Customer Reviews

Cal: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had this book on my shelves for almost fifteen years, if you can believe it, but never got around to reading it until this week. Now I can't figure out why it took me so long to open it.

"Cal" describes the "troubles" in Northern Ireland in a simple yet elegant manner, with a bare minimum of explicit violence and gore. Most of the violence is implied - the two exceptions being the story of how Marcella Morton became a widow, and what at first glance seems to be a rather pointless episode concerning a land mine and a cow. It seemed pointless, that is, until you read further and discovered exactly how the land mine came to be there.

While the violence is at a minimum, the thoughts, feelings, and philosophies of each side are explored quite thoroughly for such a small book. And while I personally found both points of view quite repellent, I will say that I believed that the characters in this book had these beliefs, and that they were extremely passionate regarding them.

The book is also an interesting psychological study, at least as far as Cal McCluskey (the main character) is concerned. With the help of Marcella, the woman he comes to love, it seems that he is growing up, and coming to realize that there's a lot more out in the world than just Catholics & Protestants fighting and killing each other - but his past will ultimately work against him and nullify all the good that Marcella has done for him - because he was the driver of the car containing the man that killed her husband.

A touching, sad, and very important book.

This book sat on my bookshelf for 10 years before I finally read it--I'd picked it up in a book sale way back and thought it looked interesting. Don't know why I waited so long to read it, but now that I have, I can't shake it. Its story is deceptively simple, but somehow its images haunt the mind long after reading. I guess it's the timelessness of it themes--violence (unfortunately) and love--because though the book was published in 1983 and the story itself, from hints in the book, I think is set about ten years before that, it obviously still resonates with readers in 1999. I wanted the story to go on, to find out if Cal survived his redemption.

Bernard MacLaverty's Cal is perhaps on of the saddest books of the last 20 years. The story of a young Catholic man in Northern Ireland, it slowly but surely tears your heart out.

Cal is an unemployed young man who has very tenuous ties to the IRA. He begins to fall for the widow of one of his group's victims as he tries to break free from the IRA's clutches. All the while he is forced to bear the prejudices of his Protestant neighbors.

MacLaverty skillfully writes the tale. He never fools you about how the story will end but none the less he manages to make the reader invest some emotion in Cal so that when the inevitable comes you are just wiped out.

This is a wonderful piece of modern Irish literature.

A great love story of a boy who is captured by his past actions. Cal took part in terrorist actions of the IRA, helped to murder a police officer. Since, he is unable to live an ordered life as well as getting out of the terror. By falling in love with the widow of the man he helped to murder he tries to get out of his violent environment but all his effort is not enough. His love makes him wanting to apologize but the only way he can do this is by scarifying himself for justice and the hope of peace.

Cal was one of the best books I've ever read. Its realistic style and the sense for youth and the political problems of Northern Ireland make this book leave a picture in your mind that seems alive.

First of all, we used about one month reading it. It was a part of this years curriculum. "Cal" consists of a very heavy English language, so if your vocabulary is small, we're not sure if we would recommend it.
But the contents itself were really interesting, surprising and you'll get so involved that you can't lay the book down. You'll become a "readaholic."
The plot involves in Ireland in the late 70's. Cal is the main character, with Marcella, Shamie, Crilly, Skeffington, the Mortons and Dunlop as the other characters.
Cal is a boy in his early twenty's. He lives with his father, Shamie, in a house in a nameless town. The problem is that Cal and his father is Catholics, a hated religion in the protestant town.
Cal gets beaten up and "hanged out" because of his religion.
Cal's "friends," Crilly and Skeffington makes money in a criminal way. They also take part in the I.R.A (Irish Republican Army). Cal hears the name "Marcella somewhere, and remembers something about it. (This is the part when you're supposed to get the picture the things that has happened, some kind of turning point really) He cant remember what, but he is pretty sure that it wasn't a nice thing. He keeps meeting her, and soon remembers what he did......??? We wont tell what.
He eventually starts to work for Marcella's mother in law, and they develop their relationship.

In a few words; Cal is a book full of tension, sex, violence and other cool stuff. And you'll get an insight into the circumstances in Northern Ireland. You cant really imagine the violence and hate that the people had and still have to live with.

THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SEX, CRIME, TENSION AND THE PROBLEMS OF NORTHERN IRELAND. I LIKE IT VERY MUCH BECAUSE THE WORLD IS FULL OF PEOPLE LIKE "CAL" AND IT'S WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. YOU MUST LIKE IT - IF NOT, THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU! BEATRICE A STUDENT (21) FROM AARAU<P (...)

It was an interesting book, full of tension, violence, crimes, relationships and sex. Very Hard read for a norwegian boy, and I almost made it!!

It is a story of a young guy named Cal who lives in the Land of Hate (Northern Ireland) where he can be beaten and his house set on fire only because he is a Catholic. He gave up his work in an abattoir in a week, being repelled by its blood and atrocity, but became a driver in IRA's raids that brought misfortune and pain to the ordinary innocent people. We see what Hate can do with a person: it leads Cal's father to physical and psychical collapse (victim); it makes a 30-year-old teacher an implacable personification of Death and Destruction and a school hooligan a killing machine (executors). Cal is lone in the world with father as his only relative and music as his only friend, and they can't help him to overcome a deadlock. But his love to a woman, whose husband he helped to murder a year before, converts his guilt and sorrow into genuine repentance. At least since the time of Shakespeare we know that Love is doomed in the Land of Hate but it changes the Land in the end.

Mixes Love,Politics,Religion,Reality,Sex and Violence to make an extremely good book.Best book i've ever read.I would say anyone 13\14 to 50+ would like this book

I had to read it for a school assignement and I was not really fond of it. A book dealing with the Northern Ireland conflict? Weren't there already too many concerning this topic? However Cal is very easy to read for an ESL student and therefore I can recommend it. The story is quite interesting, but sometimes I miss the logic. Especially the ending was not too good. To sum it up one can say that this book is nice as an evening lecture and one gets insight into the terror of Northern Ireland, but it does not have a deaper meaning. For those of you, who are interested in NI and what it really means for a young person - go for it!