Broderick novel 'enjoying a posthumous revival and deservedly so'
This week there’s a YA (young adult or teenager) novel and one for younger kids from the wonderful Little Island publishers. There’s also the re-issue of a ground-breaking novel first published in 1965, to commemorate its author’s centenary. There’s an affectionate memoir about a favourite uncle and a novel about coercive relationships, along with a historical novel set in the aftermath of WWII. A mixed bag for sure!
Young Adult and Kids
You Don’t See Me, Chris Ricketts, Little Island, €11.99
In this novel for the 15+ market, Ros suffers the agonies of being a trans girl at secondary school who longs to be a boy. But they have finally found Eddy, the girlfriend they’ve always wanted. Ros can’t tell Eddy the truth: that they are trans and want to live in a male body. After a party Ros’s classmates “discover” they are a lesbian – but this inaccurate label is hurtful. And if the truth comes out – what is Ros’s next move? And what will happen when Eddy finds out?
Someone’s Been Messing with Reality, John Hearne, Little Island, €9.99
For the 10+ market, the author of The Very Dangerous Sisters of Indigo McCloud strikes again, this time with a young boy whose parents are not all they seem. Actually, neither is he. And as his world is turned upside down, he discovers a glowing egg-shaped thingamajig in the local disused mine. Young Martin and his friends find themselves in the unenviable position of having to save the human race. Even if it means stealing cop cars, blowing up the mines and turning a paddling pool into a fighter aircraft. Lots of fun and mayhem and this book would especially hook young boys who are usually ‘bored’ by books.
Adult
My Week with Uncle Pat, Michael McDonnell, Livinhope, €9.99
On the day before the author was to start a new job, a knock on his door changed his plans. His blind Uncle Pat had just popped over, all the way from Birmingham, to pay him a visit for a week! His timing could not be worse but what can you do? The week turns out to be a sequence of trials and tribulations but also joy and fun, where the two men get to know each other as adults on an equal footing. This book and its author received extensive coverage in the Meath Chronicle at the time of its publication and as Mrs Gilhooley in Killinaskully says, we’re not in the habit of repeating ourselves! It’s an enjoyable read about the ties that bind.
Bodies, Christine Anne Foley, John Murray, €14.99
Yes, it’s another novel about coercive control. And yes, it’s all very navel-gazing and confessional and maybe I’m just too old, I’m beginning to think about never forgiving Sally Rooney! But here goes. The protagonist looks over her relationships with men – boys, really – over a period of 15 years, from secondary school to the present day. And they’re all eejits. But they’re also all deeply, poisonously misogynistic. Is it their mammies or what? And why would an intelligent, discerning young girl, later a young woman, want to have anything to do with a fella who’d send her a dick pic? Foley can write, and write well, but this is definitely a novel for very young women who cannot yet perceive the world with any true sense of perspective except through the blinkered prism, perhaps, of youthful self-absorption.
The Children Left Behind, Eliza Morton, Pan, €10.99
In 1950, young Alice starts work as a secretary for an architect’s firm. The memories of the war and its effect on her hometown of Liverpool are still in the foreground of her memory, as they are with most of the city’s beleaguered citizens. Liverpool is slow to recover, having been extensively bombed in the wartime years and there are lots of families left without adequate homes. The children of many such families end up in orphanages, not because their parents are dead, but because they simply cannot look after them. This story is a mix of historical drama, romance and sheer, determined grit as Alice strives for a better life, not just for herself but for her city too.
The Waking of Willie Ryan, John Broderick, Lilliput, €12.95
First published in 1965, this novel by Athlone author John Broderick is enjoying a posthumous revival and deservedly so. In his introduction, David Norris writes: ‘That such a book would be written at all in the 1960s is astonishing. That its author should have been from the Irish provinces is little short of miraculous’.
Willie Ryan is finally released from the mental institution where he has spent most of his adult life, and he finally goes home to die. His prosperous brother and sister-in-law shun him and it’s their son, Chris, who takes him in.
Willie had been dispatched to the House for the Bewildered decades beforehand, not because he was mad, but because he was gay. And now the fading Willie has his old heart set on revenge.
On July 30 this year, a commemorative evening to celebrate Broderick’s centenary took place in the Luan gallery in Athlone. It was a tribute to Broderick’s life, his influential work, and his enduring legacy in the Irish literary canon.
At the event popular fiction author Eithne Shortall was announced as this year’s recipient of the John Broderick Writer’s Residency.
Broderick wrote 12 novels, including the once-banned The Pilgrimage. He died in Bath in 1989. He bequeathed his estate to the Arts Council for “the benefit and advancement of the arts in Athlone”. That generous endowment has since established the Broderick writer’s residency, benefiting writers such as Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Martin Dyar and Keith Payne.
Footnotes
The Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival runs from September 1 to 30. I thought they wrapped this up years ago, along with Knock Marriage Bureau, but no, it has survived and is still going strong. This is the place to find true love. Or not! See matchmakerireland.com for details.
The Sounds From a Safe Harbour festival takes place in various Cork city venues from September 7 to 10. Lots of events and pop-up experiences are happening across the city in addition to the ticketed events in the main theatres and arts venues. Check soundsfromasafeharbour.com for details.