Lashback by Frank Maguire: A Book Review


This novel pokes fun at bureaucracy and red tape - both official and otherwise - in an Ireland where the stuff is legion. While the frequently common response to a lack of preparation in Ireland is "Ah, sure it'll be grand", we also show an attention to detail that is unnecessary in many aspects of life. 
During the economic boom, apparently one could establish a hedge fund at the Irish Financial Services Centre in a matter of hours, a process that would have taken days in London's City or on New York's Wall Street. Conversely, there has always been a toxic Health & Safety / Not Part of My Job Description culture in Ireland too; a very disabling "You can't do that!" philosophy that frequently leaves things in a bit of a shambles. Transport delays in Ireland would result in sackings in other European countries, and perhaps even executions in the 1930s.

Frank Maguire has apparently been living in the States for quite a while, and yet he knows where he comes from. Speaking of period, try to channel a Chandleresque / Marlowesque/ Bogart or Cagney type narrator through an Irish voice: Whether that was his intent or not, Maguire has succeeded in so doing, in a surreal sci-fi novel set largely on his fictional rock off the coast of Kerry in Lashback: Devil's Chair Island. The narrative style fits wonderfully with the story. Maguire is a great yarn-spinner. The story starts out on what appears to be a bleak island off the coast of Ireland, with some wonderful descriptions that are both original and very stylistically Irish. Character names are imaginative, somewhat evocative of an earlier era, but many of them actually ring true in a society where we still have similarly ludicrous monikers.


A goat that requires tethering (in his victim's opinion) seems to have targeted one of the island's new arrivals, butting him at every opportunity. The story takes off from there - with some backstory about this same arrival. There is great imagery throughout. One character is described as "just a pair of hands", another conducting an affair with his boss's wife "wasn’t one to force the truth on her", and there are a variety of other Hiberno-English flourishes that always stay on the right side of paddy-whackery.

Check it out at Amazon or at Goodreads!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: JIHADI A Love Story by Yusuf Toropov

Image
With a fantastic opening purportedly penned by a recently deceased narrator and edited via running commentary by a secondary narrator, JIHADI: A Love Story is written by Yusuf Toropov. The emotional intelligence of the main protagonist and the story itself are high on the list of pluses at the outset. Although many expectations are confounded throughout the story, the expectation of more confusion, while reading the opening pages, does not bear out. So if you find yourself asking: “What’s this about?”, just power on through the opening five pages. The quality of the writing will draw you in at the outset. But the plot is riveting, and it all starts to become fairly clear fairly quickly. It’s one of those novels that merits a second read not because of its difficulty, but because of the prose's beauty. In terms of plot, there is so much to it that there are things you may miss the first time out. Among much else, readers may find they are reading the novel for its story, and then
Read more

Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro

Image
Dario Cannizzaro’s narrator Louis, the protagonist of Dead Men Naked (available at Amazon ), loses his best friend Neil in a bizarre, seemingly hallucinogenic near-remote attack from an attic window as they stand in the same room, by Lou’s neighbour and a giant crow. Given the tequila and other substances taken, it is difficult to determine what exactly occurred through the narrator’s eyes. But Louis comes round the following morning worse-for-wear; he finds his friend’s body, realises that what happened was no dream, and summons the authorities to the scene. Strange beginnings complement a funeral where Neil’s parents end up consoling him as much as vice versa. On the trip, while Lou drowns his sorrows, he meets Mallory at a nearby, not-so-nearby dive, and begins an exploration of the spirit world. The journey is a theme in this novel, the roadside scenery described with a vivid and subtle poetry throughout. Also beautifully captured are aspects relationships – for instance,
Read more

The Survival Girls Book Review

Image
The Survival Girls book: http://thesurvivalgirls.com/ Among her other achievements, Ming Holden gained the top prize in a Glimmer Train fiction contest in 2013. The email announcing her win came into my busy inbox one morning last year, and I almost deleted it. I clicked on it, more to get it marked as read than anything else, and I glanced at some words of acceptance from the prizewinner of the latest story competition, with a quote from Madeleine Albright and something about the power of intentionality. “Politics and philosophy,” I thought. When I clicked through beyond the teaser (which DID NOT do her writing-advice piece justice, although quoting a Democrat-appointed cabinet secretary, and a bit of philosophy will - surprisingly - get me clicking at anything), there was a wonderful Obamaesque idealism in Holden’s jesuitical plea to write for others, once you have an intended readership in your head. That readership can be the EMO kids, the dispossessed, the refugees, the voice
Read more