Not Untrue and Not Unkind. Ed O'Loughlin [Paperback]

Ed O'Loughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2010

In Dublin, a newspaper editor called Cartwright is found dead. One of his colleagues, Owen Simmons, discovers a dossier on Cartwright's desk. And in the dossier Owen finds a photograph, which brings him back, once again, to a dusty road in Africa and to the woman he once loved..."Not Untrue and Not Unkind" is Owen's story - a gripping story of friendship, rivalry and betrayal amongst a group of journalists and photographers covering Africa's wars. A remarkably assured and mature debut, it is a tale utterly for our times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

O'Loughlin's mixed debut finds newspaperman Owen Simmons in possession of his dead colleague's files and, more importantly, a secret they contain. It is Simmons's ensuing tale of his African war reporting that promises to reveal what that secret is, but late in the book, when a minor character publishes a memoir of sorts that shares the title and characters of this novel, the reader begins to suspect that Simmons has found in his dead colleague a convenient MacGuffin to string readers through his own war stories. They're good anecdotes that evoke the danger of battle, the horror of its aftermath, and the camaraderie of the brooding and maniacal bigfeet, nomads, fixers, stringers, and lens monkeys who witness it, but the intrigue promised in the first chapter doesn't run evenly through the story, and Simmons doesn't give away enough of himself, leaving readers with no one to really care for. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Irish journalist Owen Simmons is back at his newspaper in Dublin, comfortably doing as little work as possible, when he happens upon a photograph of himself taken when he was a foreign correspondent in Africa in the wake of the Rwandan genocide. The photo inspires an extended flashback that makes up the bulk of this polished first novel. The narrative tone seems oddly matter of fact, but readers will surmise that correspondents become somewhat desensitized to the horrors of corpses lining roads for miles, epidemics, and orphaned children. But O’Loughlin also recalls a harsh ethical argument about whether correspondents should help an elderly woman bury her grandchild. He also shows them dashing back to their comfortable hotels to file their stories and get on to dinner, drinks, and trading rumors. The author, who covered Africa for the Irish Times, set himself a lofty goal, and he largely achieves it: Not Untrue & Not Unkind, already released in England, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and it vividly re-creates the life of a foreign correspondent. --Thomas Gaughan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Ireland (March 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141038063
• ISBN-13: 978-0141038063
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #955,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ed O'Loughlin was born in Toronto and brought up in Ireland. He reported from Africa for The Irish Times and other newspapers, and was Middle East correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age of Melbourne. His first novel, Not Untrue and Not Unkind, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and short-listed for the Kerry Irish Fiction Award in 2010. His second novel, Top-loader, is due for publication in May 2011.

web-site: www.edwardoloughlin.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible writing with piercing insight into human nature, November 8, 2009

By 

Gamma (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Untrue and Not Unkind (Kindle Edition)

I just finished reading this book and I must say that I savored every page. I first learned of it through the Booker prize longlist for 2009. The author has captured human nature in an extraordinary way - it is piercing, unvarnished and honest. The writing is powerful, strong and unique. A number of quotes in the book just stick with me. Here's one of those quotes - where the main character Owen finds himself in a awkward conversation with a co-worker of his and makes this observation: "There would be nothing I could do about it, I knew that in advance. But only in chess do people resign when they know things are hopeless. In life we use up all our pieces first."

There is an incredible atmosphere in the book - and a gritty realism that just pulls you in. I heartily recommend this book, and I look forward to Ed O'Loughlin's next one.

If you like this book, you may also enjoy Arturo Perez-Reverte's Painter of Battles. The Painter of Battles: A Novel It is about a world-weary war correspondent haunted by his experiences.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars profound gut wrenching drama, June 12, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not Untrue and Not Unkind: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Dublin, newspaper editor Cartwright committed suicide. His shocked friends and colleagues cannot believe it. On Cartwright's desk, one of his newspaper buddies Owen Simmons finds a package containing a New York Chronicle photo he took over a decade ago in Africa of newspaper people they worked with. Simmons knows them all, but especially the woman he loved

He thinks back to Africa in the 1990s when they covered the deadly beat of a continent in perilous turmoil. Zaire was overwhelmed with civil war as was Nigeria. However, the worst was Rwanda where the rivers turned red due to the tribal genocide.

Not Untrue & Not Unkind is a profound look back into Africa as the continent implodes with violence as seen though Simmons' flashbacks. The intrepid journalistic crew are horrified with what they witness, report and photograph as atrocities make headlines in the civilized West, which chooses mostly inertia except when economic interests are threatened. Not an easy read, aptly titled Not Untrue and Not Unkind affirms mankind's cruelty to one another as the western journalists, who cannot fathom a rational reason for the violence while also knowing what they have seen will haunt them forever.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Aimless, August 21, 2010

By 

Melvin C. Vanderbrug (Bloomfield Hills, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Not Untrue and Not Unkind (Kindle Edition)

I'm sorry to disafree with the other reviiewers. The writing was high quality but there didn't seem to be much point to the book. I love Africa and have been to many of the sites in the book or would not have finished it. Sure there was chaeacter development but for much of the 1st half there were so many names thrown out with no reference that it was confusing. As for the death of Cartwright, it was a dangling participal. It had no connection with the rest of the book.