RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)It has a little bit of all things not very nice that make up a page-turning popular novel, without resorting to moral simplicity or predictability ... [Collins] evokes her characters and scenes deftly. Not only that, but the whole thrust and purpose of the book add up so well, issues are handled with such lightness of touch, that this reads like a novelist in her prime, rather than a beginner.
Colin Walsh
PositiveIrish Times (IRE)A stonkingly good read, especially if you’re looking for something gripping, pacy and plot-driven without necessarily wanting to reduce yourself to the obvious middlebrow choices offered by the best-seller lists ... There’s no doubt that, as with almost all crime thrillers, there are moments when the plotting stretches ever so slightly too far ... His ability to evoke the private moments between the girls – the words they use, their ways of seeing one another, even how they do their hair and make-up – is especially enjoyable to read ... Walsh’s penchant for finding every possible new way to describe the sky aside, this is a masterful reworking of the whodunnit, one you’ll have immense difficulty putting down.
Amina Cain
PanThe Irish Times (IRE)Overwhelmingly, this book gave me an impression of obfuscation ... The constant referencing of other art (a frustrating and prevalent issue with women’s intellectual non-fiction writing at the moment), hypothetical questions... and unrelenting distance of self... left me unsatisfied and adrift ... There are little glimpses of Cain, but mostly they’re too safe to actually tell us anything.
Laura Warrell
PositiveThe Irish TimesSweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is jazz masquerading as a novel. Some will love it while others (people who like unfussy sentences or pop music, say) will grow irritated within the first few pages. The style has an almost lulling effect, as though one were lilting gently on the swell of each paragraph. In some hands this would be grating but, luckily, Warrell pulls it off ... Although this comes dangerously close to feeling overwritten... on the whole the effect is sensuously pleasurable ... Warrell’s portrayal of Koko’s adolescent sexuality is beautifully done (Warrell is brilliant at writing female desire – rarely have I read the physical sensations of sex transmuted into language so deftly), and her experience of being mixed-race is also movingly depicted.
Jessica Au
MixedThe Irish Times (IRE)Cold Enough for Snow is a strange, slim volume, written in gentle, sometimes graceful, prose ... there’s a sadistic aspect to [the main] character, and her diligent perfectionism proves wearisome ... Generally, with such an unreliable narrator, a reader is at least fascinated by their perspective, or the story itself. Unfortunately, although this character’s mixture of heightened self-awareness and total obliviousness is curious, it’s never quite interesting enough to carry the non-events of the book. Often she’s trite to the point of cliche ... In spite of moments of beauty, what can most truthfully be said of Cold Enough for Snow is that it is inoffensive. It will suit some readers (I think, most certainly, bookish adolescents) while quickly leaving the minds of others. Although it improved upon rereading, in the end it was so understated that it left me unsure as to whether Jessica Au’s writing was subtle to the point of genius, or just a little dull.
Tabitha Lasley
RaveIrish Times (IRE)Sea State is...a mixture of journalism, chronicling the sociological, financial and more immediately physical issues faced by the men...as well as the effect this work has on their wives, families and the wider society ... It’s also a highly personal account of living on the fringes of one’s own life, in what could be described as a prolonged moment of crisis (while also being, regularly, laugh-out-loud-funny) ... What sets Lasley apart as a genuinely exceptional writer is her ability to first spot, and then effectively relay, the small yet defining details of a person, scene or experience ... Her eye for usually imperceptible minutiae is especially sharp when it comes to the physical and linguistic cues that pass between the sexes, along with the inexorable conditions of their interrelations ... Sea State is contemporary writing at its finest, without any hint of effort, egoism or pretentiousness on Lasley’s part. She is an astoundingly good writer, and this is an astoundingly good book.
Gary Shteyngart
RaveIrish Times (IRE)Here, we have Shteyngart at his finest, managing to master, with astute intelligence, the delicate task of depicting American multiculturalism...literary allusion...as well as recreating the irritations, absurdities and apocalyptic horror of the early days of the virus, combined with the violence and terror of American politics. All this while keeping it laugh-out-loud funny ... Shteyngart’s ability is mesmerising, almost to the point of distraction. (Is it too well written? Too perfectly crafted?) Yet, luckily, the humour saves it from ever becoming tiresomely pristine ... Ultimately, in Our Country Friends Shteyngart brings vividly to life a group of characters who go through real, significant change, and who experience Tröö Emotions (read the book to get that allusion). In fact, just read the book.
Rebecca Solnit
PositiveThe Irish Times (IRE)In holding aloft all of these interrelated subjects and concepts, whilst also maintaining a sense of the whole, one feels that a more suitable form to encase Solnit’s work would be one that mirrors the workings of an ecosystem, rather than the rigid linearity of a book ... This makes one think of Virginia Woolf’s call for a new, different female sentence, which in turn makes one think of the ongoing, ever more pressing need for the invention of a new, feminine form and, through that form, a way of seeing and communicating the world that defies the traditional, beginning-middle-end logic of masculine writing and thought. Solnit, in structuring Orwell’s Roses in this consciously rhizomatic matter, is bringing us closer to some vision of what this female form could and ought to be. In this way, the book itself, like the petals of a rose unfurling, conveys hope for a better future ... Although Orwell’s Roses hasn’t quite converted me to wholehearted Solnit fandom (there’s an obviousness, and a repetitive clunkiness to parts of her writing, that jar), I’ve certainly come away more knowledgeable, and with much food for thought. Overall, I was extremely happy to luxuriate in the meanderings of a genuinely exceptional mind, whose curiosity, intelligence and willingness to learn seem unbounded (and, ultimately, isn’t curiosity the greatest quality that can be attributed to the nonfiction writer?).
