Belinda McKeon - Solace

fisgon

Belinda McKeon's first novel, Solace, won best Newcomer award at the Irish Book Awards recently. Interested to hear what people who have read it think.

I was willing to give it a chance at the beginning, and thought it had potential. But soon I had had enough. I found it very derivative, it felt like something that I had read ten or twenty times before, the style is very McGahern, very Colm Toibin, spare, no flourishes, but kind of cold.

In fact I found the whole thing quite cold. I couldn't connect to any of the characters, didn't care about them, (SPOILER:.....there is a tragedy in the middle of the book and even that didn't move me)........ It got progressively more drab and gloomy, there is a child in the novel, a central part of it, but even she doesn't add any joy to the proceedings.

It doesn't surprise me that she won an award for it. It seems to me to be the kind of Irish novel that wins awards in Ireland, misery-lit, worthy, serious, attempting to 'define' and 'explore' modern Ireland. For me though it was hard going, depressing, almost cliched in its treatment of these drab old Irish themes, the conflict between uncommunicative father and son, the pull of the countryside.... All stuff we've read a million times before.

BTW: I tried hard, but I couldn't find any Solace at all in this novel.

gutenberg

fisgon wrote: »

Belinda McKeon's first novel, Solace, won best Newcomer award at the Irish Book Awards recently. Interested to hear what people who have read it think.

I was willing to give it a chance at the beginning, and thought it had potential. But soon I had had enough. I found it very derivative, it felt like something that I had read ten or twenty times before, the style is very McGahern, very Colm Toibin, spare, no flourishes, but kind of cold.

In fact I found the whole thing quite cold. I couldn't connect to any of the characters, didn't care about them, (SPOILER:.....there is a tragedy in the middle of the book and even that didn't move me)........ It got progressively more drab and gloomy, there is a child in the novel, a central part of it, but even she doesn't add any joy to the proceedings.

It doesn't surprise me that she won an award for it. It seems to me to be the kind of Irish novel that wins awards in Ireland, misery-lit, worthy, serious, attempting to 'define' and 'explore' modern Ireland. For me though it was hard going, depressing, almost cliched in its treatment of these drab old Irish themes, the conflict between uncommunicative father and son, the pull of the countryside.... All stuff we've read a million times before.

BTW: I tried hard, but I couldn't find any Solace at all in this novel.

I have read it, and quite enjoyed it at the time. However, the fact that I am struggling to remember *what* it was that I liked about it is perhaps a testament to its lack of dramatic impact, a general feeling of 'coldness' if you will. As a student I found the depiction of Mark's life interesting (he reminded me quite powerfully of a friend I know), but the father infuriated me as a character.

Kinski

Haven't read it, but the thought of yet another novel centred on a character who is pursuing a PhD in literature, or who already has one, is enough to put me off. Are these writers all just going to produce novel after novel about themselves and their friends?

fleabag

I read an extract from the book that was published in Image magazine and found it boring and turgid. I know extracts don't often do a book any favours but there was nothing in it at all that would make me want to read any further, let alone buy the book. It wasn't even that well written, she seemed to take an inordinate amount of time and writing to get across any narrative or ideas.

I'm amazed that this book has won any prizes at all and predict it'll be joining Cecilia Ahern on the bookshelves of charity shops across the country.

Bill Shock

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but I received this book as a present at Christmas and have just finished reading it.

Overall, quite disappointed in it. Strong shades of John McGahern in it (the parts set on the farm in Co. Longford) but with none of McGahern's beautiful prose.

This is a cold novel.....there is little true happiness to be found in it. I've always struggled to like novels where I can't warm to or empathise with the main character. Mark Casey is a perfect example...there's nothing in the entire book that would have me sympathise with him. He is an immature, callow gob****e who seems utterly incapable of behaving like an adult.

Strangely, it is his taciturn father who I found to be the most likeable character in the book.

Worth a read but not worth the fuss that has surrounded it.

eclectichoney

Bill Shock wrote: »

Worth a read but not worth the fuss that has surrounded it.

Totally agree with this. I have read worse, but did not understand the hype *at all*

Bland and unremarkable.