A Book A Week - Week 34: City of Bohane

This week's book:
  City of Bohane  by Kevin Barry

Grade:  A+ for originality 
             B for accessibility

You have not read this kind of novel before.  I can guarantee it.
   Many times, with many books, you know the story.  There are only supposed to be seven plots after all, which means that if you read eight books you're guaranteed to encounter a plot you've read before.  I suppose that's at least partly true with City of Bohane, it's almost like Julius Caesar as far as plot goes.  Generally speaking, of course.

But, man, the execution is stunningly unique.

I've said many times that I want fiction to transport me, to take me somewhere else, and Mr. Barry certainly did that.  Set forty years into a bleak version of the future Ireland, the plot follows Logan Hartnett - the current criminal kingpin of the city - as he deals with a challenge to his authority in the form of the man he replaced twenty-five years prior, The Gant Broderick, who has come back to town for reasons only known to himself.  That's as simple as I can make the plot, but it's far, far, far more involved than I can relay.  There are minor characters who become major, major characters who 'disappear,' twists, turn, double-dealings, triple-dealings, and base betrayals.  It's a ride.

Anybody ever read 'Ulysses' by James Joyce all the way through?  Of course you haven't, no one has.  I've read parts of it, and this book is reminiscent of Ulysses, but in a very good way.  Joyce was Irish, as is Mr. Barry, and those Irish are a clever people.  The Japanese might be weird, the Germans efficient, the Russians melancholy, and Americans crass, but the Irish are clever.  And literary.  And poetic.  I think Mr. Barry adds to the proud Irish tradition of amazing fiction.

Now for the down side.  I don't know how far my tastes will translate to the average reader.  I loved this book, but I can easily see where someone else might find it so dense and stylistic that they might abandon the effort it takes to read it.
   The author has his characters speak in a made-up patois - and there are even upper- and lower-class variations on it between characters - which I think adds to the mood and tone.  Defines it, even.  But other people hate reading dialect.  Plus, it's dialogue-heavy, so if you're not inclined to make the effort there's nowhere to go to avoid it.
   The narration is also stylized, though not as much as the dialogue.  It's not plain-jane, it's peacocking.
   Finally, while sympathetic, the characters are not particularly likeable.  This is as much by design as the dialogue and the narration, the City is intended to be a rough, corrupt, terrible place.  But sometimes readers want their heroes to be heroes instead of the least villainous of a disreputable bunch.  I loved it, but I can see where others might not.

I learned a long time ago that some of my tastes aren't for everyone.* For instance, when I drink wine, which happens very infrequently, I prefer the kind of dry red wine that makes most people pucker.  I like seriously overcooked lasagna.  I think Picasso was a better artist before he moved to Paris.  I actually like the look of the Disney Concert Hall.  You get the idea.
  I also loved this book.   I just don't think everyone will.  Maybe I'm second-guessing myself, I don't know.

If you only read certain things and don't like moving out of your comfort zone, then give this one a pass.  If, however, you like your fiction to slap you around a little before it takes you on a ride to some unknown destination, definitely give City of Bohane a read. 


* and some are very, very, very proletarian.  I do watch NASCAR every weekend, after all.


Next week:
 Bad Monkey  by Carl Hiassen
 No sci-fi, this is a contemporary mystery.  Set in Florida.  America's wang.  Where the underwhelming Book of Fate was set.  Why did it have to be Florida?