Cal Paperback – May 2, 2019

This was my first MacLeverty read, which I came to in trying to understand more about The Troubles. His writing is callow yet deeply emotive (much as if his protagonist were the narrator) and the suffocating political and social setting he builds around the story makes the novel’s denouement satisfying. Unfortunately, the novel is short, both as value for the reader’s money, and as fragmentary to what could be a much larger and more powerful novel. I look forward to reading more by this author.

"Cal" is a hard-hitting, compassionate story about a young Catholic man caught up in the sectarian strife of Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It's a good psychological study of 19-year-old Cal, whose nauseous reaction to a brief stint working at an abattoir mirrors his increasing repulsion at the help he gives the Irish Republican Army with some of its terrorist operations. Cal regrets his participation but is hemmed in by the intimidation of colleagues who keep dragging him back into the fight. Alert: plot points ahead.Cal and his father have experienced ongoing harassment as the only two Catholics living in their neighborhood and they are eventually bombed out of their home. Bereft of his few possessions and alienated from his mates, Cal finds work in the country and embarks on an obsessive affair with a young widow whose husband he helped to kill. The affair with the lonely widow further plays on Cal's guilt so that when the final climax is reached, well, you'll find out!I was moved by Cal's dilemma. MacLaverty is good at conveying the poverty and desperation of his circumstances. Cal lost his mother as a child. He and his da are barely scraping by. He hasn't felt safe at night or had a good night's sleep in years because of all the threats and violence in his neighborhood. At 19, he's a seriously burned out kid. I was more troubled by his stalking of the widow. Men finding expiation for their misdeeds by having sex with the women they've victimized and calling it love has become a common trope of a lot of tough guy writing. Chuck Hogan's  Prince of Thieves: A Novel  (made into the Ben Affleck film "The Town") comes to mind. It is apparently a common male fantasy. As a woman reading yet another story like this, I could only roll my eyes.MacLaverty is a masterful short story writer. I recommend  Walking the Dog: And Other Stories  and  Matters of Life and Death: Stories .

The book instantly takes the read into the world of Irish troubles. Cal is a Catholic living in a Protestant neighborhood. The reader soon finds out that Cal's past isn't so innocent. Crilly and Skeffington act as a kind of foil to Cal's determination to stay away from the conflict. "Is your not a part of the solution, your part of the problem," this phrase seems to ring true, that there are no neutrals. But Cal just wants to be alive, to dream about a widow who's husband was killed and to make sure he doesn't get killed himself. The book, being short, does not go to a scale or depth that one might hope. The ending is a bit disappointing, though expected, and the reader is left in the dust. But it is engaging and the character's shine forth in reality. It is a book about decisions and choices.

Deceptively spare prose and a story of lives in a trap. It’s beautiful and ends at just the right moment, with nothing solved but all possibilities hanging.

A bleak portrait of a young Catholic man Cal living with his father in a Protestant Housing Development in Northern Ireland. Cal's life is one of poverty, living on the dole and going nowhere fast. Cal is involved on the fringes of the IRA but an act of violence wants him away from the conflict.Well written but short novel of the conflict, how the ties that bind you to an area, people are difficult near impossible to walk away from. A short novel that ends abruptly but is confronting. Well worth a look at for this period in Ireland's troubled history.

This is a brilliantly constructed story set in the recent history of the Troubles that have beset the Irish peoples. Everyone is real as is the action. Cal's struggles are painful to read and the ending of this book, is abrupt and yet one of the most dramatic of any book. I have read. The dilemmas and hardships Cal has to endure are tenderly expressed as he struggles to find his way in a country riven by sectarian violence and religious intolerance. Great read.

Interesting personal view of the difficult life for a young man during this time in history in Ireland. Ends like there should be a sequel.

As the son of Irish Immigrants, I felt the sadness and frustration of Cal as he tries to make something of his life despite being tormented and harassed both by the British invaders and his own Irish peers. Heartbreaking.

The mid 70's to early 80's was a time fraught with danger in Northern Ireland. As an expat living and working in England I am well versed to understand the mindset of the various embattled groups that continued to carry on a war of attrition not only against the so called enemy (police and army) but equally against each other and if you happened to be of the wrong religion residing in the perceived wrong locality intimidation was an everyday occurrence.Cal McCluskey and his dad were a catholic family living in a predominately protestant locality...."he could not bear to look up and see the flutter of Union Jacks, and now the red and white cross of the Ulster flag with it red hand.".... Cal was often the target of insults, taunting, and intimidation, but he tried to ignore, picking up his Giro on a regular basis and hanging around street corners, ripe pickings for paramilitary scouts. So he helped with the "cause" and when needed would act as a driver for his fellow republicans Crilly and Skeffington. With so much free time, and little hope of a job in this divided land, he was often to be seen perusing books and cassettes in the local library where one day he notices a new woman behind the counter. What follows is a beautifully written story of a love affair that is doomed to failure from the start. Cal holds a secret that if revealed to Marcella would end their relationship as he is torn between loyalties to his friends and honesty to his lover.The language and descriptive prose of the author reminded me of the many years I lived in a country riddled with hypocrisy and bigotry....."the weight and darkness of Protestant Ulster, with its neat stifled Sabbath towns.".... "people were dying everyday, men and women were being crippled and turned into vegetables in the name of Ireland. An Ireland which never was and never would be."....."I like the look of Donegal where nothing grows. Beaches, bogs and mountains."......"The parade led by Evangelists screaming about sin and death and damnation."....The ending when it happens is unexpected and sudden in its execution and brutality but I felt that it suited so well the time and events in such a deeply divided community. Highly Recommended.

The elements that deal with ordinary life in the Troubles are convincing and make this a worthwhile insight. It should be good as Mr MacLaverty has the personal experience to draw on. A very good description of working class life. Think 'Kes' but without the AK47s.There are some moments of jaw-dropping, jet-black humour as Cal waits each night to be fire-bombed out of his home. The effect on the community and Cal's familiy of all the violence and hatred is chillingly effective including a memorable line about Cal's father turning from iron into plasticine There are many moral questions implicit in all the Troubles stuff but in this short book it is often easier not to dwell.Unfortunately, the 'love story' elements just don't ring true. Another reviewer described them as 'toe-curling' which is not far off the mark. As a result, I liked the book but I didn't believe in it.

… this love story is flawlessly executed and should lead the reader to McLaverty’s short stories. Gripping in it’s emotional range and power. Superior in every way to the Helen Mirren film - itself a work with A level production values - as had LAMB.

On being set the book Cal by my uni lecturer I thought, oh god, not again!!! I had read it many years ago at school and didn't relish the prospect of doing it again!! The only upside for me was at least i could rely on Amazon having it at a good price. When I received Cal I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got into the storyline again, Bernard Maclaverty brings to life the troubles in Ireland and the characters jump off the page, almost as if you are there beside them. There are tender moments between the two main characters and you will everything to end well, but will it? Well you have to buy the book to find out, I promise you it is worth it.

A thoughtful,empathetic , unsettling and sometimes an uncomfortable read demonstrating so very clearly that nothing is black and white. I first read this twenty years ago and it has lost none of its poignancy.