Breakfast in Babylon [Paperback]

Emer Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

Isolt is down but not out in Paris. She's a sharp-tongued Irish drifter with a fierce instinct for survival who falls into a darkly comic relationship with Christopher, the "hoodoo man." He's a Puerto Rican anarchist and wheeler-dealer from Detroit who fuels his messianic delusions with Iggy Pop songs and smack. From Dublin to Paris, New York to New Orleans, the two run small-time scams, deal dope, and squat among an international underclass of vagabonds and punk-junkies. Begging is their way of life, until Isolt determines a desperate escape. Written with razor-sharp humor and raw storytelling verve, Breakfast in Babylon explores the stark world of a rootless generation - a world of beggars who choose and beggars who have no choice.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The hallucinatory prose of Martin's first novel painfully evokes the milieu of the world's disaffected youth. Fleeing from Thatcher's Britain and Reagan's America, the drifters, beggars, and dopers who populate this work gather in Paris, where a squat is easy to find and the French are generous to the indigent. Irish Isolt finds herself drawn to Christopher, a bizarre American dealer with a heroin addiction. Although her friends are horrified, Isolt persists in this sadomasochistic relationship, where episodes of abuse are punctuated by marathon rounds of drugs. Martin knows her territory: the realistic depiction of her band of losers is matched by the humanity that imbues them, and the brutality of her prose is leavened with self-deprecating humor. Although this novel is sure to offend many, it is highly recommended wherever good prose and honest fiction are appreciated.?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A sobering if unsure tale of the flotsam of Europe--beggars and junkies living from one score and squat to the next--and of a young woman's experience as a part of it, in a debut from Dublin- born Martin. Paris is where the bulk of the action takes place, as Irish teenager Isolt lands penniless among the beggars and quickly adapts to their ways. The death from a stumble down stairs of an alcoholic friend, an older, once beautiful woman who escaped husband and children to find refuge among the addicts, is an early lesson for Isolt, but it comes at a time when she's not quite ready to heed it. When the chill of Paris becomes too much, she and her friends hop a train to the southern coast, but aside from sampling a new drug that makes them all crazy, sleeping on the beach hasn't much appeal. Isolt returns to the city and pairs up with Christopher, a Hispanic dealer/junkie from Detroit whose dark side the others fear but whose housing tips generally keep them all dry. When he uses up a drug shipment he was supposed to sell, however, things start to go sour. The gentle giant living with Isolt and junkie Christopher is beaten to death by their supplier's thugs, so they flee to London, where Isolt can live on the dole. A marriage for the conveniences that citizenship would offer follows, but Christopher's barbaric nature quickly warps the relationship. Isolt falls desperately in love with one of her ex-squatmates, only to see this path to redemption nipped in the bud when her husband locks her up and brutalizes her again. She escapes to America, looking for a fresh start. Excessive commentary and a complicated, unconvincing villain don't help this gloomy if undeniably frank and vivid story, leaving one to hope for a firmer hand on the reins next time. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 321 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 2nd printing edition (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395875951
• ISBN-13: 978-0395875957
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,361,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A trip, to say the least..., June 21, 2001

By 

Caitriona (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakfast in Babylon (Paperback)

This was one strange read. To be honest, as I was first reading through it, I couldn't figure out whether I loved it or hated it. But I sure couldn't put it down, so I suppose that's one point in its favour. I suppose any negative feelings I might've had toward this book may have arose because main character Isolt and I did not click. Though realistic, she is a miserable thing with little or no ambition, a good bit of evidence as to why people don't like punks. Luckily for us, the book is more following her than centred on her, and she serves as a vehicle through which we meet an equally believable, colourful, and far more amiable lot of characters. These folks (such as boyfriend Christopher...I realise Ms Martin meant for us to dislike him and sympathise with Isolt, that's not how it worked out here) combined with a good storyline peppered with vivid descriptions and the occasional foray into Isolt's head are what push this one from the "ambiguous" to the "good" category. This has got to be one of the best first-try novels I've picked up so far, and whether you love it, hate it, or are perplexed by it, I can guarantee you won't be able to close it till you've finished that last page.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a classic, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Breakfast in Babylon (Paperback)

I have come back to this book time and time again, the voice is so clear and the range of characters so cleverly drawn and so real as to be breathtaking. I wanted to kill Isolt so many times, each time she stumbles into the trap, I know she is young but she is not blind, I find her one of the most fascinating protaganists of the last decade. Christopher is the dark satan, a wonderfully drawn portrait of abuse, poverty and dellusion. It is he I was sorry for in the end. His life was too cruel and arbitary for happiness to be his destiny. I hope more people read this book. It is an underground classic and will be remembered as one of the great books this century. I've no doubt it is a book I will pick up thoughout my life just to revel in the sheer poetry of entanglement, despair, and wierd salvation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Unlike anything I have ever read before, brilliant for it's strangeness, January 20, 2007

By 

Janna Jansen (Waiheke Island, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast in Babylon (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book, in spite of the dark themes of filth, abuse and drug addiction it was really good.

Isolt is the main character, an Irish girl who lives in Paris and makes her living begging. Begging is a way to get enough money for the next hit, a few beers at night with other beggars and friends, and sometimes to get money together to move to the next place. But Paris pays the best. She hooks up with Christopher, an American/ Hispanic drug dealer with his own dark past (and present for that matter) who wants to marry her so he can get papers ot stay in Europe.

I enjoyed this book because it is so explicit about a way of life that is completely foreign to mine, it opened my eyes in many ways to how another group of people live. Highly recommended.