All the Beggars Riding

This was my first Lucy Caldwell novel, having been impressed by a collection of short stories of hers that I read last year. She's a home grown Norin' Iron' (Northern Ireland) girl, so I'm interested that she's part of a small band of NI writers who are starting to make their mark further afield.

All The Beggars Riding is narrated by a London young woman looking back and trying to fill in the gaps of her family's story post the death (at separate times) of her parents. Her father was a surgeon based in Belfast for most of the month, and it is only at the age of 12 that the narrator fully grasps the truth behind her family situation (I won't spoil it). As time goes on she wants to understand more fully why her parents chose to continue show more their relationship, but as her Mum (who survived her father by many years) would never divulge this detail while she was alive, the narrator decides to fill in the blanks for herself by creating a fictional account of their story.

Overall this was an enjoyable read, although a little uneven in parts. The approach halfway through of the narrator choosing to write her own version of her parents' relationship felt a little clunky and unseasoned, as if Caldwell crowbarred it in as a method of the narrator being able to tell the full story that she otherwise wouldn't have had insight into. I also squirmed at the voices she gave to the Belfast characters - they were clearly from educated backgrounds, yet Caldwell bizarrely chose to litter their speech with manners of speaking that one would never hear from someone in a position such as a surgeon. I found that strange and disappointing that Caldwell is from NI herself yet seemed hell bent on creating some cringeworthy accent stereotypes.

Caldwell definitely can write - in this novel I just think she got a little too caught up in unnecessarily trying to tie up all the loose ends, and a different narration approach probably would have been more successful.

I think the title was really great - I just wish Caldwell hadn't gone to such pain to explain it to the reader at the end, which made the writing feel inexperienced.

3.5 stars - an enjoyable read but a little flawed. show less

Engaging for me, more so than for most people it seems. A story of a woman trying to make sense of her life as the daughter of a woman who had a long affair with a married man who never left his wife. Lots of lies and deception, and the woman's need for connection and resolution.

This was presented in 10, 13-minute segments. It started out well as you're taken through her childhood, but once you're put into the present it lost steam. It devolved further at her mother's early life, reading more like a bodice-ripper. "She knew she should leave him, but she just couldn't..." blah blah blah. All a bit trite.