WORDS Eavan Gaffney

Deftly rendered and inescapably readable, Liz Nugent’s deconstruction of one man’s character, and the life that leads him to a sudden act of violence, delivers a broad societal assessment in this strong and incisive debut novel.

Centred on the fall from grace of Oliver Ryan, a bestselling children’s author and literary pundit, the novel is recounted episodically, using both his own testimony and that of those closest to him, with regard to the fateful night when he beat his wife into a coma. What results is a compelling and skillfully weaved narrative that unpacks the roles of repression, deception and shame, not only in the life of the protagonist, but in the very fabric of Irish society.

Of course, these issues are hardly unexplored tropes in Irish writing, and the novel’s edge is blunted somewhat by the reader’s inevitable over-familiarity with tales of priests, absent mothers, institutionalisation and illegitimate children. This said, however, there is a striking, and somewhat unnerving freshness to the way in which Nugent allows these usually distanced, high-octane issues to seep into the recognisable present. Here, traumas are not confined to an evil past, but rather exist as living memories in the present. It is with a sense of almost casual inevitability that the novel connects past wrongs to some of the most predominant themes of Ireland’s cultural present; such as crises of ego and masculinity, intense acts of irrationality or violence, and the unavoidable burden of consequence.

Perhaps what is most odd about this is how strangely new it feels. For a culture and a nation so obsessed with its own past, we regularly come up short in reconciling it to the reality of our post-boom present. Nugent does this with impressive skill, while simultaneously managing to construct a compelling plot. Through the use of a clear-cut structure and sheer word-craft, she keeps every element under tight control, while at the same time facilitating an expansive narrative. Nugent is an author with her finger right on the reader’s pulse, drip-feeding information at exactly the right moments. Her storytelling is nothing if not effective. Granted, there are moments of slight bravado at certain cliffhanger chapter endings in which, perhaps, her soap-opera background can be glimpsed (Nugent has written for RTÉ’s Fair City). But overall, Nugent’s novel is a solid and satisfying one. The plot is not overly complex, its development is efficient and its delivery quick-fire. In all, it offers considerable food for thought for such an easy read. Well worth a look.

Grade: II.I