Lavinia reviewed The Ghost Factory by Jenny McCartney
Review of 'The Ghost Factory' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The Troubles have a dark history and a long one, from the 1960s to the 1990s. For 30 years, Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, was defined by the long conflict between nationalist Catholics who wanted unity with the Republic of Ireland and unionist Protestants who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom. This violent civil war claimed 3,500 lives and turned Northern Ireland into a ghost factory.
In this powerful debut novel, set in Belfast and London in the latter years of the twentieth century, Jenny McCartney explores the conflict from different perspectives and gives the reader a sense of some aspects of life in Belfast at the time of the Troubles.
I was surprised by The Ghost Factory. It is dramatic, emotional, funny at times and philosophical. It goes into such interesting details and it has such a depth and beauty that once you start reading …
The Troubles have a dark history and a long one, from the 1960s to the 1990s. For 30 years, Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, was defined by the long conflict between nationalist Catholics who wanted unity with the Republic of Ireland and unionist Protestants who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom. This violent civil war claimed 3,500 lives and turned Northern Ireland into a ghost factory.
In this powerful debut novel, set in Belfast and London in the latter years of the twentieth century, Jenny McCartney explores the conflict from different perspectives and gives the reader a sense of some aspects of life in Belfast at the time of the Troubles.
I was surprised by The Ghost Factory. It is dramatic, emotional, funny at times and philosophical. It goes into such interesting details and it has such a depth and beauty that once you start reading you don’t want to stop. It is one of these novels that tell you why to live even when things have gone so wrong.
I moved from a place where I mattered but in the wrong style, to a place where I didn't matter at all. Whether this was better I found hard to say at first. But I knew then that people don’t come to an unfamiliar city just to get away from their old homes, but also to escape their old selves.
Trying to come to terms with his father’s sudden death, Jacky is forced to face the bullies who attacked his harmless friend Titch. They are mobsters who are fighting viciously for personal fiefdoms in a city scarred by conflict and violence. After he himself is attacked, he flees to London and tries to build a new life. But the ghosts of the past return and consuming him. Their voices remain alive in his mind and they are pulling him back to Belfast, crying out for justice and retribution.
We measure our own reality through the pain that the absence of us will cause in others. That’s what route us and gives us substance. Without it we’re just ghosts passing through a series of doors, river water running into the ocean and leaving no trace.
In 1998, after years of killing and bombings, kidnappings, torture and terror, the political parties of Northern Ireland, and representatives from Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups signed the Good Friday Agreement. Peace came at last in Northern Ireland.
Then Brexit happened.
After the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the Irish Border becomes not just a border between Britain and Ireland, but it also becomes part of the EU’s external frontier. Could Britain’s exit from the European Union threaten 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland?
The Ghost Factory is not a novel about Brexit or the "Irish Border issue." It’s a novel about loyalty and justice, belonging and love. But, while I was reading it, I couldn't stop thinking about Brexit and its significant potential impact to Northern Ireland.
Read the full review at Athena Reads
