REVIEW OF *YOU* AT WRITING.IE

I found a mini-review of my novel You on writing.ie this evening, while poking about their site. It was a nice surprise as I am in a totally narky mood. (And why, google, did you not alert me? Oh, because you are useless...)

It doesn't say who wrote the review*, but whoever s/he is , I like her/him enormously. Here's the review in its entirety, because it is short:


Nuala Ní Chonchúir, an award-winning poet and short story writer, sets her poignant debut novel in Dublin during the summer of 1980 and brilliantly invokes the period. Unusually, her unnamed ten-year-old narrator speaks to us in the second person, thus drawing the reader inexorably into the story from the very first line to the very last. Between the two we encounter the challenges and hardships faced by this endearing, exuberant child as she tries to make sense of growing up with a troubled mother and two much younger brothers. By turns tragic and charming this beautifully crafted story lingers in the imagination long after the last page has been turned. The fact that Ní Chonchúir literary antecedents are deeply rooted in poetry is evident in her lyrical, beautiful prose. Her obviously genuine affection for her compelling central character is truly infectious. A wonderful read.

Some of my favourite quotes:

"'He’s a divil for the buttered Mariettas’, she says. You’re mad for them yourself; you love squishing two together and watching the butter ooze out through the holes, like tiny yellow worms.”

"You’re glad it’ not one of the new orange buses. It’s one of the cream and black ones, the pint-of Guinness buses that have an open back door.”

Thank you, nice review person*. You have cheered up a tired and cranky writer.


* I've just been told her name is Eleanor Fitzsimmons.