Anne Cunningham of First Chapter book reviews.

Two Booker Prize-winning authors this week - both Irish

There are two Booker Prize-winning authors here this week (both Irish), there’s self-help from a world famous celebrity, a memoir about the ravages of alcoholism, a novel about motherhood, marriage and desire, and a story of courage from a Holocaust survivor.

Published: Sat 14 Oct 2023, 11:15 AM

The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright, Jonathan Cape, €15.99

Booker prize-winner Enright has written about mothers and daughters before in her previous novel, Actress, but the relationship here between Nell and mother Carmel has a different dynamic. The famous poet Phil McDaragh, Carmel’s father, abandoned Carmel and her sister, along with their sick mother, a long time ago.

The fallout of this desertion has, however, reverberated through to the next generation, namely Nell, in a novel set in the present but veering regularly back to the past with Enright’s seamless flair.

Nell idolises her grandfather, despite his many flaws (among other things he was abusive to women). She takes up with the feckless Felim, to her mother’s consternation, and it’s looking like some family mistakes are due to be endlessly repeated. Another superb novel about family scars that never really heal, from an author who can write family like nobody else.

Build the Life You Want, Arthur C Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, Penguin, €25

Oprah Winfrey has championed the cause of many writers and if her Book Club notices a book – any book, including self-help – then its success is practically guaranteed. It’s her turn now to write about, as the subtitle to this manual says, ‘The Art and Science of Getting Happier’. Is it possible? Is happiness an illusion? Why are some people happy and others never even mildly content?

This evidence-based book guarantees the reader that if they invest some time in ‘emotional management’, they can live a happier life. Both authors share wisdom they have gleaned from their own lives, as well as witness statements from a number of more ornery human beans. It’s very readable and if you’re up for the challenge of self-mastery (not a new concept, but often forgotten) then it’s chocks away.

A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man, Tadhg Hickey, Eriu, €15.99

Tadhg Hickey is a comedian who’s huge in Cork and huge online but isn’t generally a household name. Yet. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before everyone will have heard of him, and if that’s as a result of this book, then it’s a good thing. Manuals for recovering from alcoholism are published with boring regularity, but not so much memoirs of just how bad life can be when in the grip of addiction.

Hickey uses his wacky humour to take the sting out of some tales, but others he puts on the page in all of their visceral ugliness and it’s quite a gut punch of a read.

Barry Humphries’ (Dame Edna Everidge) autobiography ‘More, Please’ was a bestseller when it appeared in 1992, covering similar ground. Stylistically, perhaps Humphries’ book is better, but Tadhg Hickey has really put his heart and soul into this memoir of catastrophe and eventual triumph, and I hope it sells and sells. If nothing else, it’s an inspiration to anyone who may be having similar problems.

Arms and Legs, Chloe Lane, Gallic, €15.99

A marriage in trouble placed under the microscope is the stuff of Lane’s second excellent novel. Georgie has been reared in New Zealand but is now living with husband Dan and their two-year-old son in Florida, seen through Georgie’s eyes as a hostile place where simply keeping pests out of the house is a lifelong chore. But there’s more hostility than that of mere small critters. Georgie’s hostility towards her husband is palpable and if the opportunity comes along for her to stray, well…

When she discovers a dead body in the woods, the repercussions are immense. This is a novel about intimate human relationships but also about suppressed trauma and the damage it can potentially do. Lane hit the jackpot with her first novel, The Swimmers, and it garnered several literary awards. I imagine this novel will see her showered with many more.

A Mother’s Courage, Malka Levine, Macmillan, €28

Malka Levine was just two years old when her family were captured and sent to a Jewish ghetto in the city of Volodomyr-Volynski. In 1939, there were 25,000 Jews living there. Only 30 of them would survive beyond the war. As the author’s father was captured and shot, he begged Malka’s mother Rivka to ‘save the children’. And that is what Rivka did, eventually ending up on a farm in present-day Ukraine, where the farmer agreed to let the family hide out in a barn on his land during a freezing winter.

There were more challenges to be faced after the war and Rivka met them all head-on. This tribute to the mother makes for disturbing reading at times but is also testament to the unwavering courage and determination of a seemingly ordinary mother.

The Singularities, John Banville, Swift Press, €12.99

Felix Mordaunt has served his time in prison and is now a free man. He returns to the house of his childhood, a crumbling country manor that’s seen better days. But there’s a new family living there now, descendants of a world-renowned scientist Adam Godley. Mordaunt has nowhere to go and attempts to negotiate with the family in order to stay on the estate.

Felix Mordaunt is the new name adopted by murderer Freddie Montgomery, whom we first met in The Book of Evidence in 1989 (that long ago?) and his character is loosely based on infamous Meath murderer Malcolm Macarthur.

Freddie/Felix has his work cut out for him in his efforts to recreate and maintain a life of luxurious uselessness but try he must. In the meantime as he explores the theories of Godley, a woman from his past about to re-enter his life. Booker prize-winner Banville has always been a favourite of this reader and he’s back on top form here in a novel first published last year in hardback, now available in paperback.