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Jump to navigationJump to searchTwisted Agendas by Damian McNicholl (view source)
Revision as of 16:02, 26 August 2020
, 16:02, 26 August 2020no edit summary
|publisher=Legend Press
|date=September 2011
|summary=A combination of some atmospherically detailed writing and a plot which links somewhat unpredictably the lives of a young Irishman in London and the American girl he meets there make this a reasonably reasonable read. While this is not 'edge of your seat' stuff there was enough dynamism and potential to keep me interested to the end, but ultimately the novel fails to truly engage.
|cover=1908248025
|aznuk=1908248025
}}
Writing about Ireland and the Irish, especially the dimension of the Troubles and the IRA, from a third -hand American perspective is a recipe for cliché and stereotype. Balancing and interweaving the story of American journalist Piper with that of Irishman Danny's search for independence in London does enable McNicholl in some part to achieve a wry and knowing stance, making us hope for a clever twist away from the predictably which always seems so close.
But we have so much that induces a rather dull inevitability – the IRA cell, the daughter of an IRA fundraiser in the USA, the gauche and naïve Irishman escaping the conservative entrapment of marriage and the family firm are all here. And at times the predictable plot devices that emerge, like the discovery at the back of the wardrobe, or the 'out-of-nowhere' atrocity have a clunkiness about them that almost made me stop reading. But what did keep me going was the sense of truth in small detail that peppered the descriptions – the CDs on the floor, the glimpse of a face through a shop window, the trivia of everyday life that McNicholl picks up on. These hinted at a better novel emerging.
