Beyond the fact that this is an 'Irish' story, I loved it because it is the most true story I've read in a long time. Not factual, but true in a very honest way about how we see the world as children, the games we play with ourselves and the imaginary rules that the world operates by. It's a really enchanting novel, tinged with the helplessness of growing up. I honestly don't want to say too much about why I loved the story - I just want you to find yourself a copy and enjoy it!
I've been trying to hard to 'cheat' with Barry Unsworth's "Sacred Hunger" by listening to an unabridged audio book, but it's proving to be impossible! Although the Calgary Public Library does have copies of it in stock, they are only available to visually impaired patrons. So I decided to purchase an Audible account, only to discover that the title isn't available in Canada! Darn you, international copyright laws! I can't even locate a new or used physical copy of the audio book to purchase. It's driving me a bit crazy, but I'm not quite ready to cave in and actually try reading it again!!
The up-side of my new Audible account is that I can listen to the first two volumes of Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy before reading the Man Booker winner, "The Ghost Road"! I imagine that book 3 wouldn't have won the prize if it couldn't be read as a stand alone novel, but I'd rather not risk it. Besides, this way I have an extra excuse to spend my evening's knitting (as if I needed another excuse!)! In physical reading, I'm moving on to James Kelman's "How Late It Was, How Late" which has a promising premise, although I am a bit worried about it's having been written in phonetic dialect, which I always find challenging. What's life without challenges, right?
Happy Reading!
