Breakfast in Babylon

I enjoyed this book, in spite of the dark themes of filth, abuse and drug addiction it was really good. Isolt is the main character, an Irish girl who lives in Paris and makes her living begging. Begging is a way to get enough money for the next hit, a few beers at night with other beggars and friends, and sometimes to get money together to move to the next place. But Paris pays the best. She hooks up with Christopher, an American/ Hispanic drug dealer with his own dark past (and present for that matter) who wants to marry her so he can get papers ot stay in Europe. I enjoyed this book because it is so explicit about a way of life that is completely foreign to mine, it opened my eyes in many ways to how another group of people live. Highly recommended.

This is the work of a writer, a person to enter my head and stop my self-preoccupations and give me art. My Grandda is writing this, but these are my opinions in my own words. Solanja

I have come back to this book time and time again, the voice is so clear and the range of characters so cleverly drawn and so real as to be breathtaking. I wanted to kill Isolt so many times, each time she stumbles into the trap, I know she is young but she is not blind, I find her one of the most fascinating protaganists of the last decade. Christopher is the dark satan, a wonderfully drawn portrait of abuse, poverty and dellusion. It is he I was sorry for in the end. His life was too cruel and arbitary for happiness to be his destiny. I hope more people read this book. It is an underground classic and will be remembered as one of the great books this century. I've no doubt it is a book I will pick up thoughout my life just to revel in the sheer poetry of entanglement, despair, and wierd salvation.

The characters jump out of the page at you. The events really happen. Emer is like a diaryist who in the typicaly Irish way exagerates the believable and tones down the unbelievable. B in B is a real, fast moving kick in the teeth!

I loved this book from the start. The characters made me laugh and cry at the same time. Emer Martin's dialogue and descriptions are vivid and often beautiful. This book changed the way I looked at people on the street. It gave me understanding. I was moved and entertained. A rare thing these days. Highly recommended.