Books: Shane Tivenan - ‘a major new literary talent’
The weather may not be holding up, although it might have improved by the time this goes to press. Either way, reading is both an indoor and outdoor activity… Here are some suggestions for fair weather or foul.
Look at You, Amanda Smyth, Peepal Tree, €15.95
Amanda Smyth was born in Ireland of Irish-Trinidadian parents and she knows a thing or two about divisions; racial divisions, family divisions and the complexities of identity in an increasingly divided world. Although this novel is not described as autobiographical, it of course has been drawn from the author’s personal experience, and the protagonist moves from Trinidad to England and sometimes Ireland, as she comes of age. It’s not a linear story and that adds interest. Instead, our protagonist’s life story is told from several perspectives and from various locations. It’s a family saga, a bildungsroman, an observation of racial contrasts and tensions and a vivid testimonial of a woman whose roots are planted in more than one place. Smyth has been nominated and has won various accolades and this, her fourth book, doesn’t disappoint.
Open, Heaven, Seán Hewitt, Vintage, €16.99
Hewitt is best known as an esteemed poet and his memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was widely praised when published in 2022. The material here is similar to that in Hewitt’s memoir; a young, gay love story, but as different in setting and style to Douglas Stewart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain as it’s possible to be. Stewart’s novel was all grit and urban poverty, whereas Hewitt’s world is tranquil, pastoral, beautiful, but nonetheless challenging. As James, a librarian, grapples with the aftermath of divorce, he recalls a year in his teenage life in the quiet village of Thornmere, where he encountered Luke, his first love. James had at the time just come out to his family and rather than finding support, he found further alienation. But what he finds in the braver, devil-may-care Luke is all his heart desires. It’s an intensely beautiful work, celebrating the natural world with Wordsworthian lyricism. He said in a recent interview that he wanted to “make a small case for lushness and decorated sentences; bringing musical sentences, and beautiful things to the centre of the novel again”. It’s a brave move in a world where spare, unadorned prose is still the fashion. This novel shows us what we’re missing.
The Many Murders of Michael Malloy, Simon Read, Gill, €18.99
In a mission that was described at the time as ‘the most grotesque chain of events in New York criminal history’, this is the story of the many murder attempts on Michael Malloy, a Donegal immigrant who had fallen on hard times in 1920s and 1930s New York. He had previously been a fireman and a stationary engineer, but unemployment led him to the bars and speakeasys as he sank into alcoholism. Five acquaintances of his, a greengrocer, an undertaker, a bar owner, a taxi driver and a gangster, conspire to kill him and reap the rewards of his life insurance payout. But things didn’t quite go to plan. Despite various attempts to kill him by all sorts of means, Malloy wouldn’t die. And although they eventually got him, they were caught. Really, you couldn’t make this story up and it’s another indication that fact always trumps fiction for weirdness. Simon Read is thoroughly engaging from the start, and although he draws from a wealth of official documents including police and court reports, as well as the newspapers of the time, there’s nothing dry about this sensational slice of history. The term page-turner usually refers to works of fiction, but Read makes this work of absolute historical fact impossible to put down.
Salka, Francesca Simon, Faber, €16.99
Francesca Simon is best known for her children’s Horrid Henry books. This is her first work for adult readers, a retelling of the ancient Welsh myth The Lady of the Lake, which is nothing to do with the Arthurian legend. Salka is a creature of the lake just as in Irish folklore, selkies are creatures of the sea. And we all know that marrying a creature from watery origins never ends well, nor does it in this story. Salka agrees to marry Olwain, an young man besotted with her beauty, but there are conditions he has to meet. If he fails, she will return to the lake forever. He fails, naturally. This work first appeared as the libretto to a cantata, The Faerie Bride, which was well received in the UK in 2022. Simon was persuaded to adapt it into a novel and this is the result. It’s beautiful, it’s haunted and lyrical, a short but memorable read that loses nothing in the adaptation.
To Avenge a Dead Glacier, Shane Tivenan, Lilliput, €15.95
Launched last month in Athlone Bookshop, this is the debut anthology of short stories from a writer who has already won the Francis McManus Short Story Prize and the John McGahern award. It was only a matter of time before he was snapped up by a publisher and kudos to Lilliput for publishing this remarkable collection. There’s a vague scent of Kevin Barry and Colin Barrett in these stories, focused on the disaffected and marginalised in rural Ireland but Tivenan’s voice is all his own, original and authentic. They include the story of a woman in her 90s suffering from hallucinations, attempting to organise her own birthday party within a confine of a nursing home. In the title story, a memorial service is held in Iceland for a disappeared glacier. In another, a gay man’s relationship with his partner is crushed by the oppression of smalltown, smallminded Ireland. In another, a father is desperate to protect his vulnerable son but is getting it wrong. Climate change, parish pump morality, hypocrisy in our unforgiving and almost-destroyed world are Tivenen’s leitmotifs. He’s a major new literary talent.
Footnotes
The Kells Hinterland Festival is next weekend. Names include Michael Harding, Martin Sixsmith, Kevin Barry, Brian Dobson, Martina Devlin, John Banville, Sarah Moss, John Boyne, John Creedon, Fintan O’Toole… I could fill a whole page. Don’t miss this festival of festivals, see hinterland.ie for info and tickets.