Michael
Wild Houses is the debut novel of Colin Barrett, a prize-winning short story writer. It is novel about drugs, violence, alienation, and a kidnapping in rural western Ireland. I found it enormously sad.
The novel is told from alternating POVs. There is Dev, a veritable giant of a man, who is weak, introspective and afflicted with anxiety and depression. He has a good heart but has trouble standing up to people. And there is Nicky, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Doll, the boy who was kidnapped. She is smart and intelligent and probably won’t be staying in Ballina, the small Irish town where much of the story takes place. Though Dev and Nicky don’t know each other, they are two outsiders in Ballina. One is probably stuck there; one will probably leave.
I thought this novel was very, very well written. Individual sentences say exactly what they need to say, and nothing more. There is some dialect in the novel, but it is easily understood. But I had trouble getting into the story and identifying with the characters. However, by about half-way through the book, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down.
By the end of the novel, I was emotionally connected to the characters, but the novel ends without any hint of what the future holds for Dev, Nicky, and Doll. I wish we could see their lives in five years’ time. I hope they are happy and settled wherever they might be.
Easy 4 stars. When I reread it, I might rate it higher.
Wild Houses is the debut novel of Colin Barrett, a prize-winning short story writer. It is novel about drugs, violence, alienation, and a kidnapping in rural western Ireland. I found it enormously sad.
The novel is told from alternating POVs. There is Dev, a veritable giant of a man, who is weak, introspective and afflicted with anxiety and depression. He has a good heart but has trouble standing up to people. And there is Nicky, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Doll, the boy who was kidnapped. She is smart and intelligent and probably won’t be staying in Ballina, the small Irish town where much of the story takes place. Though Dev and Nicky don’t know each other, they are two outsiders in Ballina. One is probably stuck there; one will probably leave.
I thought this novel was very, very well written. Individual sentences say exactly what they need to say, and nothing more. There is some dialect in the novel, but it is easily understood. But I had trouble getting into the story and identifying with the characters. However, by about half-way through the book, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down.
By the end of the novel, I was emotionally connected to the characters, but the novel ends without any hint of what the future holds for Dev, Nicky, and Doll. I wish we could see their lives in five years’ time. I hope they are happy and settled wherever they might be.
Easy 4 stars. When I reread it, I might rate it higher.