In the tradition of Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" comes an astonishingly ambitious and resonant novel that transports readers to Dublin in the year preceding the Easter uprising--a pivotal time in Irish history and in the lives of two very young men from different backgrounds.
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In the tradition of Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" comes an astonishingly ambitious and resonant novel that transports readers to Dublin in the year preceding the Easter uprising--a pivotal time in Irish history and in the lives of two very young men from different backgrounds.
Read Less
Have just got into it. Think I am going to find some good friendships.
Foxwarren
Apr 29, 2008
Crying times
"At Swim, Two Boys" was my introduction to the stunning -- though sometimes erratic-- work of Jamie O'Neill. While I stumbled over the dialect in early days, the characters became their words as the days proceeded. With the exception, perhaps, of the puzzling observer, Anthony MacMurrough. Though the subject of this tear-inducing novel would seem to be the excruciatingly poignant love between two adolescent boys, only with the older, world-weary, jaded, previously imprisoned, say what you will, MacMurrough, do we hear a really sturdy inner voice directing our attention just slightly off centre. Beloved tough Doyler Doyle is a cypher to us in many ways, though maybe not so to the pal of his heart, James Mack. James is more translucent but both boys seem to be archetypes in the mind of the author. Perhaps only Anthony is real. And perhaps, for anyone who regrets never having had -- or losing -- that one glorious adolescent love -- Mr. O'Neill has given us a heart-piercing experience of Paradise Lost.. Or maybe never had.
Sebastienne
May 11, 2007
a story of love and loyalty
For the first chapter or two I didn?t know if I was going to make it; I felt a bit confused and the characters presented early on didn?t grab me. I?m extremely pleased that I stuck with it. It?s a gentle portrait of three Irish lads before and during the Easter Rising; the writing style is dreamy and lyrical ? but beware of those who want to tag O?Neill as the next James Joyce. I have yet to successfully slog through Ulysses, yet I found this book very readable (once I got a few pages in). Though the background of Irish politics and despair is an important feature of the plot, this is really a story of love and loyalty. It happens that the love is that kind which ?dare not speak its name,? but I hope that won?t stop anyone from picking up At Swim.
