'Unpacking history of homeownership since foundation of state'
This week there’s fact and fiction, true crime and made-up crime, history and social study.
The Ice House Murder, Robin Schiller/Pat Marry, Allen and Unwin, €16.99
This is another reveal-all true crime book, a genre that has become popular lately, both on screen and in the printed word. Irene White was found dead in her Dundalk home in April 2005, having been stabbed 34 times. She was a 43-year-old mother of three children. She was a popular woman in her community and much loved. But before her murder she had made it known to many people that she feared for her life. She confided in friends and family, approached Women’s Aid and even kept a diary about it.
Two men are serving life sentences for Irene’s murder, but it is believed that they were puppeteered by someone else, a man who still walks free. Pat Marry, a retired detective who has in recent years featured in several TV documentaries about serious crimes in Ireland, has teamed up with Indo journalist Schiller and this book reads like a roller-coaster murder mystery.
The Gatsby Gambit, Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Renegade €17.99
Jay Gatsby’s little sister Greta is spending the summer in her older brother’s mansion in West Egg, having just completed finishing school. She is thrown into her brother’s glamorous world of fashionable people and fashionable parties, immense wealth and hedonism. Her only gripe is Jay’s overprotective streak. But she is persistent in reminding him that she’s a young woman now, not a kid, and can take care of herself. When Jay’s friend Tom Buchanan is found dead on Gatsby’s boat, an apparent suicide brought on by Buchanan’s out-of-control debts, Greta has to exonerate her brother as vicious tongues begin to wag.
Every bit as clever as her older brother and blessed with extraordinary powers of observation, Greta is to spend the summer investigating exactly what happened to Tom Buchanan. This is an extremely well written spin-off from the original novel, evocatively wrought, steeped in atmosphere and populated with the characters from the original novel. Agatha Christie fans will love it.
A Pathway to Homeownership, Andrea Hayden, IPA €25
This book is a scholarly unpacking of the history of homeownership since the foundation of the state and explains, to a large extent, why so many Irish people, as opposed to their peers on the continent, consider home ownership so important. That said, if you’re looking for a personal pathway towards owning your own home, this is not a how-to manual, but rather an examination of how it came to be that so many people who were originally tenants in council and corporation houses came to own their properties.
Home ownership became popular among the lower-income social classes when one salary could raise a family. Those days are gone, along with the governmental drive to house its citizens, and it’s interesting to see how this value system disintegrated in recent decades, despite the fact that, as the author states: ‘The narrative that homeownership has a role in promoting greater equality of wealth has resonance in Ireland. {…} From a community perspective, homeownership has been shown to stimulate economic growth and help build a sense of community cohesion.’ It’s far too simple to snort ‘tell that to the lads in Kildare Street’ but the absence of willingness to provide homes for everyone is the greatest failing of our current and recent governments. This is an excellent, multi-faceted and eminently readable study, absolutely mandatory reading for anyone interested in knowing how we’ve arrived at where we are, and possibly how we could move away from this impasse.
Show Me Where It Hurts, Claire Gleeson Sceptre, €16.99
Rachel and Tom are a married couple with two young children; he’s an architect and she’s a nurse. Driving home after an ordinary Sunday dinner at Tom’s parents’ house, he deliberately drives off the road, intending to kill himself and his entire family. The children are killed instantly. He and Rachel survive. And this story is about survival, primarily Rachel’s, after an incident that leaves her believing she’d be better off dead. The story unfolds in a ‘before’ and ‘after’ series of chapters, outlining Tom’s money woes since the financial crash, which he has never properly recovered from. But it’s the car crash that opens the novel and it’s disturbing – although riveting – reading. And while it’s difficult to read at times, most especially in light of the publication of ‘Deadly Silence’ about Alan Hawes’ savage murder of his family, it follows not only Rachel’s road to recovery – if you can call it that – but also other minor players in the tragedy, including the murderer’s mother. What keeps the reader immersed is the elegance of the writing. It’s superbly and sensitively wrought.
Busy and Wrecked, Dermot Whelan, Gill, €18.99
Dermot Whelan, comedian, broadcaster and author of the hilarious but useful ‘Mind Full’ has written a second book, and you can see by the title who he’s aiming it at, i.e. most of us. Because he’s such an appealing writer and so funny, I hope he reaches most of us with this second, even more practical book. Not being a fan of how meditation and mindfulness is usually marketed (you know the drill: yoga mat, lotus position, scented candles, chakras, who has the time for all that?), Whelan is keen to show us that everyone can adopt some simple techniques that he says are guaranteed to make us feel less busy and less wrecked and – vitally – more calmly in control of ourselves and our lives. Napping in the car during the day is not normal. Nor is disturbed sleep at night. Nor is checking our emails from the time we get up to the time we go to bed. If you’re guilty of all of the above (like yours truly), this book could make a big difference.
Footnotes
Doonbeg Jazz Festival takes place from 30 May to 2n June. Info is on their Facebook page. There are still tickets available for The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, from May 30 to June 2. See thecatlaughs.com for details.