Ghosts and Lightning
Trevor Byrne, . . Doubleday, $24 (318pp) ISBN 978-0-385-53127-6
Although gothic tropes pervade Byrne's strong debut novel, they're doused—or soused, rather—with vibrant Dublin brogue and streetwise wit. On the death of his mother, 26-year-old Denny Cullen comes home to a small, “disgraceful fuckin kip” in Dublin's sprawl, where dwells his quite alive and quite drunk lesbian sister, Paula. She claims there's a gender-bending ghost hiding under the bed, so their friend and methadone-addicted spiritual adviser, Pajo, conducts a kitchen-table séance that prompts Denny to find meaning and purpose in his own life. Overwhelmed by grief and alienated from his father and brothers, Denny struggles against the boozy tides of violent childhood memories, unemployment and low self-esteem. If his aimlessness threatens to scuttle a plot that depends upon the shenanigans of his friends and their enemies, then it's Denny's voice and sensibility that buoy the narrative. He and his mates turn phrases so wry, so inventive, so Irish, that one feels the burning intelligence and resilience that reside in even the mangiest stripe of the Celtic tiger.
Reviewed on: 10/26/2009
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 979-8-200-11266-1
MP3 CD - 979-8-200-11267-8
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 978-1-84767-610-8
Open Ebook - 203 pages - 978-0-385-53163-4
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 978-1-4001-9555-8
Paperback - 336 pages - 978-0-307-47395-0