In 1945, Catherine Goggin, sixteen years old and newly discovered pregnant, is denounced as a whore by the Goleen parish priest in front of the congregation and sent packing from the church. Her response is to get on the bus to Dublin and start a new life, A life in which a baby cannot figure, so the child is given to a nun to place in a new home.
Skip to 1952 and we discover that home is with Charles and Maud Avery, an unconventional couple, who are bringing up Cyril, now seven, with kindly disinterest while constantly reminding him that he is ‘not a real Avery’. The pattern is set to revisit Cyril’s life every seven years when we share significant events, often humorous, sometimes tragic.
This short review, avoiding spoilers, can only hint at the scrapes, the inner turmoil, the compromises, and the betrayals involved. Suffice it to say that Cyril, being young, gay and living in Ireland in the 1960s and 70s, has problems. While the church and state sponsored discrimination reduces in later decades, his outsider status never goes away.
It is a small-scale epic, which builds up an eclectic cast of characters that weave in and out of the narrative over the decades. It is told in the first person by Cyril in a style that is engaging, authentic, and compassionately human.
Though long at 700
pages, it reads much shorter due to its episodic structure and fluent,
frequently funny, prose. Highly recommended.
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