Eureka Street: A Novel of Ireland Like No Other

Never having even heard of McLiam Wilson, Eureka Street found its way to my hands. Although somewhat sceptical to begin with, I soon started to terrorise my wife with my finding: All of a sudden I found a book that 1) I cannot put down, 2) gives a hint of Belfast behind the screens, 3) makes me laugh loudly ("giant dildo refund" etc), 4) includes the fancapitalitastic personality of Chuckie Lurgan. This is arguably my favourite book for several years. Last but not least - OTG!!!

I don't write reviews, but for this book I'll make the exception. I've got a degree in reading and writing (as we English majors call it) from one of the top institutions in the USA and nothing has touched me the way this book did. I've been travelling back and forth between the US and the UK for the last 4 years and this book goes with me everywhere. I refuse to lend it out, I bought my best friend her own copy instead. Eureka Street is about everyone who ever loved, lost it, lived in a hovel, and for some reason kept going, especially when they didn't want to.

I have to admit I almost didn't read this book. It was between Eureeka Street and Angela's Ashes. I couldn't decide which one to read since I love stories from Ireland. Finally I made my choice when I found out Eureeka Street was cheaper. HAving made such a heavy choice I prayed I had not made a mistake. My prayers were answered. The book was hysterical, especially the part where Chuckie shows Jake his "plan" to get rich (You will laugh hysterically!). You really felt for JAke, because you could envision this sort of Russell Crowe looking guy, you know a pretty strong tough guy who has a sensitive and I heart ripped to shreds by another woman's cold act. You constantly hope he'll find someone before the book ends, but it seems everyone finds someone except him (The end is frustrating). I love the fight he had with Aorighe, to this day I still cannot pronounce her damn name! But its a wonderful insightful book about Belfast and how the people there can just go on with normal lives despite having bombs go off all arouind them. The book shows that the ways of life are much more devastating and harsh as any bomb.

This book, whilst ostensibly a light hearted view of Belfast lads their fears,loves and scams, was much more. The authors juxtaposition of the troubles, the dreams and the laughs leads the reader into a Belfast which seems like home......even if you've never been there. I would defy anybody to read chapter 11 and not have it remain with them for the rest of their lives. Soon to be serialised on BBC TV (but not soon enough)

The working class neighborhoods of Belfast are central to Robert McLiam Wilson's new novel, Eureka Street. That's the name of the street where Chuckie, the Protestant protagonist, lives with his mother. The narrator is Chuckie's cynical Catholic friend Jake, who lives in Poetry Street, a name that hints at the book's ambition. The story that unfolds as these two friends criss cross the city is both a funny enjoyable read and a serious political satire on the poisonous politics of Northern Ireland. The prominence of the street names is significant, for the novel is partly a paean to Belfast and its people. In the middle, McLiam Wilson briefly pauses the plot to voice a lyrical ode to his hometown. In a typically daring piece of writing reminiscent of the style of the American Thomas Wolfe, he describes how, in the wee hours of the morning, he can sense Belfast's stories in the quiet of its streets, when "all the streets are poetry streets." Yet if that sounds sentimental, the novel is not. Though written with love, the book is also a penetrating satirical portrait of his troubled birthplace. While being "dead satirical," as Chuckie puts it, McLiam Wilson manages also to be very funny. He plays with the routine Belfast absurdities that have developed after almost thirty years of the "Troubles." One running joke refers to the litter of acronyms-used as shorthand for political parties, paramilitary groups, slogans, and curses-that covers the city's walls. His rich cast of characters conveys superbly the mordant comedy of Belfast conversation as Jake and Chuckie meet regularly with their friends Slat, Septic, and Donal. Then there is Aoirghe, the middle-class Irish Republican radical whose name sounds like a bad cough; Chuckie's mother Peggy, a typical working class martyr-mother who in the course of the novel achieves a surprising liberation; and Max, a beautiful American woman who inexplicably succumbs to Chuckie's approaches. In the novel's second half social satire gives way to sharp political satire. Although he grew up a Catholic in the same part of Belfast as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, McLiam Wilson has no time for the evasions of Irish Republican politics. In a disturbing chapter he confronts the realities of terrorism and the political fudging of those realities. The chapter is a pure set-up; a new character is introduced but one senses that she is going to be there only briefly. The predictability of the tragedy that ensues does not detract from the passionate anger with which McLiam Wilson writes. Afterwards the author takes aim directly at Adams (called Eve in the book; no need for too much subtlety) and at his nationalist party, Sinn Fein. That party's name is usually translated as "Ourselves Alone." In a brilliant flight of satirical invention that may well catch on in Belfast pubs, McLiam Wilson plausibly translates it a shade differently, and lampoons Sinn Fein throughout the novel as the "Just Us" party. To any young novelis