The Thing About December by Donal Ryan

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan
Buy The Thing About December by Donal Ryan at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Literary Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: Set over a year, we watch a bewildered young man try to cope with events which are moving too fast for him. It's heart-breaking in places, with brilliant characterisation and excellent writing. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 208	Date: January 2014
Publisher: Doubleday Ireland
ISBN: 978-1781620090
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Johnsey Cunliffe was always a nice boy, but a little slow - the one that the other kids picked on and it's much the same in adult life. If you were to ask Johnsey he'd say that he was a gom. Even if you've never met the word before you know what it means. It wasn't too bad whilst Daddy was there - he was a man with a certain presence and even when it was just Johnsey and his mother he had some support. But after her death Johnsey was dependant on small kindnesses from other people and at the mercy of those for whom he was an easy target. His life might have continued in this rather unsatisfactory way for some time but for the collision of two events.

The Celtic Tiger was proud and healthy. Land was being snapped up and used for commercial buildings and housing. Johnsey had inherited his parents' farm and whilst he wasn't up to farming the property he didn't know that he wanted to sell it - but the farm would be an intrinsic part of a new development and even those who had previously looked out for the young man found that they had conflicting priorities. Johnsey had a menial job in the local shop and on his way home one day he was set upon by the local ne'er-do-wells, not for any other reason than that he was an easy target. He ended up in hospital and there he met Mumbly Dave and Siobhan the nurse.

I came to this book after reading Donal Ryan's Booker longlisted The Spinning Heart and I set aside a Sunday afternoon, confident that I would have a treat in store. I'd read The Spinning Heart in much the same way and this book wasn't that much longer - but it didn't work out like that.

It's easy to point up the differences between the two books - one voice in The Thing About December rather than twenty one - and set in the time of Irish affluence as opposed to the depths of the financial crisis which followed hot on the heels of the Celtic Tiger. December was written first and to my mind is the better book. The similarities are deeper - the writing is colloquial but you never struggle to understand what's being said (and that's a rare talent) and there's a deep understanding of what makes rural Ireland breathe: it could not be anywhere else.

The characters are superb. Daddy has been dead a while but you'll know him well. He was a strong man, unconcerned about what his neighbours thought but kind about his young son and understanding of his shortcomings. His mother's character emerges more slowly, drifting slowly from the concerned mother who bought 'cool' clothes for her son and good cook through to the woman with a vicious tongue. Ryan uses great skill in teasing out - in remarkably few words - the small contradictions in character, the hidden flaws and rarer virtues.

So why did the book not work out as I expected? The way that Johnsey was treated made me deeply, furiously angry - so much so that at times I could only read a few pages before I had to take a break. Ryan neatly avoids the trap of making the villagers too obviously venal as individuals but there's an elegance in the way that the majority comes to believe that what they are doing is right. It's superb writing - if occasionally uncomfortable to read - and Ryan is definitely one to watch.

If this book appeals then we can recommend The Gathering by Anne Enright. Ryan deserves to sit in classy company.

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