Louise Kennedy (2) (1967–)

I'm not quite sure where to start with my review of this book, as it pulled me in complete polar directions. I loved it and yet it made me positively boil over with anger.

Let's start with what worked. Set in Belfast in the 1970s in the height of the Troubles, the novel tells the story of a Catholic primary school teacher who's having an affair with a Protestant barrister. On a simple level, it ticks the box of being an enjoyable page-turner with plenty of tension. Were I not from Northern show more Ireland - no, were I not a Protestant from Northern Ireland - I would no doubt be recommending this book to my friends in book clubs as a fantastic conversation provoking book. It's not perfect - Kennedy's greenness shows in places with some sadly stereotypical pantomime-esque Irish characters - yet the storyline is good enough for me to have overlooked that. I only realised after I'd bought it that I've already read a book of short stories by Kennedy (The End of the World is a Cul de Sac), which I didn't think was overly great. In this novel, Kennedy's writing form has improved considerably.

But. BUT, BUT, BUT BUT. This book is HORRENDOUSLY inappropriate in these times of fragile peace in Northern Ireland. Kennedy could have easily told the story with even handedness, using the Protestant Michael to give the alternative perspective on the Troubles, but the entire way through she seems hell bent on settling a score, positioning Protestants, the police and the army as unpleasant oppressors, whilst every Catholic character is an underprivileged victim of circumstances to be desperately pitied, even if 'caught up' in terrorism. I absolutely acknowledge that Catholics were disadvantaged in Northern Ireland after partition, and had things been handled in a different way perhaps the Troubles may never have happened. However, the reality of the violence of the Troubles is that Republican paramilitaries were responsible for 59% of the murders. And this is what's so dangerous about books of fiction like this. If you were not overly familiar with the detail of the Troubles, you would come away from Ms Kennedy's novel 'informed' that the Troubles were almost exclusively about Protestants violently oppressing Catholics. In Kennedy's hands, the Catholic characters have the monopoly on morals and compassion, whilst the Protestant characters, with the exception of Michael, are painted entirely as bigoted, fractured and unpleasant. The IRA are barely mentioned, whereas Kennedy is happy to use plenty of ink on portrayals of unjust police and barely falls short of describing horns and tails on the British soldiers.

Of course there were good and bad people on both sides, as well as good and bad in the security forces. However, if Kennedy's book was your sole source of knowledge on the Troubles, you'd be left thinking that there wasn't a straight one amongst the police or army and that they oppressed Catholics for the hell of it. 1,012 members of the security forces were killed during the Troubles. My parents had many friends in the Royal Ulster Constabulary who were shot dead. These were good, decent people. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers. One family of 4 brothers and sisters in the security forces were killed one by one at their family farm by the IRA after one of them chose to testify about guns they saw when they stopped a car at a checkpoint. But these are not the people Kennedy wants to portray in her novel. No, the police of Kennedy's imagination are all monsters united in motiveless opposition to every Catholic in the province.

I've taken a few days to think about this book before I wrote this review, wrestling with it in my head, mulling over the counter-arguments. The Troubles came directly to Kennedy's family's door via Unionist terrorism, so of course she has strong emotions that are very different in perspective to my own. So does she have a right to tell the story of the Troubles from that viewpoint? Of course, everyone has a right to write from the perspective of their own experiences, but given that peace in Northern Ireland always hangs precariously by a thread, I don't think it was in good taste for her to publish a novel that is so biased in its delivery. I love the premise of the tangled web at the heart of her story - the morality of the affair with the married man made ever so much more complex by them both being from either side of the religious divide - but she could have used that story as a force for good, telling the conflict from both viewpoints. I have no issue with the viewpoint of her Catholic characters - my issue is that despite this being the story of a doomed love affair between a Catholic and Protestant, there is only one political viewpoint that is far from balanced. The only Protestant character she's allows her readers to develop any warmth towards is one who entirely shares her narrative on the only story in town being that of Catholic oppression, whilst the murder of innocent civilians and members of the security forces at the hands of Republican paramilitaries speaks volumes in its absence.

This novel is read by people outside of Northern Ireland as a story of love in the Troubles, but it is a biased half-told story of our history. Given the work we are all putting into moving on from our difficult past, I find that hard to accept.

For the first time ever in my years of reviewing in LibraryThing, I will not be leaving a star rating for this book. show less

Set in a garrison town near Belfast, Northern Ireland, in early seventies, this novel centers on Cushla, a young woman working as a primary school teacher at a Catholic school, living with her alcoholic mother and helping out at the family-owned pub, one that serves members of the military, the RUC and others on the Protestant side of the sectarian divide. She's a teacher who is concerned about her students, especially Davy, a boy from a "mixed" family, the mother Protestant. They live at show more the back of a housing estate, their walls tagged with graffiti and enduring a constant low level of harassment. Cushla is lonely, although she is slowly forming a friendship with the teacher who teaches the other half of the seven-year-olds. So when she catches the eye of the charismatic barrister Michael Agnew, she is willing to fall in love, despite he being much older, Protestant and married.

This was, to me, a perfect novel. It vividly portrayed a specific time and place, the characters were all so well crafted and complex and Cushla is a wonderful protagonist, brave and with a sarcastic sense of humor that sees her through so much. She's also very much a twenty-four year old woman, still figuring things out and unsure about a lot. Kennedy writes with such immediacy and the dialog shines. I'm pretty sure this is the best book I'll read this year, which makes writing anything about it difficult. show less

This is a heartbreaking story of sectarian violence set in 1970s Ireland. Cushla, a young Catholic school teacher, lives with her mother who has sunk deeper into alcoholism since Cushla’s father died. Cushla’s brother, Eamonn, has taken over running the family pub and Cushla helps out during the evenings. When the father of one of her students is brutally attacked, Cushla lends as much support to Davy’s family as she can. A casual conversation with an older man in the pub leads to an show more affair, and Cushla finds herself walking on both sides of the Catholic-Protestant conflict: the man is not just older and married, but Protestant as well. Cushla and Michael manage to keep their affair a secret from both of their families, but their relationship develops against a backdrop of increasing tension leading to dramatic events which change the course of the characters’ lives.

I was completely caught up in this book from the very beginning. I hoped for better outcomes for Davy and his family, even as that seemed quite a long shot. Sometimes I cheered Cushla on; at other times I questioned her choices. The prologue and epilogue, both set in 2015, augment the main storyline and serve as an effective denouement, tying together a number of loose ends. Highly recommended. show less

Kennedy portrays the political and social conditions in 1975 Northern Ireland with remarkable accuracy. Not only may religions not mix, but mixing classes is also suspect. Cushla, a twenty-four year old primary school teacher breaks the rules and risks her life and the lives of others by having an affair with a barrister who is married and protestant. She attempted to help a child from "mixed" parentage, only to inadvertently increase danger. For me, Cushla characterized many of Northern show more Ireland's young people who do not share the hardline intransigence of the older generation, or of the warring hoodlums.

Without resorting to sentimentality or sensationalism, Kennedy's story has an utter credibility that has a powerful impact on the reader, magnified by the depiction of children accepting war as an everyday occurrence and their ability to use the vocabulary of war. Kennedy's gift for minor detail is eye-catching, giving her writing an added dimension of credibility and appeal. show less