This book was nothing like Infinite Jest, but I’ve shelved them together, because I similarly can’t work out whether  I really liked this, or really didn’t.  So, strap in, as I overthink it. It’s going to be a spoiler-filled review – last chance to get off this train if you haven’t read The Bee Sting as yet.  I’m not going to lay out the basics of the plot and characters – the assumption is that you’re already across the who, what, where and when. I […]

The title of this book is about misdirection as much as it is about anything else. It’s rife with things that do not actually happen. Pages are spent telling stories about things that might happen, or that we think may have happened – but in reality, so little does occur, until we are left wondering what else WILL happen. The novel centers on the Barnes family. Dickie Barnes and his wife Imelda live with their two children, but their well-to-do lifestyle is quickly about to […]

From the outside the Barneses are a stereotypical Irish family. The father, Dickie, runs a car dealership and garage he took over from his father. The mother, Imelda, is a housewife still beautiful enough that strangers ask her if she’s a model. Daughter Cass is a bright student destined for university life in Dublin, while son PJ is a curious and rambunctious little boy. But, in parallel with the crashing economy, the Barneses are falling apart. Sales are down at the dealership, a problem exacerbated […]