At Swim, Two Boys

The first seventy pages of this huge, eloquent, and multi-layered novel require the reader's patience--it is not always clear, at first, who the characters are or exactly what they are doing. But patience is gloriously rewarded as the cadences of the characters' speech, with its street slang, odd syntax, natural poetry, and homespun aphorisms, combine with vibrant details of their everyday lives and eventually bring these "ordinary" folks to life in Dublin in 1915. On the eve of the Easter Rebellion, we meet Jim Mack and Doyler Doyle, two teenage boys who are trying to sort out who they are, emotionally, politically, and sexually. They get no help from home, where their fathers relive their memories of fighting for the British during the Boer War and where sex and the facts of life are never even hinted at. They get no help from their priests, who severely punish confessions of "the solitary sin," while sometimes fondling their students. Secret revolutionary societies troll for members, and priests sometimes help them. Neither boy has close friends his own age. As naïve Jim gravitates toward the more street-wise Doyler, their friendship blossoms, they rejoice in each other's company, and they begin to try on roles for the future--Doyler finding an outlet with Irish rebels, and Jim considering a priestly vocation. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that this will be a gay coming-of-age story within the broader context of the Irish rebellion, and these two stories mesh seamlessly, with many obvious parallels. Quietly, without beating any drums or making any polemical statements, O'Neill allows his characters to discover their feelings for each other and their inborn nature, even as the political rebellion takes shape. O'Neill's characters are who they are, and he respects them and the reader too much to use them simply to prove a point. The parallels he draws between them and some of the famous leaders of the Irish rebellion, such as Roger Casement, and between them and the Sacred Band of Thebes are incidental to the story, though they do give a broader context to the gay relationship. The only problem I had with this engrossing novel was with the character of MacMurrough, an older "mentor" to both boys. MacMurrough is a sexual predator, at least at the beginning, a man guilty of violent rape in a graphic early scene which made me cringe. The fact that he is later depicted sympathetically, and to some extent heroically, remains a problem for me, an anomaly in what is otherwise a beautifully wrought novel. Mary Whipple

This is a novel that asks a lot of its reader. For one thing, it asks that you spend dozens and dozens of pages in the mind of a recently released "unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort", a mind that is already occupied by an Oxford don, a nanny, a chaplain, and a strong sexuality personified with the name (you guessed it) Dick. It also asks you to at times decipher archaic Irish slang, and to know at least something about the time period, and to have a fairly good knowledge of Oscar Wilde. It asks you to have a long attention span and to pay attention to every word. It's all worth it in the end. While certainly not light reading, At Swim, Two Boys is highly engrossing and remains one of the few books that has actually made me start crying. Far from entirely tragic, however, it has several moments that leave me screaming with laughter - I don't think I'll ever look at a flute, a toadstool, or sticky buns the same way again. There are several reviews here that go into great detail about Jim and Doyler, so allow me to focus on MacMurrough. The first time I read this book, I started off hating him. Intensely. With passion. Frankly, I wished he'd jump off the Forty Foot and drown himself so everyone else might have a less complicated life. Near the middle, though, I felt too sorry for him to actually hate him. Two-thirds of the way through, I found I rather liked him. By the time one-fourth of the book remained, he had a permanent place among my favorite fictional characters. Such is the power of Jamie O'Neill. Jim and Doyler, though, are wonderful as well. They are truly pals of the heart in the best possible sense. Really, just go on and read it already.

A good book. Maybe even a great book. Joycean in quality, even in language, a little, but never inaccessible, never private, and always gorgeously poetic...It's a simple tale about a difficult time: the story of the friendship and love between two Irish boys, Jim and Doyler (one poor, the other poorer) in the years leading up to the Easter Rising. The period is brilliantly evoked: the wealth (faux or true) of the gentry contrasted with the abject poverty of so many others, the incredible sociopolitical power wielded by the Roman Catholic Church, the overwhelming depressive feeling of being colonized by the British as well as the fears of those who've thrived (or at least endured) during the British regime, the stirrings of nationalism, the rationalization of violence, the events of the Rising itself. One could make a case for the core theme of this novel to be that of rebellion---that of the country echoing that of the boys, their mentor, their families---with all the plotting, secrets, fear, and frustration that such rebellion entails.It's a heartbreaking book. It doesn't take a romantic view of Ireland, though there are romantics a-plenty among the cast of characters. It can be painful to see someone's idealism break like a wave against the rock of an unjust law, a social paradigm, an historical event. And it's also wonderful to experience someone pulling a moral, true action from beneath a facade of politesse or a lifelong habit of obedience.I cried at the end. The plot crescendoes like a great cresting wave of events, emotion, loss, and love, and I felt it in my gut. Maybe it had a little more resonance for me because my dad had cousins who died in the Rising, but this is a book for anyone to read who likes a character-driven story that is beautifully told. Yes, there's more than a little violence, and there's distressful images of poverty, and there's thuggishness, and tragedy, and sex, but also heroism, idealism, and love, and it all adds up to what Yeats called "a terrible beauty." It ain't pretty, but it is beautiful. Perilously so. Read it and weep.

The tragedy of this book is that thoughtful people who might overwise read it may not because they perceive it as a "gay" novel, whatever that means. This is a gay novel in the way BELOVED is a black novel or PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT is a Jewish novel. A book that anyone who loves serious literature should read, it has all the things I look for in a good novel: an involved plot, wonderful character development and beautiful language. If you believe the old fashioned novel is dead, At SWIM TWO BOYS should convince you otherwise. It actually feels like a 19th century novel in its epic quality. Yes, the three main characters are gay; and this book is as good as any-- perhaps better than any with gay characters I can recall. Almost 600 pages long-- you will be amazed at how quickly the pages fly by-- the novel is set in Ireland in 1915 and 1916. The three main characters, two teenage boys, Jim and Doyler and an adult, MacMurrough, become as real to you as your friends and family. These characters possess a resilience and courage that will make you care for them desperately. Ultimately they will break your heart. Mr. O'Neill's prose is fine indeed. One example: there is a wonderful scene when MacMurrough watches Jim leave him. "A terrible fear shook him, a fear for his boy and what the future might hold. Lest he should stumble and the crowd should find him. For we live as angels among the Sodomites. And every day the crowd finds some one of us out. . . There is no grand mistake. Aristotle wrote something that Augustine got wrong that Aquinas codified in law. . . What hates is madness. There's no reason, only madness. . . Who but a madman could revile this boy?" This is NOT the love that dare not speak its name. Words used to describe this novel sound trite: "honor," "optimism," "friendship," "patriotism," "love." We can only hope Mr. O'Neill does not take 10 years to write another novel.

I am exhausted, having stayed up all night to finish At Swim, Two Boys. This is a remarkable work on many levels. In one sense, this is a love story of the Oscar Wilde variety, so a number of readers will be put off. In another sense, it is a powerful condemnation of the Catholic Church, so others will be offended. It is a history of Irish music, Irish conflict, Irish class, Irish Civil War. It is comic, tragic, epic, and moving.Jamie O'Neill's characters ring true in terms of dialogue, motivation, and depth. Anthony MacMurrough's internal dialogues with his inner voices/vices is fascinating; it brings to mind the realistic imagined beings in "A Beautiful Mind." The adolescent pains and pangs of Jim Mack and Doyle ring true. Longing, loyalty, and lust are artfully conjured. Every character is someone I would like to know-the comic/tragic/punny father of Jim, the powerful McMurrough (childless) matriarch, the whiskered, wise aunt.O'Neill's descriptions of the land and sea paint a vivid portrait of the beauty of Ireland, and his painting of human and civil conflict is superb. This book humanizes the Irish conflict. It captures and caresses many aspects of Irish culture. And it is a beautiful love story.I will read this book again to explore its depths, its masterful dialogues and dialects, its drama and beauty. The comparisons to Joyce and Dickens will not seem excessive if you dive into this glorious book.