into the distance in favor of a livelihood as a drug peddler. Orphaned by a boozing Italian mother who died drunk behind the wheel and a boozing Irish father who's rarely home to care for Ryan or his five siblings, the boy falls into a tempestuous relationship with a classmate named Karine D'Arcy whose family feels she can do much better.
Meanwhile, a brigand named Jimmy Phelan receives a phone call from his mother Maureen. Recently reunited after a twenty-year separation in which Maureen fled to London and left her out-of-wedlock baby to her parents, Jimmy is trying to be the good son and sets his mother up in an apartment building he owns. On the bathroom tile he finds the body of a strange man bludgeoned to death by his mother with a cheap "Holy Stone" that has the Virgin Mary painted on it. Jimmy reveals that the apartment was once a brothel, outraging a woman whose guilt is already plaguing her. To get rid of the body, Jimmy reaches out to an old running partner named Tony Cusack.
Back when Jimmy was in Iron Maiden T-shirts, Tony Cusack had been the useful kind of scamp, eager to prove he could hang around with the big boys by virtue of his keen eye and malleable morals. He'd been Jimmy's messenger when he was small enough to be fleet, but as he got bigger they'd drink together, or get stoned, and shoot the breeze about easy women and anarchy. When Jimmy was twenty-four, a coagulation of bad luck convinced him to head to London for a while, where he could carry on as before only with a shiny coat of anonymity, and, having fuck all else to do, Cusack had gone with him.
London had been good to Jimmy. It had given him cause to aim high. London had been good too to Tony, in its own way. He'd met a beour, impregnated her and brought her home with him, instead of staying put where the sun was shining.
His path had seldom crossed Jimmy's since. Christmases, here and there, they'd spotted each other in pubs. Jimmy had been known to send over a drink, but he'd taken care not to be too inviting. The charming laziness that had once defined Tony Cusack had morphed into dusty apathy; as a thirtysomething he was clumsy and morose, taxidermy reanimated. It was no secret that Cusack had pissed away what good London had given him. Even while his wife--had he even married her?--had been around, he had been steadily eroding his liver and the goodwill of every vintner in the city.
Which made him a good man for secrets, for who'd believe him if he talked? Who'd even listen to him?
Meanwhile, a sex worker named Georgie Fitzsimons grows concerned that a waster she'd been couch surfing with for six years named Robbie O'Donovan has disappeared. Desperate for a new dealer, Georgie reaches out to Tara Duane, a woman who once recruited her. Tara turns Georgie on to a dealer named Ryan Cusack, son of her neighbor Tony. Tara also knows that Tony hits the same pubs as Robbie and reaches out to him for information on the missing man. Tony not only knew Robbie but recognized his face while helping Jimmy Phelan dispose of him. Wrapped up in guilt for his act, Tony shares the man's identity with Maureen Phelan, who seeks redemption for her sins as well.
Two qualities of The Glorious Heresies that leap off the page are Lisa McInerney's content and her writing. As an American, I always value the opportunity for my literary passport to be stamped by an author as they immerse me in a culture foreign to my own. While I was occasionally baffled by common nouns (Dust bin? A&E? Taytos? Ohhh. You mean dumpster, ER and Doritos, like?) I cultivate authors who know their territory and know things that I don't. I still haven't Googled "Leaving Cert year" but have a good idea of what this is for a teenager. Readers who need everything spelled out for them might keep going.
There's a terrific rush of truth in The Glorious Heresies. McInerney is fascinated by people stuck in poverty, where alcohol and abuses of the Catholic Church have harmed more than helped. Drug abuse, alcoholism, abortion, child abuse and murder are all examined, but at no point did the book become a downer for me; her writing contains a welcome dose of wit. The degree to which these characters keep bumping into each other strained credulity, yet I kept turning the pages. I needed to know what would become Ryan and Karine and Tony, whether they'd pull things together or go down trying. And the writing is so good.
Easier get a taste for arson than murder.
Maureen accidentally-on-purpose left the candles by the curtains and burned her house down. It had, at the time, been a means to an end but she'd really enjoyed the spectacle once it got going.
With murder she found a definite crossed line, and it was hair-breadth. One second there was life, the next it was gone. The ultimate in finality. Once you cross over you can never go back.
Arson was a different thing and a glorious thing. It was a monument to its own ritual. Once the fire caught it etched a statement into the sky. There was time to savour it and time, too, to quench it, if second thoughts were your thing.
She watched the brothel burn from a broken doorstep across the river. The fire brigade was almost as punctual as the amateur photographers. There was a reverent hush and she longed to cross the bridge to tell the rubberneckers that there was no one inside, no one would die, but she had to stay still and discreet. Modest, even. It was her handiwork but there would be no medals.
Length: 96,542 Words
November 28, 2017
3.5 Stars
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney has left lost for words and my thoughts were all over the place on finishing this novel. This is a story set among the criminal and drug worlds of Cork in Ireland and is certainly not for the feint hearted as it is at times brutal, coarse and hard hitting and yet the writing is brilliant and the humour is Irish to the core.
I would never have picked up this novel if it hadn't won the Baileys price for fiction as neither the blurb or the cover appealed to me and I had passed it by on numerous occasions.
The story is shocking, funny, dark, gritty, sordid and very brutal in places and yet the writing is brilliant and I found myself laughing out loud, cringing and totally torn on my feelings for this cast of dislikable characters during this novel.
I listened to this one on audible and what a fantastic narration it was, as the Cork accent was just perfection and the narrator was amazing and added so much to this book that I am not sure I would have finished a printed copy as the book is quite depressing in places.
I don't think I will ever be able to visit Cork again in fear of running into these despicable characters.
I cant recommend this book for everyone as some readers may be offended by its content and language and yet Lisa McInerney sure has a way with words and a talent for writing and I can see why she was awarded the 2016 Baileys women's prize for fiction and I will certainly look forward her next offering.
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney has left lost for words and my thoughts were all over the place on finishing this novel. This is a story set among the criminal and drug worlds of Cork in Ireland and is certainly not for the feint hearted as it is at times brutal, coarse and hard hitting and yet the writing is brilliant and the humour is Irish to the core.
I would never have picked up this novel if it hadn't won the Baileys price for fiction as neither the blurb or the cover appealed to me and I had passed it by on numerous occasions.
The story is shocking, funny, dark, gritty, sordid and very brutal in places and yet the writing is brilliant and I found myself laughing out loud, cringing and totally torn on my feelings for this cast of dislikable characters during this novel.
I listened to this one on audible and what a fantastic narration it was, as the Cork accent was just perfection and the narrator was amazing and added so much to this book that I am not sure I would have finished a printed copy as the book is quite depressing in places.
I don't think I will ever be able to visit Cork again in fear of running into these despicable characters.
I cant recommend this book for everyone as some readers may be offended by its content and language and yet Lisa McInerney sure has a way with words and a talent for writing and I can see why she was awarded the 2016 Baileys women's prize for fiction and I will certainly look forward her next offering.
May 28, 2017
When a strange man breaks into Maureen's home she does the most logical thing and bops him over the head with a religious statue.
That makes a bit of a mess so she calls her ganster son Jimmy to clean it up. Thus starts the wheels on this book.
Everyone gets involved, either by choice or chance.
Ryan, a fifteen year old drug dealer and his abusive, alcoholic father Tony.
Georgie, the prostitute that lived with the dead guy. She finds herself hiding out in a cult, pregnant and still missing the guy. She can't stop asking those questions though..
The nosey next-door neighbor who loves to stir the pot. And take advantage of any man or boy when she gets the chance.
I was totally sucked in by the writing and language. I even expected my husband to speak with an Irish brogue at one point when I was knee deep in the book. So my verdict came up with extremely readable for the nosey in us...
But I did feel like at times it drug out and made me want to paint the kitchen.
3 stars.
Booksource: I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for review.
That makes a bit of a mess so she calls her ganster son Jimmy to clean it up. Thus starts the wheels on this book.
Everyone gets involved, either by choice or chance.
Ryan, a fifteen year old drug dealer and his abusive, alcoholic father Tony.
Georgie, the prostitute that lived with the dead guy. She finds herself hiding out in a cult, pregnant and still missing the guy. She can't stop asking those questions though..
The nosey next-door neighbor who loves to stir the pot. And take advantage of any man or boy when she gets the chance.
I was totally sucked in by the writing and language. I even expected my husband to speak with an Irish brogue at one point when I was knee deep in the book. So my verdict came up with extremely readable for the nosey in us...
But I did feel like at times it drug out and made me want to paint the kitchen.
3 stars.
Booksource: I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for review.
May 3, 2020
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
Welcome to Cork – a town in Ireland ran by local mob boss Jimmy. Cork is also where Jimmy’s birth mother Maureen lives and she’s just had an . . . uhhhhhh unfortunate interaction with an intruder. Luckily Jimmy is a problem-solver and calls on a favor of local drunk Tony. Tony gets more than he bargained for when the “favor” ends up being not only body disposal, but also a body he recognized – fellow boozer and pimp Robbie. All goes smoothly until Robbie’s girlfriend/“employee”/dope fiend comes sniffing around Maureen’s place (which used to be the brothel) hoping someone has seen Robbie because he was also her drug connection. Which brings us to our last main character Ryan – Tony’s 15 year old son who happens to be a real up-and-comer in the drug trade. Find out what happens when all of these worlds collide on the next episode of . . . .
Are any of you even old enough to remember Soap???? Probably not. You’ll just have to trust that my little blurb above combined with that joke is fecking brilliant ; )
With a title that made me go hmmmmmm and a cover that made the reformed Catholic in me want to jump all over, I just didn’t think it would be worth climbing over Mount Library Book anytime soon. Normally I hate when books or authors are compared to others, but it’s only because the people who make the comparisons appear to be inbred illiterate hillbillies who think everything is “the next Gone Girl”. That being said, I’m going to make my own comparison: If The Goldfinch was one of your top reads, The Glorious Heresies might be the book for you. Bonus is that it only contains half the pages!
Lisa McInerney’s ability to develop this ensemble cast – let alone tackling the task of taking a young man through his oh-so-very-unpleasant coming of age is simply remarkable. As much guff as is presented on the interwebs that “men and women are the same and writers should be able to write the opposite sex” that is simply not true. McInerney has, indeed, done what Kepnes and Tartt have done in the past with these male characters and she should be praised for it. She also should be praised for my current state . . . .
This is hands down the best book I’ve read this year. You heard me right, it’s getting top honors when I do my yearly wrap-up. It’d be great if I had some real doozies for quotes I could share in order to show you how brilliant this was, but even though I have a shitton of highlights on my Kindle, they all amount to things like this . . . .
“You don’t know your own strength till you need it.”
“How do you build a life from bones?”
“There was something beautiful here once.”
“Nothing cleansing as fire.”
As you can see, none of the above means diddly squat unless you read the book. Sooooooo, in order to prove just how serious I am about this being as good as I think it is I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m recommending it to Ron 2.0. For the first time ever I think I’ve found something that can pass his ridiculous™ meter . . . .
Welcome to Cork – a town in Ireland ran by local mob boss Jimmy. Cork is also where Jimmy’s birth mother Maureen lives and she’s just had an . . . uhhhhhh unfortunate interaction with an intruder. Luckily Jimmy is a problem-solver and calls on a favor of local drunk Tony. Tony gets more than he bargained for when the “favor” ends up being not only body disposal, but also a body he recognized – fellow boozer and pimp Robbie. All goes smoothly until Robbie’s girlfriend/“employee”/dope fiend comes sniffing around Maureen’s place (which used to be the brothel) hoping someone has seen Robbie because he was also her drug connection. Which brings us to our last main character Ryan – Tony’s 15 year old son who happens to be a real up-and-comer in the drug trade. Find out what happens when all of these worlds collide on the next episode of . . . .
Are any of you even old enough to remember Soap???? Probably not. You’ll just have to trust that my little blurb above combined with that joke is fecking brilliant ; )
With a title that made me go hmmmmmm and a cover that made the reformed Catholic in me want to jump all over, I just didn’t think it would be worth climbing over Mount Library Book anytime soon. Normally I hate when books or authors are compared to others, but it’s only because the people who make the comparisons appear to be inbred illiterate hillbillies who think everything is “the next Gone Girl”. That being said, I’m going to make my own comparison: If The Goldfinch was one of your top reads, The Glorious Heresies might be the book for you. Bonus is that it only contains half the pages!
Lisa McInerney’s ability to develop this ensemble cast – let alone tackling the task of taking a young man through his oh-so-very-unpleasant coming of age is simply remarkable. As much guff as is presented on the interwebs that “men and women are the same and writers should be able to write the opposite sex” that is simply not true. McInerney has, indeed, done what Kepnes and Tartt have done in the past with these male characters and she should be praised for it. She also should be praised for my current state . . . .
This is hands down the best book I’ve read this year. You heard me right, it’s getting top honors when I do my yearly wrap-up. It’d be great if I had some real doozies for quotes I could share in order to show you how brilliant this was, but even though I have a shitton of highlights on my Kindle, they all amount to things like this . . . .
“You don’t know your own strength till you need it.”
“How do you build a life from bones?”
“There was something beautiful here once.”
“Nothing cleansing as fire.”
As you can see, none of the above means diddly squat unless you read the book. Sooooooo, in order to prove just how serious I am about this being as good as I think it is I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m recommending it to Ron 2.0. For the first time ever I think I’ve found something that can pass his ridiculous™ meter . . . .
November 1, 2016
Vibrant, visceral and violent, this profane tragicomedy takes you deep into the dark heart of Ireland's depressed port city of Cork. On the face of it, this tale of gangsters, prostitutes and addicts with no prospects other than criminality ought to be bleak and depressing, but McInerney is a promising writer capable of brilliantly fiery descriptions, and she really makes you care about her characters enough to make its resolution genuinely moving. She is also fearlessly iconoclastic, unafraid to take telling swipes at the church and its hypocrisies and explore the less palatable elements of Irish society.
The narrative is complex, and follows a group of characters who get entangled in the aftermath of a senseless death. I could say more about the characters and the plot, but a bare statement of the plot would not do justice to the quality of the writing. Ireland has a number of terrific young writers, and McInerney is among the best, for a debut novel this is extraordinarily powerful.
The narrative is complex, and follows a group of characters who get entangled in the aftermath of a senseless death. I could say more about the characters and the plot, but a bare statement of the plot would not do justice to the quality of the writing. Ireland has a number of terrific young writers, and McInerney is among the best, for a debut novel this is extraordinarily powerful.
May 14, 2021
★★★☆☆½
I can’t lie, I had high hopes for The Glorious Heresies because, back when those 2016 year-end reviews began to roll out, this book was chosen by a couple of my friends as their, “Book of the Year.” Sadly, for me though, this fell squarely into the dreaded middle ground. As promised, there was nothing too ridiculous™ within the tale itself—everything was grounded in reality and felt true to life—but there was nothing that propelled the novel to those lofty 5-star heights.
The narrative, told through multiple points of view, follows a diverse group of broken individuals living on the fringes of society. We tail a mob boss named Jimmy while he cleans up a few of his estranged mammie Maureen’s tiny messes—like murder (oops!) or multiple arsons (whoopsie daisy!). Tag along with a teenager named Ryan for a coming of age story that includes all those classic Hallmark moments like slinging dope, physical and mental abuse from an alcoholic father, sexual abuse from a creepy, ever meddling neighbor, being driven from his home through fear and intimidation, and his brief stint in juvenile detention. Yet through it all, he still manages to find an amazing girlfriend (bully for you, kid). Then lastly, we shadow Georgie, a young prostitute and coke fiend, as she tries to climb out of the gutter and pull her life together.
Looming over all the characters and directly or indirectly affecting their lives is the Catholic Church. While Ryan’s coming of age may have been the main storyline, for me, Maureen was the heart and soul of the novel. Because her plight is the city of Cork’s plight. Her story was essentially a condemnation of the Catholic Church—a vilification of its practices in dealing with teenaged pregnancies. Much of her actions throughout the story felt like a desperate plea to the Church for acknowledgment; begging them to address the havoc they’ve wrecked within their communities. She’s like a battered and abused child continually lashing out at her parents, but no matter how many tantrums she throws they pay her no heed. Apparently, the unforgivable sin of separating a mother from her child can easily be overlooked when doing the Lord’s work.
“The church craves power above all things, power above all of the living. The Church has an ideal and it’ll raze all in its way to achieve it. The Church needs its blind devout. Your mother, my mother, the people in there plumping Father Fiddler’s ego, they’re all for it. They’ve been given a class and they’re clutching it. The Church creates its sinners so it has something to save. Your mother’s a Magdalene for her Christ.” . . . “Look at him,” spat Maureen. “Look close. Handing out indoctrination, keeping them faithful, keeping them hooked.”
The Church is the ultimate drug lord. It’s everlasting, with deep foundations hewn from rock, while the city around it is built from twigs. What’re a few broken families or the entire city for that matter when compared to the importance of the Church?
There was a lot more to the novel, but that was the most fascinating storyline, for me. I would have loved to delve a little deeper into the criminal underground, but Jimmy was only a minor character. And, like many a great horror story, that evil was kept mostly off the page, ever lurking in the shadows. However, much like Church itself, Jimmy loomed over all their lives.
This book was doubly challenging in that, not only did it skirt a little too close to literary fiction for my shaved ape sensibilities, but it was also chock-full of Irish slang. And, the interconnectedness of all the characters felt a bit forced and overly coincidental at times.
Now, I have a conundrum because although I didn’t care for much of the storyline I can’t pinpoint too many shortcomings. All the characters were nicely fleshed out. I really appreciated the nuance and depth of Ryan’s relationship with his father, in particular. There was a great redemptive arc to that which helped to counterbalance the countless tragedies. The writing was superb, filled with pitch-black comedy, but, sadly, I wasn’t all that captivated by the plot. And, although the slang may lend the narrative an authentic voice, it also makes it a much more challenging read for those of us across the pond. So, let’s call it a 3½ star read, shall we.
I can’t lie, I had high hopes for The Glorious Heresies because, back when those 2016 year-end reviews began to roll out, this book was chosen by a couple of my friends as their, “Book of the Year.” Sadly, for me though, this fell squarely into the dreaded middle ground. As promised, there was nothing too ridiculous™ within the tale itself—everything was grounded in reality and felt true to life—but there was nothing that propelled the novel to those lofty 5-star heights.
The narrative, told through multiple points of view, follows a diverse group of broken individuals living on the fringes of society. We tail a mob boss named Jimmy while he cleans up a few of his estranged mammie Maureen’s tiny messes—like murder (oops!) or multiple arsons (whoopsie daisy!). Tag along with a teenager named Ryan for a coming of age story that includes all those classic Hallmark moments like slinging dope, physical and mental abuse from an alcoholic father, sexual abuse from a creepy, ever meddling neighbor, being driven from his home through fear and intimidation, and his brief stint in juvenile detention. Yet through it all, he still manages to find an amazing girlfriend (bully for you, kid). Then lastly, we shadow Georgie, a young prostitute and coke fiend, as she tries to climb out of the gutter and pull her life together.
Looming over all the characters and directly or indirectly affecting their lives is the Catholic Church. While Ryan’s coming of age may have been the main storyline, for me, Maureen was the heart and soul of the novel. Because her plight is the city of Cork’s plight. Her story was essentially a condemnation of the Catholic Church—a vilification of its practices in dealing with teenaged pregnancies. Much of her actions throughout the story felt like a desperate plea to the Church for acknowledgment; begging them to address the havoc they’ve wrecked within their communities. She’s like a battered and abused child continually lashing out at her parents, but no matter how many tantrums she throws they pay her no heed. Apparently, the unforgivable sin of separating a mother from her child can easily be overlooked when doing the Lord’s work.
“The church craves power above all things, power above all of the living. The Church has an ideal and it’ll raze all in its way to achieve it. The Church needs its blind devout. Your mother, my mother, the people in there plumping Father Fiddler’s ego, they’re all for it. They’ve been given a class and they’re clutching it. The Church creates its sinners so it has something to save. Your mother’s a Magdalene for her Christ.” . . . “Look at him,” spat Maureen. “Look close. Handing out indoctrination, keeping them faithful, keeping them hooked.”
The Church is the ultimate drug lord. It’s everlasting, with deep foundations hewn from rock, while the city around it is built from twigs. What’re a few broken families or the entire city for that matter when compared to the importance of the Church?
There was a lot more to the novel, but that was the most fascinating storyline, for me. I would have loved to delve a little deeper into the criminal underground, but Jimmy was only a minor character. And, like many a great horror story, that evil was kept mostly off the page, ever lurking in the shadows. However, much like Church itself, Jimmy loomed over all their lives.
This book was doubly challenging in that, not only did it skirt a little too close to literary fiction for my shaved ape sensibilities, but it was also chock-full of Irish slang. And, the interconnectedness of all the characters felt a bit forced and overly coincidental at times.
Now, I have a conundrum because although I didn’t care for much of the storyline I can’t pinpoint too many shortcomings. All the characters were nicely fleshed out. I really appreciated the nuance and depth of Ryan’s relationship with his father, in particular. There was a great redemptive arc to that which helped to counterbalance the countless tragedies. The writing was superb, filled with pitch-black comedy, but, sadly, I wasn’t all that captivated by the plot. And, although the slang may lend the narrative an authentic voice, it also makes it a much more challenging read for those of us across the pond. So, let’s call it a 3½ star read, shall we.
November 27, 2017
Wow, what a fantastic dark and gritty book about the Irish underworld from Lisa McInerney. Winner of the Bailey's Prize in 2016, the book starts in with an accidental murder that interconnects 5 Irish characters including a 15 year old drug dealer named Ryan, his good for nothing father, a prostitute, and a gangster with a mother named Maureen that does him more harm than good.
Hilarious at times, especially Maureen, this intense and energetic book has a terrific plot and great Irish dialogue. I had to go back a few times and listen to the beginning to focus properly. Irish narrator Shelly Atkinson is fabulous! You really need to tune in to get on this ride.
I can't wait to read her follow up book which continues Ryan Cusack's story.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars.
Hilarious at times, especially Maureen, this intense and energetic book has a terrific plot and great Irish dialogue. I had to go back a few times and listen to the beginning to focus properly. Irish narrator Shelly Atkinson is fabulous! You really need to tune in to get on this ride.
I can't wait to read her follow up book which continues Ryan Cusack's story.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars.
October 12, 2016
The Glorious Heresies has traces of A Brief History of Seven Killings and The Casual Vacancy, both of which are novels I enjoyed immensely. And I have to say that while this one was particularly dark, it has a hopefulness and humor to it that made it compulsively readable. I finished it off in two days time, and I think it's one that definitely warrants reading in large chunks. McInerney manages to weave together many characters' storylines into a novel that pushes the boundaries and plays as social commentary. There is a lot to unpack here, and I'll, no doubt, be thinking about it for a while. Since it does deal with the criminal underworld of Cork, Ireland this is definitely not a novel for the faint-hearted and is reading 'mature' for sure.
March 19, 2018
There's something so wonderful about reading a novel set in your own city. Even if the picture painted isn't exactly a pretty one. Is this how Londoners and New Yorkers feel all the time?
The Glorious Heresies is a Bailey's Prize winning look at the criminal underbelly of Cork city. This isn't the Cork that Stephen visits with his father in Portrait of the Artist... anymore. We have Ryan, a young drug dealer with an absolute gowl of a father (god, this novel has rekindled my love for Cork slang), who is the novel's sort-of main character. We also focus on the lives of several other characters throughout the narrative. Maureen, an accidental murderer and former laundry incarcerate; Jimmy Phelan, the Corkonian Tony Soprano; Karine, Ryan's long-suffering girlfriend; and many more.
McInerney recounts her tale at breakneck speed and makes fabulous use of the Cork patois. For far too long Irish novels back been Dublin-centric. I mean, Dublin's grand but it isn't Cork, y'know? The city and its river becomes one of the novel's most tragic characters as we panoptically zoom in and out of its streets to follow our cast of characters. There's something wonderfully engaging about McInerney's descriptions of where each scene is set and I was able to be like 'oh shit, I actually know the house where this is all taking place' or 'I've sat on that bench between the opera house and the gallery'. It's a familiarity I've never felt before in a novel.
But then I am not sure if my reason for liking this novel so much is because of that familiarity. Would I have enjoyed this novel just as much if it were, god-forbid, set in Galway? I doubt I would have. But it isn't set in Galway. So it doesn't matter.
The novel tackles a wide range of topics and storylines, but perhaps the most relevant one is Maureen's. Maureen is the one who accidentally bludgeons a man's head in with a holy stone and lights the spark (literally) for the events of the novel. She's back in Cork after forty years in England, originally being sent there by her vile mother due to her unplanned and unholy pregnancy. But Maureen is back in Cork with a vengeance for everything the Church and Ireland and her mother did to her. Her character seems to be a fan favourite, judging by the other reviews on here. Honestly, I want a whole Maureen novel, I adored her that much.
Often heartbreaking and often hilarious, The Glorious Heresies is an unflinching look at a side of Ireland that is rarely portrayed in our literature. It is a fantastic addition to that great and unparalleled literary pantheon. Luckily, this is the first book in a proposed trilogy. So thankfully we don't have to say goodbye to all these fantastic characters just yet.
The Glorious Heresies is a Bailey's Prize winning look at the criminal underbelly of Cork city. This isn't the Cork that Stephen visits with his father in Portrait of the Artist... anymore. We have Ryan, a young drug dealer with an absolute gowl of a father (god, this novel has rekindled my love for Cork slang), who is the novel's sort-of main character. We also focus on the lives of several other characters throughout the narrative. Maureen, an accidental murderer and former laundry incarcerate; Jimmy Phelan, the Corkonian Tony Soprano; Karine, Ryan's long-suffering girlfriend; and many more.
McInerney recounts her tale at breakneck speed and makes fabulous use of the Cork patois. For far too long Irish novels back been Dublin-centric. I mean, Dublin's grand but it isn't Cork, y'know? The city and its river becomes one of the novel's most tragic characters as we panoptically zoom in and out of its streets to follow our cast of characters. There's something wonderfully engaging about McInerney's descriptions of where each scene is set and I was able to be like 'oh shit, I actually know the house where this is all taking place' or 'I've sat on that bench between the opera house and the gallery'. It's a familiarity I've never felt before in a novel.
But then I am not sure if my reason for liking this novel so much is because of that familiarity. Would I have enjoyed this novel just as much if it were, god-forbid, set in Galway? I doubt I would have. But it isn't set in Galway. So it doesn't matter.
The novel tackles a wide range of topics and storylines, but perhaps the most relevant one is Maureen's. Maureen is the one who accidentally bludgeons a man's head in with a holy stone and lights the spark (literally) for the events of the novel. She's back in Cork after forty years in England, originally being sent there by her vile mother due to her unplanned and unholy pregnancy. But Maureen is back in Cork with a vengeance for everything the Church and Ireland and her mother did to her. Her character seems to be a fan favourite, judging by the other reviews on here. Honestly, I want a whole Maureen novel, I adored her that much.
Often heartbreaking and often hilarious, The Glorious Heresies is an unflinching look at a side of Ireland that is rarely portrayed in our literature. It is a fantastic addition to that great and unparalleled literary pantheon. Luckily, this is the first book in a proposed trilogy. So thankfully we don't have to say goodbye to all these fantastic characters just yet.
February 10, 2017
It is fair to say I admired this Baileys Womans Prize for fiction winner - but didn't completely enjoy it.
I had doubts that insidiously creeped in about the halfway mark ...
This is in no way a critique of the marvellous writing but more a product of the fact the story depressed me. It must be a good writer who can make me laugh out loud and yet still make me feel absolutely wrung-out and desolate at where the story went and what we went through to get there.
The first really enjoyable aspect of this novel was the language - its not quite as impenetrable as Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting but it certainly took a good 40 pages to get the rhythm of the writing and decode some of the Cork dialect. I did pick up some choice sayings I hope to apply in everyday parlance - ould wan and a bog wisp should come in useful.
The second outstanding aspect was the extraordinarily complex and nuanced characters. Ultimately the evolution of teenaged Ryan interested me and upset me the most. I think probably because McInerney has portrayed a kind social realism in these pages that is so grim, so seemingly impossible to navigate out from under that I found myself often crushed at the life choices made and opportunities squandered. The occasional Irish humour is a welcome bright spot of levity here.
True immersion in this book was hampered for me by the complexities of navigating many characters with multiple- shifting narratives and very scant indicators of timeframe. There are many frustrating moments of deciding who is narrating, of where we are in the story and deciding how it all fits. I don't always find this technique that charming or conducive to flow.
However my biggest nagging doubt was the driving force of the plot - a murder seemingly so inconsequential, and random that the cascade of events that followed and all the little ties between characters seemed strained to me.
I understand the the high praise for this novel, it has such a strong Irish voice and I learnt so much about post economic boom Ireland, the magdalene laundries, alcohol and drug addiction, prostitution, the sex lives of the modern teenager - most of it heartbreaking. I just wish the novel as a whole worked more seamlessly and that these great characters were united around a story that made more sense to me ...
Despite all this I recommend it and do think McInerney might be an author to watch.
I had doubts that insidiously creeped in about the halfway mark ...
This is in no way a critique of the marvellous writing but more a product of the fact the story depressed me. It must be a good writer who can make me laugh out loud and yet still make me feel absolutely wrung-out and desolate at where the story went and what we went through to get there.
The first really enjoyable aspect of this novel was the language - its not quite as impenetrable as Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting but it certainly took a good 40 pages to get the rhythm of the writing and decode some of the Cork dialect. I did pick up some choice sayings I hope to apply in everyday parlance - ould wan and a bog wisp should come in useful.
The second outstanding aspect was the extraordinarily complex and nuanced characters. Ultimately the evolution of teenaged Ryan interested me and upset me the most. I think probably because McInerney has portrayed a kind social realism in these pages that is so grim, so seemingly impossible to navigate out from under that I found myself often crushed at the life choices made and opportunities squandered. The occasional Irish humour is a welcome bright spot of levity here.
True immersion in this book was hampered for me by the complexities of navigating many characters with multiple- shifting narratives and very scant indicators of timeframe. There are many frustrating moments of deciding who is narrating, of where we are in the story and deciding how it all fits. I don't always find this technique that charming or conducive to flow.
However my biggest nagging doubt was the driving force of the plot - a murder seemingly so inconsequential, and random that the cascade of events that followed and all the little ties between characters seemed strained to me.
I understand the the high praise for this novel, it has such a strong Irish voice and I learnt so much about post economic boom Ireland, the magdalene laundries, alcohol and drug addiction, prostitution, the sex lives of the modern teenager - most of it heartbreaking. I just wish the novel as a whole worked more seamlessly and that these great characters were united around a story that made more sense to me ...
Despite all this I recommend it and do think McInerney might be an author to watch.
July 30, 2016
This novel won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction this year (2016,) the only title from the list I hadn't been able to get my hands on (it figures!) This is the story of a very modern Ireland, with drug dealers and prostitutes. But in the context of post-Catholic, or maybe just over-Catholic Ireland, there is interesting commentary throughout on the effect of grouping some people into a "sinner" group, where they have to give up their children or go to jail or leave their community. And how those kinds of instances can veer someone off of a path and into a life where they are surviving in any way they can. It was gritty but most of the characters seemed pretty nuanced, and memorable. The story jumps around in time a bit, which was a little bit of a struggle to follow in the audio, but it does give them a chance to show where their early decisions put them in the end.
Shelley Atkinson does a good job in the reading, although since half the characters are male, I was left wishing for a bit more depth in their voices. Not really possible with a female reader! The Irish accent was present but not in the way.
So would I have given this the Baileys Women's Prize? I definitely think it belongs in the top three for me, alongside A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Ruby by Cynthia Bond. Interestingly all three deal with trauma, and two are very heaped in realism. If this is the trend for "women's" fiction, bring it on.
I received an early copy of this from Random House Audio in exchange for an honest review.
Shelley Atkinson does a good job in the reading, although since half the characters are male, I was left wishing for a bit more depth in their voices. Not really possible with a female reader! The Irish accent was present but not in the way.
So would I have given this the Baileys Women's Prize? I definitely think it belongs in the top three for me, alongside A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Ruby by Cynthia Bond. Interestingly all three deal with trauma, and two are very heaped in realism. If this is the trend for "women's" fiction, bring it on.
I received an early copy of this from Random House Audio in exchange for an honest review.
April 15, 2016
If you're looking for gritty realism, Lisa Mcinnerney will provide. The five main characters in the novel are a combination of 'what I have to do to live' and 'f*** the world, i'm taking what I want'. Their lives are violent, depressing, and formed along lines that nobody seems able to escape. There's a touch of brilliance in her writing, but it's a hard read. Some have named it a comedy, but, for me, it's far too dark for that, more tragic than anything else. It made me feel claustrophobic, trapped within the tight confines of a story that offered little hope. I didn't enjoy it, but that doesn't mean I didn't find the reading of it worthwhile. Stylistically, the last part seemed somewhat stretched, perhaps a little longer than it needed to be. Otherwise, the author's talent is clear, even if the subject matter means I wouldn't rush to read another.
Many thanks to Lisa McInerney, John Murray Press, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
Many thanks to Lisa McInerney, John Murray Press, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 16, 2016
I am so glad that this book won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction because I don't think I ever would have picked it up otherwise and I LOVED IT!! The story starts with an accidental murder and follows the story of the people whose lives are affected. The characters in this book are a cross section from the criminal underbelly of Cork - drug dealers, prostitutes, gangsters and the like. McInerney writes about their lives with compassion, humanity and humour, and her writing is absolutely razor sharp.
I listened to the audiobook of this, narrated by Shelley Atkinson, and would thoroughly recommend it. I loved listening to her lilting Irish accent, and I felt it really helped me immerse myself in the setting.
My favourite book of 2016 so far.
I listened to the audiobook of this, narrated by Shelley Atkinson, and would thoroughly recommend it. I loved listening to her lilting Irish accent, and I felt it really helped me immerse myself in the setting.
My favourite book of 2016 so far.
July 14, 2016
Born into an unforgiving chaotic world in Cork, Ireland, it is a struggle to rise above one's devastating roots. Such is the case in The Glorious Heresies. The lives of the principal characters are thoroughly fleshed out and one can understand the trials and tribulations contributing to their deviant behavior.
The intense narrative changes voices frequently so you must stay on your toes to totally absorb this story. The character of Ryan Cusack is especially sympathetic; so much potential, so very damaged.
Lisa McInery has written a gritty tome featuring drug dealers , drug users, prostitution, and resultant criminal activity. The darkness and shadiness will stay with you long after the ending of the book. A well crafted, thought provoking read..
Thank you Crown Publishing and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review The Glorious Heresies.
The intense narrative changes voices frequently so you must stay on your toes to totally absorb this story. The character of Ryan Cusack is especially sympathetic; so much potential, so very damaged.
Lisa McInery has written a gritty tome featuring drug dealers , drug users, prostitution, and resultant criminal activity. The darkness and shadiness will stay with you long after the ending of the book. A well crafted, thought provoking read..
Thank you Crown Publishing and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review The Glorious Heresies.
May 27, 2021
The bint had only gone and killed someone. He supposed it was an appropriate carry-on for the block he was chipped from, but it didn't make it any less of an arseache. Jimmy liked to leave himself room for manoeuvre in his diary but 'Clean up after your mother offs someone' was a much more significant task that he'd have thought to factor in.
The freshest and most interesting voices English literature at present originate from Ireland (or the diaspora) and this is reflected in (most *) literary awards - e.g. Mike McCormack (Goldsmiths 2016), Kevin Barry (Impac 2013 and Goldsmiths 2015), Eimear McBride (Goldsmiths 2013, Baileys 2015), Anakana Schofield (shortlisted Goldsmiths 2016 & Giller 2015), the more established Sebastian Barry (Costa 2016), as well as Emma Donoghue, Eileen Battersby and Maggie O'Farrell (Costa 2010 and shortlisted 2016).
(* that this year's Booker longlist had no Irish writers reflects on the prize, not the quality of Irish literature)
To that list can be added Lisa McInerney, with this wonderful debut novel that took the 2016 Baileys Prize.
The City of Cork itself is an important character in the novel. Lisa McInerney first made her name writing a blog set in Cork "The Arse end of Ireland". Kevin Barry, namechecked by McInerney in her acknowledgements wrote a piece on Cork in Granta in April 2016, which explains the setting well:
It was a city of hot, verminous slums and romance by dusk-light along the quays, the girls using their long black shawls to wrap their lovers tightly against them – on the Coal Quay the girls wore purple stockings and caps with golden tassels, the bright colours a rebellion against the city’s natural hues, which Ó Faoláin caught so perfectly as ‘the raingod’s green, dark as passion, and this pallid immensity of sky’. It was a dark, damp valley, a miasma, but also it had steel at its heart, and sometimes enough to gleam.
This is post-financial crisis Ireland, but a part of Ireland that the Celtic Tiger economy passed by in any case:
Tony Cusack's terrace was only one of dozens flung out in a lattice of reluctant socialism. There was always some brat lighting bonfires on the green, or a lout with a belly out to next Friday being drunkenly ejected from home (with a measure of screaming fishwife fucked in for good luck), or squad cars or teenage squeals or gibbering dogs.
At the novel's start Maureen Phelan, mother of Jimmy, a local gangster, kills an intruder into her house (former site of one of Jimmy's brothels) Robbie o'Donovan, boyfriend of Georgie Fitzsimmons, a call girl who worked there. Jimmy calls in an old acquaintance Tony Cusack to clean up the mess, only to find that matters are made worse, and that the lives of others, notably Tony's 15 year-old son Ryan, a small-time dealer, and their neighbour Tara Duane, become entangled in the mess.
Towards the novel's end, Jimmy realises: Five damned years he'd been taming this cock-up.
The novel is both bleak but blackly humourous:
He was close to paraxoyms. 'Oh, come on Tara. I work at a conveyor belt of deviants and I know for a fact you failed quality control. The man knocked in your window because you've been playing Hide the Underage Sausage.'
violent but genuinely moving, and the prose at times lyrical. This from Georgie, 'small-town wild-child and intermittent claustrophobic, self-styled', who has taken temporary refuge in a Christian mission shelter, set the other side of a lake from Cork:
Georgie had made a habit out of coming down to the water for breakfast. In the great expanse of hill and sky, it stayed early for longer. Back in the city there was traffic and torment from dawn. Out here, so long as the air held that chill, the limbo between then and now stretched as far as she needed.
She sat on a flat rock by the water's edge and closed her eyes to the milky-blue sky and the breeze that coaxed tresses onto her cheeks and over her lashes. The birds could be raucous near the water, but this morning their song was spiralling light. Beyond that, nothing. Later, when duties began, there'd be car engines and noises of cooperation as people grouped off to deny the devil idle hands.
Highly recommended.
The freshest and most interesting voices English literature at present originate from Ireland (or the diaspora) and this is reflected in (most *) literary awards - e.g. Mike McCormack (Goldsmiths 2016), Kevin Barry (Impac 2013 and Goldsmiths 2015), Eimear McBride (Goldsmiths 2013, Baileys 2015), Anakana Schofield (shortlisted Goldsmiths 2016 & Giller 2015), the more established Sebastian Barry (Costa 2016), as well as Emma Donoghue, Eileen Battersby and Maggie O'Farrell (Costa 2010 and shortlisted 2016).
(* that this year's Booker longlist had no Irish writers reflects on the prize, not the quality of Irish literature)
To that list can be added Lisa McInerney, with this wonderful debut novel that took the 2016 Baileys Prize.
The City of Cork itself is an important character in the novel. Lisa McInerney first made her name writing a blog set in Cork "The Arse end of Ireland". Kevin Barry, namechecked by McInerney in her acknowledgements wrote a piece on Cork in Granta in April 2016, which explains the setting well:
It was a city of hot, verminous slums and romance by dusk-light along the quays, the girls using their long black shawls to wrap their lovers tightly against them – on the Coal Quay the girls wore purple stockings and caps with golden tassels, the bright colours a rebellion against the city’s natural hues, which Ó Faoláin caught so perfectly as ‘the raingod’s green, dark as passion, and this pallid immensity of sky’. It was a dark, damp valley, a miasma, but also it had steel at its heart, and sometimes enough to gleam.
This is post-financial crisis Ireland, but a part of Ireland that the Celtic Tiger economy passed by in any case:
Tony Cusack's terrace was only one of dozens flung out in a lattice of reluctant socialism. There was always some brat lighting bonfires on the green, or a lout with a belly out to next Friday being drunkenly ejected from home (with a measure of screaming fishwife fucked in for good luck), or squad cars or teenage squeals or gibbering dogs.
At the novel's start Maureen Phelan, mother of Jimmy, a local gangster, kills an intruder into her house (former site of one of Jimmy's brothels) Robbie o'Donovan, boyfriend of Georgie Fitzsimmons, a call girl who worked there. Jimmy calls in an old acquaintance Tony Cusack to clean up the mess, only to find that matters are made worse, and that the lives of others, notably Tony's 15 year-old son Ryan, a small-time dealer, and their neighbour Tara Duane, become entangled in the mess.
Towards the novel's end, Jimmy realises: Five damned years he'd been taming this cock-up.
The novel is both bleak but blackly humourous:
He was close to paraxoyms. 'Oh, come on Tara. I work at a conveyor belt of deviants and I know for a fact you failed quality control. The man knocked in your window because you've been playing Hide the Underage Sausage.'
violent but genuinely moving, and the prose at times lyrical. This from Georgie, 'small-town wild-child and intermittent claustrophobic, self-styled', who has taken temporary refuge in a Christian mission shelter, set the other side of a lake from Cork:
Georgie had made a habit out of coming down to the water for breakfast. In the great expanse of hill and sky, it stayed early for longer. Back in the city there was traffic and torment from dawn. Out here, so long as the air held that chill, the limbo between then and now stretched as far as she needed.
She sat on a flat rock by the water's edge and closed her eyes to the milky-blue sky and the breeze that coaxed tresses onto her cheeks and over her lashes. The birds could be raucous near the water, but this morning their song was spiralling light. Beyond that, nothing. Later, when duties began, there'd be car engines and noises of cooperation as people grouped off to deny the devil idle hands.
Highly recommended.
June 4, 2017
I hold onto her and tell her I love her and tell her I'll do anything she wants me to do but beyond my words and her weight in my arms there's the knowing we fucked this up. There was something beautiful here once.
This is one of the most hard-hitting and thematically rich books I've read in a long time. There's so much to unpack here, I'm not quite sure where to begin.
The Glorious Heresies centers around five characters: fifteen-year-old drug dealer Ryan and his alcoholic father Tony, grandmother Maureen and her gangster son Jimmy, and a prostitute named Georgie. The way these characters relate to one another is complicated, tangled. They weave in and out of each other's lives, implicitly connected by a single act that occurs in the first chapter: Maureen discovers an intruder in her home, and, startled, she hits him over the head, killing him. The consequences of this unplanned murder unfold over the course of the novel, which spans several years, in the city of Cork.
Lisa McInerney's debut novel is an unflinching examination of the cycle of poverty that drives crime in modern day Ireland. This book not only explores the complex web of social dynamics that breeds crime and corruption, but pays particular attention to the way this is manifested across generations. Is someone truly responsible for the way they raise their children, if they too were a victim of society's moral and structural failings? Where and how does the cycle end? These are the questions McInerney raises while examining this group of broken individuals living on the fringes of society. Crime and religion are so heavily intertwined in these pages it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins, as McInerney fearlessly dissects these themes as thoroughly as possible in this not-quite-400 page novel.
The Glorious Heresies is bleak and profane and at times quite depressing. But it's also darkly comedic and hopeful. McInerney's intelligent prose is laced with Irish slang that makes this a visceral and immersive reading experience, in a novel which is layered with complex characters who are each in their own way seeking retribution. It's honestly one of the most striking things I've read in a while. I know I won't stop thinking about this any time soon.
Thank you Blogging for Books and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 8, 2018
Gritty Irish fiction at its finest, full of poverty, drugs, religious fanatics and one ghost.
When Maureen, the mother of a local gangster, kills an intruder by accident with one of her many holy statues, the mess has a ripple effect that affects a whole range of people. Most of them screw-ups of one sort or another, all constantly cheating one another and themselves in the process. The characters all seem to be picked at random but as the story progresses their connection – accidental or not – comes to light.
Ryan Cusack’s family life reminded me of the TV series Shameless, sans the humor. Well there IS humor in the story but its well-hidden and very dark. Ryan is the centre point around which the whole mess rotates.
There is a cynicism in the story that reflects how the inhabitants of Cork feel about their country, church and economy. Too many children, not enough money, schemes and deals to keep the whole mess afloat with drugs and violence thrown into the mix just to make things worse.
I am very impressed that this was the author’s debut novel and completely understand why she won awards for this.
When Maureen, the mother of a local gangster, kills an intruder by accident with one of her many holy statues, the mess has a ripple effect that affects a whole range of people. Most of them screw-ups of one sort or another, all constantly cheating one another and themselves in the process. The characters all seem to be picked at random but as the story progresses their connection – accidental or not – comes to light.
Ryan Cusack’s family life reminded me of the TV series Shameless, sans the humor. Well there IS humor in the story but its well-hidden and very dark. Ryan is the centre point around which the whole mess rotates.
There is a cynicism in the story that reflects how the inhabitants of Cork feel about their country, church and economy. Too many children, not enough money, schemes and deals to keep the whole mess afloat with drugs and violence thrown into the mix just to make things worse.
I am very impressed that this was the author’s debut novel and completely understand why she won awards for this.
June 13, 2024
Here we have a group of flawed characters whose depressing broken lives intertwine through violence, prostitution, drugs, alcohol abuse, religion and crime. Sad story which was moving at times, but filled with wonderful dark humour. Irish culture and society takes a bit of a pasting.
January 7, 2017
I did not expect to like this book so much, but for me it's a 5 star read!
It's full of black humor which made the dark subject matter & bleakness easier to read. Maureen especially made me laugh, even though she clearly has some issues to work through. She believes in "no authority but the holy trinity - the priest, the nuns and the neighbors" and "She didn't know the ins & outs of inebriation outside of being able to diagnose every stage of drunkenness as dictated by her nationality".
There is certainly a lot of drinking, drugs & poverty in the book, but by the end I felt it was a story of redemption more than anything else. I'm a bit worried, however, for Ryan now that Maureen told him she wants to "put you right". That sounds dangerous given what we now know about Maureen. :)
It's full of black humor which made the dark subject matter & bleakness easier to read. Maureen especially made me laugh, even though she clearly has some issues to work through. She believes in "no authority but the holy trinity - the priest, the nuns and the neighbors" and "She didn't know the ins & outs of inebriation outside of being able to diagnose every stage of drunkenness as dictated by her nationality".
There is certainly a lot of drinking, drugs & poverty in the book, but by the end I felt it was a story of redemption more than anything else. I'm a bit worried, however, for Ryan now that Maureen told him she wants to "put you right". That sounds dangerous given what we now know about Maureen. :)
December 8, 2016
In a word . . . glorious. (And heretical.)
Lisa McInerney’s story of interconnected Irish lives over five years in the underbelly and criminal world of Cork isn’t merely a fine and clever debut novel, it’s one of the best novels I’ve read this year. This is dark, hilarious, and heartfelt stuff.
There’s something in her voice that reminds me of Roddy Doyle at his Barrytown best. There’s the obvious Irishness they share, of course, but it’s more than that: it’s their ability to create a fully realized fictional community populated by honest, complex characters whose lives swirl around each other in everyday and eventful ways. We see friends, enemies, drinking companions, criminals, neighbors, and family members – all finding their way in the same world together, stuck with each other for better and for worse. And, like Doyle, McInerney also has a gift for writing wry, pitch-perfect dialogue.
But for all the tenderness and warmth she portrays her characters with, there’s no sentimentality. These are characters who have been profoundly damaged and who live very tough lives. And yet we can’t help caring about them, warts and all. There are no false notes or easy compromises. We’re kept constantly off balance and, like the characters themselves, we’re never quite sure where their lives are headed.
It’s no easy thing to create multi-dimensional, real characters who are alternately smart and stupid, tough and soft, impatient and relaxed, stubborn and forgiving, and so on. But what I really like is that her other characters see each other differently at different times. And that’s real life, right? We’re not the same person in every situation over time. Others view us differently. We change, grow, regress, make mistakes, get things right. This, to me, is absolutely essential to good fiction, and McInerney gets it just right. Consider Tony, an alcoholic and unemployed widower who abuses his oldest son. Yes, we see him enraged and violent, but we also see him as a tender and loving father who manifestly cares for his children and mourns his dead wife. Sometimes he’s a criminal, but he mostly wants to do the right thing. I love this passage, which gets at some of that complexity (and also shows just how funny McInerney often is):
“An effervescent liar from the phone company had sold Tony a broadband subscription, which had had the effect of lobotomizing his three teenagers and giving him the cold comfort of meditative silence. Once a week Kelly commandeered the laptop and went through the jobs website with her father, and between them they figured out which posts were worth procuring rejection letters from. Sometimes he got an email back that thanked him for his efforts but denied the existence of suitable positions. When he was so blessed he showed them to his probation officer. The job hunt was going well.”
The novel isn’t perfect and it’s not without faults (the coincidences of the characters’ interwoven encounters can seem a bit much at times; some loose ends are left hanging; we’re teased with some things that are never fully developed). But never mind that. This is confident, beautifully crafted fiction. I can’t wait to see what the author does next. . . .
(Thanks to Crown/Tim Duggan Books for an advance copy via a giveaway. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)
Lisa McInerney’s story of interconnected Irish lives over five years in the underbelly and criminal world of Cork isn’t merely a fine and clever debut novel, it’s one of the best novels I’ve read this year. This is dark, hilarious, and heartfelt stuff.
There’s something in her voice that reminds me of Roddy Doyle at his Barrytown best. There’s the obvious Irishness they share, of course, but it’s more than that: it’s their ability to create a fully realized fictional community populated by honest, complex characters whose lives swirl around each other in everyday and eventful ways. We see friends, enemies, drinking companions, criminals, neighbors, and family members – all finding their way in the same world together, stuck with each other for better and for worse. And, like Doyle, McInerney also has a gift for writing wry, pitch-perfect dialogue.
But for all the tenderness and warmth she portrays her characters with, there’s no sentimentality. These are characters who have been profoundly damaged and who live very tough lives. And yet we can’t help caring about them, warts and all. There are no false notes or easy compromises. We’re kept constantly off balance and, like the characters themselves, we’re never quite sure where their lives are headed.
It’s no easy thing to create multi-dimensional, real characters who are alternately smart and stupid, tough and soft, impatient and relaxed, stubborn and forgiving, and so on. But what I really like is that her other characters see each other differently at different times. And that’s real life, right? We’re not the same person in every situation over time. Others view us differently. We change, grow, regress, make mistakes, get things right. This, to me, is absolutely essential to good fiction, and McInerney gets it just right. Consider Tony, an alcoholic and unemployed widower who abuses his oldest son. Yes, we see him enraged and violent, but we also see him as a tender and loving father who manifestly cares for his children and mourns his dead wife. Sometimes he’s a criminal, but he mostly wants to do the right thing. I love this passage, which gets at some of that complexity (and also shows just how funny McInerney often is):
“An effervescent liar from the phone company had sold Tony a broadband subscription, which had had the effect of lobotomizing his three teenagers and giving him the cold comfort of meditative silence. Once a week Kelly commandeered the laptop and went through the jobs website with her father, and between them they figured out which posts were worth procuring rejection letters from. Sometimes he got an email back that thanked him for his efforts but denied the existence of suitable positions. When he was so blessed he showed them to his probation officer. The job hunt was going well.”
The novel isn’t perfect and it’s not without faults (the coincidences of the characters’ interwoven encounters can seem a bit much at times; some loose ends are left hanging; we’re teased with some things that are never fully developed). But never mind that. This is confident, beautifully crafted fiction. I can’t wait to see what the author does next. . . .
(Thanks to Crown/Tim Duggan Books for an advance copy via a giveaway. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)
August 20, 2016
Do not read this book expecting happy thoughts. It's dark and sad and gritty.
It's well written and the flow of the book is helped along by the links between the characters.
It's the sense of inevitability throughout that keeps the tone sombre despite some gallant attempts at humour - can these people possibly be 'saved'? And what exactly would that mean?
Lots to think about here.
It's well written and the flow of the book is helped along by the links between the characters.
It's the sense of inevitability throughout that keeps the tone sombre despite some gallant attempts at humour - can these people possibly be 'saved'? And what exactly would that mean?
Lots to think about here.
November 10, 2015
I had this on pre-order for months and I was really looking forward to it. It was well worth the eager awaiting. It’s set in the arse end of a Cork City which the Celtic Tiger shat all over before it scarpered. Though it starts with a murder, it’s no whodunnit. What’s it’s really about is how the characters deal with the small and large ways the murder impacts their lives. And that’s the strength of this book; they’re rich, believably flawed characters.
There’s Ryan who’s a smart kid but a bit of a dosser. His coming-of-age is the anchor of the story. His dad Tony, is a bit of a waster; he loves his kids but makes no real effort to be a good father. Jimmy, a proper gangster has his thumb firmly over everyone else, and then there’s his mother Maureen who pops in and out of the story. She’s a great character; a little bit mad, but world-wise and full of charming self-made superstition, the best kind. There’s also a nosy neighbour with a penchant for teenage boys. And a girl stuck in a loop of self-medication to get through one more bout of prostitution which she needs to continue to pay for the habit she’s got through self-medication.
Every character in this book could have been very cliched in lesser hands. But these are as close to the real deal as you get in fiction. Though some people do very bad things, there’s no inherently good guys or bad guys. It’s really about a bunch of people trying to figure who they are and what they need to do to survive, and the effects those decisions have on all those around them.
There’s Ryan who’s a smart kid but a bit of a dosser. His coming-of-age is the anchor of the story. His dad Tony, is a bit of a waster; he loves his kids but makes no real effort to be a good father. Jimmy, a proper gangster has his thumb firmly over everyone else, and then there’s his mother Maureen who pops in and out of the story. She’s a great character; a little bit mad, but world-wise and full of charming self-made superstition, the best kind. There’s also a nosy neighbour with a penchant for teenage boys. And a girl stuck in a loop of self-medication to get through one more bout of prostitution which she needs to continue to pay for the habit she’s got through self-medication.
Every character in this book could have been very cliched in lesser hands. But these are as close to the real deal as you get in fiction. Though some people do very bad things, there’s no inherently good guys or bad guys. It’s really about a bunch of people trying to figure who they are and what they need to do to survive, and the effects those decisions have on all those around them.
December 17, 2018
"The parents cast the mould for the little ones, and the little ones curved to fit." This, in a nutshell, is the theme of this amazing novel from a young Irish author. This is really a microcosm of the Irish underbelly in, of all cities, Cork. I was reminded of the Seattle depicted in the series The Killing since both are cities on water, of similar size, and both enjoy a public reputation as tourist destinations. But that is far from the seedy portrait depicted here, a world of gangsters and prostitutes and people scraping by on the fringes.
It really began 40 years ago when unmarried pregnant girls were shipped off to the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries. Maureen was 19 when she gave birth to J P, and was thenceforth shipped off again, this time to London for 40 years, her son rising in notorious prominence to be the kingpin of Cork's crime world. When the book begins, Maureen finds herself back in Cork, being put up in one of her son's former brothels, and she is standing with a religious artifact in her hand which she has used to bash in the head of an intruder. The book rises out of this messy murder with at least 6 people's lives changed forever. Each character holds his or her own. The language is almost poetic in its brutality at times. McInerney is another of the amazing women writers coming out of Ireland these days, authors who don't write about the Ireland of shamrocks and pubs. It's no wonder that this book has won prestigious prizes already.
It really began 40 years ago when unmarried pregnant girls were shipped off to the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries. Maureen was 19 when she gave birth to J P, and was thenceforth shipped off again, this time to London for 40 years, her son rising in notorious prominence to be the kingpin of Cork's crime world. When the book begins, Maureen finds herself back in Cork, being put up in one of her son's former brothels, and she is standing with a religious artifact in her hand which she has used to bash in the head of an intruder. The book rises out of this messy murder with at least 6 people's lives changed forever. Each character holds his or her own. The language is almost poetic in its brutality at times. McInerney is another of the amazing women writers coming out of Ireland these days, authors who don't write about the Ireland of shamrocks and pubs. It's no wonder that this book has won prestigious prizes already.
March 1, 2019
Chi è senza peccato scagli la prima pietra!
Se mi fossi fermata al titolo non avrei letto questo libro e sarebbe stato un vero peccato!!
Le mie letture sono di vario genere ma da un anno a questa parte m’interessano le giovani penne femminili perché spesso sono quelle che mi restituiscono con maggiore realismo un quadro del nostro mondo contemporaneo.
The Glorious Heresies è l’esordio di Lisa McInerney e ci racconta l’Irlanda di oggi.
Un’Irlanda, però, dei margini dove esistono leggi ferree e si sente il peso di ogni decisione presa.
Ryan, Tony, Maureen, Robbie, Georgie sono i protagonisti di un intreccio che si anima a Cork, una città posizionata su un’isola nel mezzo del fiume Lee.
Anche queste vite drammatiche sembrano isolate: staccate dalla possibilità di un’esistenza serena. Scivolano, invece, sempre più verso vicoli ciechi.
”Vergognati, Irlanda, pensò Maureen quarant’anni dopo. Prima o poi ti prenderai cura dei tuoi figli?”
Un omicidio lega queste vite mentre sullo sfondo c’è un’Irlanda che va a rotoli e il peso di un passato soffocante per i dettami della chiesa cattolica ”che crea i peccatori per poter avere qualcosa da salvare”.
Mi spiace amiche ed amici ma questo libro lo devo proprio consigliare!
” La struttura intorno alla quale costruiamo le nostre vite è cosa ben fragile, e in una città dove tutti si conoscono una singola trave spezzata può minacciare le punte e le ombre della linea dell’orizzonte.”
Un’interessante intervista all’autrice
http://www.letteratura.rai.it/articol...
Se mi fossi fermata al titolo non avrei letto questo libro e sarebbe stato un vero peccato!!
Le mie letture sono di vario genere ma da un anno a questa parte m’interessano le giovani penne femminili perché spesso sono quelle che mi restituiscono con maggiore realismo un quadro del nostro mondo contemporaneo.
The Glorious Heresies è l’esordio di Lisa McInerney e ci racconta l’Irlanda di oggi.
Un’Irlanda, però, dei margini dove esistono leggi ferree e si sente il peso di ogni decisione presa.
Ryan, Tony, Maureen, Robbie, Georgie sono i protagonisti di un intreccio che si anima a Cork, una città posizionata su un’isola nel mezzo del fiume Lee.
Anche queste vite drammatiche sembrano isolate: staccate dalla possibilità di un’esistenza serena. Scivolano, invece, sempre più verso vicoli ciechi.
”Vergognati, Irlanda, pensò Maureen quarant’anni dopo. Prima o poi ti prenderai cura dei tuoi figli?”
Un omicidio lega queste vite mentre sullo sfondo c’è un’Irlanda che va a rotoli e il peso di un passato soffocante per i dettami della chiesa cattolica ”che crea i peccatori per poter avere qualcosa da salvare”.
Mi spiace amiche ed amici ma questo libro lo devo proprio consigliare!
” La struttura intorno alla quale costruiamo le nostre vite è cosa ben fragile, e in una città dove tutti si conoscono una singola trave spezzata può minacciare le punte e le ombre della linea dell’orizzonte.”
Un’interessante intervista all’autrice
http://www.letteratura.rai.it/articol...
June 30, 2016
I received this book for free through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers.
This isn’t a book that I would typically read, however, I did find it to be very interesting and fascinating. This isn’t a happy book. There’s organized crime, drug dealing, murder, and prostitution.
I really liked how the author weaved all the character’s stories together. Everyone was connected to each other.
The author’s writing was also very engaging; she really is a talented writer.
Overall, this book wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.
This isn’t a book that I would typically read, however, I did find it to be very interesting and fascinating. This isn’t a happy book. There’s organized crime, drug dealing, murder, and prostitution.
I really liked how the author weaved all the character’s stories together. Everyone was connected to each other.
The author’s writing was also very engaging; she really is a talented writer.
Overall, this book wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.
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