Wild Houses

“He was touching forty but looked ten years older again, with a face on him like a vandalized church, long and angular and pitted, eyes glinting deep in their sockets like smashed-out windows.”

I really enjoyed Young Skins: Stories from this young Irish author and he returns here with his first novel, set in a small town in west Ireland. It also focuses on the working class, along with the drug-dealers and thugs that hang on like parasites. A teenage boy is kidnapped, in revenge of a large unpaid debt and things spiral down from there. The writing is lean but robust and unflinching, with nicely drawn characters. An author to keep an eye on.

A sad and character-rich slice of life in a downmarket Irish town. Most people won't make it out of this poor village, and they know it, which makes them desperate. Dev is a giant of a man who nevertheless has been tormented by bullies until he cannot function in the usual world of work and pub life. When dubious cousins use his out of the way house as a hide-out, he has little to say. Nicky is aiming at escape by way of university, and may get there. Doll is trying to avoid the criminal life of his older brother. This is not a fast book, although it is easy to read, but when you are finished you know these people well.

A young man is abducted in order to strong-arm his shady older brother into paying off his drug debt. Brought to you by the author behind Calm with Horses. A devastating portrait of small town Ireland and the various forms of isolation that go hand in hand with rural living. The ending is so simple, nonetheless it is crushing.

Dev Hendrick is one of few outcasts in this story. A big boy who got picked on in school and left at sixteen to work in a factory making ostomy bags. His mom has died and his dad is in a mental institution. The only people he has contact with are the Ferdia brothers - he holds their drugs in his house. Now they've brought a captive to his home; Doll, the young brother of a man -Cillian -who owes them money. Dev has to help them hold Doll in his basement.

Doll's girlfriend, Nicky, also gets involved. As does his mother, Sheila. The two women and Doll are the strongest people in the book. It's a deftly written story with flashes of beauty and almost perfectly drawn characters.

79. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
OPD: 2024
format: 255-page hardcover
acquired: August read: Nov 10-16 time reading: 6:48, 1.6 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary fiction theme: Booker 2024
locations: contemporary Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland
about the author: Born in Fort McMurray, Canada (1982), grew up in Toronto, then, from age four, in Knockmore, County Mayo, Ireland. This is his debut novel.

My 12th from the Booker longlist. One more to go.

A sensitive thriller? It was not quite as fast-paced as I expected. This a marketed as a thriller, a low-level violent drug-deal abduction, but the book is very interested in the nature of its characters. Dev, a giant man with an isolated house used for the abduction, recently lost his mother and show more hasn't processed through this. He ponders infinity and suicide while getting bitten by his biblical goat. Doll, the abducted teenager, oozes innocence, and some toughness. But it's his teenage girlfriend, Nicky, who we spend a great deal of our time with and can't help but like. Drugs, alcohol, and general hygienic disasters are everywhere.

I'm not sure what I was looking for other than that Irish voice. It has it, to a degree. But it's also a thriller, if not in the normal sense. The pacing is careful but controlled. When we want it to move on, it holds its course. Be patient dear reader.

A fun Booker listed novel.

2024
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Admittedly, I am a real sucker for recent Irish novelists so this book has found it's target audience. We've all seen small town hoods movies and read countless stories but it's really the colorful writing that makes this stand out. Also, we can be thankful for a (now) novelist who tells a yarn that doesn't overstay it's welcome. I did like the reflective ending. Maybe other readers will not.

I have great success with Irish writers and Barrett is excellent. This is his first novel but he is known for his short story collections which I will read. This story takes place in a small Irish town and involves the kidnapping to force the payment of a drug debt. The dialogue is terrific and the characters are creative and fun. This is not a long book but it is a good read. It does show that no matter how screwed a character is that character can do something ever more messed up.