City of Bohane

Great product

This is not a great work of plotting or character development. There is no tremendous insight that bubbles up or any deep satiric or other voice at work that has huge things to teach the reader. What there is though is a really terrific writer at work writing an immensely well crafted and entertaining story. The language of the book is funny, clever, deeply sad in spots, and always just what it needs to be to involve the reader in what is going on in the narrative. I didn't really care too much what happened to any of the characters, but I was very invested in finding out how it would be described.Mr. Barry also manages to communicate a strong sense of place; the west of Ireland that isn't really the west of Ireland, but is perhaps more the west of Ireland than the actual place. He credits Anthony Burgess as a major influence, which he obviously was, and like Burgess, he manages to take the imagination into the most important parts of place, in a sense its emotional touch points, while being very comfortable taking all sorts of liberties with description; Bohane is like Burgess' Britain or any number of fantastic sights around the world that couldn't possibly be but come off as absolutely authentic.His characters tend to be types and he is a painterly narrator, showing us the image of the old woman and the whiskey, the boys with the homicidal boot heals and carefully arranged hair, etc., and providing them with dialogue that perfectly suits the image and associations his descriptions conjure up. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and Beatlebone as well.

After the first few pages I was wondering whether I could get my head around the unique colloqialism jumping from the pages and had to re-read some of the exchanges, but I quickly got used to it and immersed myself in the characters' turn of phrase and the sublimely created environment that Kevin Barry has dreamt up.It's one of the most original books I have ever read, sitting somewhere between the third policeman and a clockwork orange. This book can get dark, make no bones about it, but never oppressively so. The lilt to the language somehow detracts from the ferocity on show, which acts only as a background to the various themes of love, trust, longing, regret and deception.If you are looking for Lynwood Barkley type cliffhangers after each chapter, this book probably isn't for you as the plot is fairly straight-forward and easy to follow. The beauty lies in the writing and the masterful construction of the world you find yourself in. It is painted so vividly that you feel you are seated amongst the deadbeats at the various haunts these characters hang out in. Kevin Barry is a talented writer, he deserves all the praise he gets. Top notch.

Le regale este libro a mi mujer hace un tiempo ya, le gusto tanto cuando lo empezó a leer, que se lo regalo a un amigo (en común que sabiamos que le gustaría mucho) asi que luego lo tuve que comprar de nuevo, y ya se lo leyó por completo.Resumiendo, le gusto mucho.

Barry is a genius. Greatest living Irish writer.