Liz Ellen Vogan's Reviews > Donnybrook

I noticed the blurbs on the back of this book by Daniel Woodrell and Bonnie Jo Campbell and thought "perfect". I am drawn to novels that explore rural poverty and violence. But unlike Woodrell or Campbell, this one felt exploitative and lacked depth. There was nowhere near enough development of the three characters that had any potential redeeming qualities (Jarhead, Whalen, and Purcell). There were many opportunities to delve deeper into the story that just didn't happen, and that is a shame because it was right under the surface. Plus, the whole primary focus of the book seemed to be on just the play-by-play of its extremely brutal fight scenes (that went beyond believable really) to the point that it was hard to find a reason to keep reading. It felt like a violent fantasy, like some kind of catharsis for the author with no dividends for the reader unless they want to spend several hours reading what is essentially a story of utter depravity. Which I did. I didn't want to at times, but I still did read it through because I wanted to find out what happened at Donnybrook.