As someone of dual heritage myself (half English, half Polish), born in the same period as Hamilton I was interested to read this account from a man with a German mother and Irish father. His story is told in a series of vignettes, which gradually provide a coherent picture of the family's day-to-day life over the years of Hmilton's childhood. His mother brings with her memories of her family's anti-Nazi stance - yet in Ireland she and her family are called Nazi, Hitler, Eichmann or worse. His father insists on the family's Irishness - which meant denying everything English in their lives, from language to popular culture to newspapers. Both these threads isolated them all from their peers. They were rather poor, though Hamilton's father had all kinds of unusual and ultimately unsuccessful business ideas. This is an account of a young boy's growth into adolescence and adulthood, trying to find a path towards the adult he thought he wanted to be. A sensitive and restrained and thought-provoking narrative. ( )

Hugo Hamilton grew up speaking three languages. His mother was German so with her Hugo spoke German. His father was an Irish nationalist so he insisted that the children speak no English in the house, only German or Irish Gaelic. But, of course, living in a mainly English speaking Dublin in the 1950s Hugo had to know English. Now we would probably applaud the opportunity Hugo had but in the 1950s if you didn't speak English you were "different". Of course children hate anything different and hate being different. Hugo and his siblings were taunted as being Nazis and a gang of boys often attacked them. And then there was the father's insistence on speaking Irish which meant the children went to a different school than their neighbours. It's very hard for a child to stick out because most children just want to be the same as their peers. Hugo had no real friends and seemed to have spent a lot of time wandering by himself or with his brother. There's a dog in the book that belongs to no-one and spends much of his time at the seashore barking at the waves. I presume the dog existed but it certainly seems like an allegory for Hugo.

Hugo's father was autocratic and often angry. Sometimes his anger manifested itself by banging doors but at other times the children and sometimes even their mother bore the brunt of his anger. Small wonder that Hugo rebelled. On one occasion his father asked him the sum of 5 and 6 and although Hugo knew the answer he kept giving the wrong one. The father eventually got a switch and beat him until he gave the right answer. Fortunately, the mother was there to bake cakes and tell stories and sometimes she was able to dissuade the father from punishments. Considering the life she had experienced growing up in Nazi Germany as an orphan it is a wonder she wasn't the one who was angry.

This is an intimate and often painful read but ultimately enjoyable and interesting. ( )

Hamilton is a journalist, and a writer of short stories and novels. His first three novels were set in Central Europe. Then came Headbanger (1996), a darkly comic crime novel set in Dublin and featuring detective Pat Coyne. A sequel, Sad Bastard, followed in 1998. The Speckled People came out in 2003 to critical acclaim It is an intensely personal memoir about very a political and public issue; what does language mean for national identity in democracies. His was a childhood of "lederhosen and Aran sweaters, smelling of rough wool and new leather, Irish on top and German below” so uniquely lived through two separate struggles represented by his parents. It is also about homesickness; for a dream Ireland, a lost Germany and a homeland of one’s own.

To read more click on http://tinyurl.com/5l534g ( )

Deeply poignant. We talked for a long time about the characters - the mother, the father, the boy. Thoughts about nationalism...and divided identities... Thoughts about Irish literature and about books that you get for free... how does that affect what you think a book will be like? the book had some funny bits - when the wardrobe fell over and started crying and when the children threw all the mashed potato on the ceiling. We want to know what happened to the boy in the end. The follow-up book would be interesting to read 'The sailor in the wardrobe'. We discussed whether it was an uplifting read. Less uplifting, but certainly inspiring. This was good literature. ( )

A memoir of a half-Irish childhood. Hamilton and his siblings grow up in Dublin, children of an Irish father (rabidly Irish: nobody is allowed to speak English) and a German mother . Gaelic and German are two languages they grow up with. Better memories ( )