The major strength of Patrick McCabe's novel Winterwood is its first-person narrative that plays on the inconsistencies and unreliability of oral history through the lens of local mythology, resulting in an unreliable narrator whose warped perceptions and memories continually prevent the reader from gaining a firm foothold. That, combined with McCabe's masterful pacing that deftly swings between long intervals of uncertainty and short bursts of escalation and revelation, make Winterwood an unforgettable and suspenseful novel.

An odd story. It goes back and forth in time. A lot of things are never spelled out. There is much left unanswered. He uses the F word too much. But I enjoyed listening to it. ( )

So not to my taste at all. I'm amazed I finished it. Sick and twisted story with no redeeming value. Also, I had the hardest time trying to figure out what was going on, really. ( )

Redmond Hatch was born in Slievenageeha, Ireland and sent to an orphanage by his father when he was young, after his mother died. As an adult he lives in Dublin and London and becomes a journalist. When he returns to Slievenageeha for a story, a place he later comes to call “incest mountain” and “Hillbilly Valley,” his troubles seem to surface.

He meets Ned Hatch, also called Auld Pappy, a local raconteur, fiddler and a kind of pied piper for local children. Ned represents the old ways that are being subsumed by modern culture. All is not as it seems with Ned, as they are with Redmond. He marries twice – both end badly. He alternately idolizes and demonize his wives. He has a daughter that he dotes on but loses contact with. He goes mad, and functions that way for decades.

Redmond is an unreliable narrator, but trustworthy in his utter unreliability. As he slips into madness the story mirrors his decline. Patrick McCabe does insanity like few other writers and makes it terrifying, intriguing and adventurously readable. ( )

Troubled Red Hatch is haunted by fiddling man o' the mountain Ned Strange, who reminds him of (or may indeed be) his own father and uncle. As Ned's stories get darker and angrier - and as Red's life begins to mirror Ned's - can he escape his re-emerging memories and build a successful life, or is he destined to be the devil his ex-wife claims?

This is an intricately told tale, with deft control of its meandering plot and unreliable narrator. On literary merits alone, it probably deserves all the plaudits it gets (and more than 3 stars).

But it's not a lot of fun. The narration becomes edgy within a chapter and slides rapidly into squicky from there on in - there's no avoiding the unreliability of the point of view, and McCabe ensures we have enough clues to guess at what may have really happened.

By half way through, I was reading through my fingers, no longer really keen to watch the car crash unfolding.

So - clever, intricate, at times obscure (given the unreliable narrator you are always building your own narrative), and very very dark. ( )