580 pages
English language
Published Dec. 19, 2017
Adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple who remind him that he is not a real member of their family, Cyril embarks on a journey to find himself and where he came from, discovering his identity, a home, a country, and much more throughout a long lifetime.
Its just so long, but I guess that makes sense as it covers a whole life basically
Excellent characters. Wonderful writing. Just the story of a life, but so well told.
My book discussion group just finished gleefully trashing this book for over an hour. The novel is, in a word, sloppy. It had great potential as a story about a young gay man growing up in Ireland in the 50s and 60s and then moving through his life until the present day. But 580 pages of jumping around from melodrama to regular fiction to satire to outright farce, sometimes in the middle of a scene, was annoying. There were endless implausible coincidences and huge chunks of superfluous material stuffed in here and there, like seven pages of a scene in a pub where, apropos of nothing, the characters struck up a conversation with Brendan Behan who was inexplicably sitting at the bar.
There was also a huge section set in New York City during the AIDS epidemic and it's not clear why the protagonist Cyril and his partner Bastiaan moved …
My book discussion group just finished gleefully trashing this book for over an hour. The novel is, in a word, sloppy. It had great potential as a story about a young gay man growing up in Ireland in the 50s and 60s and then moving through his life until the present day. But 580 pages of jumping around from melodrama to regular fiction to satire to outright farce, sometimes in the middle of a scene, was annoying. There were endless implausible coincidences and huge chunks of superfluous material stuffed in here and there, like seven pages of a scene in a pub where, apropos of nothing, the characters struck up a conversation with Brendan Behan who was inexplicably sitting at the bar.
There was also a huge section set in New York City during the AIDS epidemic and it's not clear why the protagonist Cyril and his partner Bastiaan moved there from Amsterdam. Nevertheless Cyril's childhood friend from Ireland somehow shows up in the hospital dying of AIDS where Bastiaan is an infectious disease specialist.
There was little editing done on this book. One of my group members suggested that best selling authors don't always get a lot of editing because publishers don't want to go up against big egoed authors. Also a big fat book is more likely to sell than a smaller book at the same price. Makes sense to me. In the end, this book is a typical best seller by a successful author who has gotten sloppy and loose with his writing. Too bad.
This book wasn't what I expected – but I guess I didn't really know WHAT to expect. It spans an entire lifetime (two, really), three countries (Ireland, Netherlands, US) and the plot takes some pretty dark turns, but the dialogue was so sharp and witty that despite the themes (unwanted pregnancy, homophobia, AIDS, etc.) it didn't seem like a dark book. In fact, it was rare that I made it through a chapter without laughing at some point. Recommend.
This book wasn't what I expected – but I guess I didn't really know WHAT to expect. It spans an entire lifetime (two, really), three countries (Ireland, Netherlands, US) and the plot takes some pretty dark turns, but the dialogue was so sharp and witty that despite the themes (unwanted pregnancy, homophobia, AIDS, etc.) it didn't seem like a dark book. In fact, it was rare that I made it through a chapter without laughing at some point. Recommend.
Best book of 2017. I would recommend this to anyone who likes John Irving. I don't think the writing is as strong as Irving's, but the humor in moments of despair are very, very similar. I did actually cry (2 pages from the end), and I don't usually with fiction. So, so good.
Best book of 2017. I would recommend this to anyone who likes John Irving. I don't think the writing is as strong as Irving's, but the humor in moments of despair are very, very similar. I did actually cry (2 pages from the end), and I don't usually with fiction. So, so good.
Le récit magnifique de la vie d'un irlandais homosexuel, de son enfance jusqu'à la fin de sa vie. Splendide, du début à la fin.
Le récit magnifique de la vie d'un irlandais homosexuel, de son enfance jusqu'à la fin de sa vie. Splendide, du début à la fin.
