Customer Reviews

Ripley Bogle (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
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Robert Mcliam Wilson is, in my humble opinion, the great Irish writer of our age, joining the likes of other Irish notables James Joyce and Cathal Ó Sándair.

Ripley Bogle, while a step down from the splintering tale that was Eureka Street (a personal favorite of mine), is still worth a read or two. It features the life of the title character - a quick-witted, borderline-genius who goes from a precocious Cambridge student to a homeless roamer in little to no time. He is handsome, sardonic, and as we read we find that he, like Jake Jackson from Eureka Street, also has become numb to the constant violence and political turmoil that surrounds him. Some have compared Bogle to 'The Catcher in the Rye's' Holden Caulfield, but I think Bogle acts as his own man and to compare them quickly proves hollow once you read Ripley Bogle.

What I like most about Wilson is that he intertwines poetry, wit and humor into even the most disturbing of events - like the betrayal and death of a best friend at the hands of the I.R.A. - and he does the trick again here in Ripley Bogle. Wilson has yet to grasp the due credit for his work because he paints Ireland with a brush that is honest and real, without the romanticism that Americans love to read about. The New York Times at one point even refused him an endorsement, saying his books were not Irish enough. Wilson responded by saying he knew what Ireland was due to the fact he's lived there all of his life.

I highly recommend both Ripley Bogle and Eureka Street to anyone curious enough to deploy some reading about Ireland as seen through possibly its greatest writer of our day.

I'm on a constant search for books smart enough to keep me until the end. Literary pompousity irritates me beyond belief, yet so does poor work. Not since Johnathon Coe's "House of Sleep" have I been able to read in such contentment. I loved the energy of Wilson, the great journey he takes us on through the eyes of a tramp inflicted with genius in a world where thought doesn't belong. It was wonderful to read a novel so honest, by a writer whose intelligence was never usurped by arrogance.

I was simply astonished by the fact that he was this good at the start. Ripley Bogle is no worse than Eureka Street, although maybe a little more juvenile. It does not have the happy end of Eureka Street, and it is much more cynical, in the way young and precocious writers often are. However, as literature it is even more innovative than Eureka Street, and often it feels much more immediate and honest.

This is quite a brilliant book, and a great antidote for anyone who is sick and tired of the American minimalist school of literature (ie. Raymond Carver, et al). How contemporary writers got stuck in that old Heminwayesque rut of dry terse prose is a mystery to me. Thank God we still have the lugubrious Irish to inject a little life into the hallucinogenic details of life...enough of that rant...this is a fun and , at times, harrowing read about life on the streets as seen from a bright fragile young man. It is as visceral as Bukowski, as fantastic as Joyce, with the heartbreaking misanthropy of Cioran. Read it if you want to keep the richness of the English language from becoming extinct.

After reading very favorable reviews, I got the impression this book would be about an "Irish Holden Caulfield." (Catcher in the Rye.) There were some similairities. They are both young men narrating the story of their own demise from formal education to homelessness. Both speak directly to the reader, telling us what we would think of something, then reiterating. (you'd love it, you really would.) But I found Ripley Bogle to be a difficult book to get through. The author uses such extreme vocabulary, there were times I wish he'd put away his thesaurus and just tell the story. There were some very witty passages and extremely detailed descriptions, but a lot of excess. This is just my humble opinion, but I don't care for the books where the writing is a lot more noticable than the story.

McLiam Wilson shows his youth in this first novel, but his Dickensian attention to detail is usually a thrill to behold. I'm so sick of writing being a by-the-way of telling stories. Though not without the wit present in Eureka Street, the operative adjective here is "beautiful:" every word is where it should be, every sentence is in its rightful place, and the book leaves one thinking of the author, "how does he DO that?" For readers who want to read a book written using language to benefit a plot instead of just convey it, Ripley Bogle is a godsend. The end will make your jaw drop.

I read this novel after reading "Eureka St." which I loved for the characters and the writing. The writing is definetly here in "Ripley Bogle," and the character, if not as joyful as before, is still here. The novel is very different, it tends more towards the darker side of the human soul. Having said that though, it was fascinating to read as the character continues to descend into the depth of depravity while you continue to cheer for him. The character is just that charming. I would recommend this book, but I would also advise reading "Eureka St." to get a full appreciation of the abilities of the author.

robert mcliam wilson dropped out of college to live on the street and write this book, and i think it's safe to say that was a brilliant move. ripley bogle makes almost none of the mistakes first-time-novelists tend to make. it stretches the intellect of the reader, the author, and of bogle himself. this (along with wilson's second novel, eureka street) is among the best books written by my generation. if you think all the great literary masters are dead and gone, you're sadly mistaken. you should read ripley bogle. your friends should read it. and everyone else you know, for that matter, should read it too.

1 Ripley Bogle is a novel based on one character (Ripley Bogle) and his battle with life. It is written entirely in the first person and so the view of life we get is all through Bogle's eyes. He is now a tramp living in London. Robert McLiam Wilson writes the novel in the present with Bogle sharing his past experiences with the reader as well as making you share the boredom of a tramp's life. I want to focus on Ripley Bogle because he is clearly the most obvious character and is wonderfully created. I find him fascinating because Wilson creates Bogle as if he was a real person. So while reading the book you feel like you are being privileged to share an insider's view of Bogle's life. Wilson pulls it off so well that you never feel that there is an author. You feel are reading a diary or having a dialogue between you and Bogle. Wilson is Irish. This brings a believable dimension to Bogle who is also Irish. With all the current trouble in Northern Ireland, Wilson is one of the few writers who cuts through the political correctness to create a true representation of a certain Irish lifestyle. He gets away with it because when he makes jokes or controversial suggestions about the Irish he also directs them at himself. Bogle had a very hard childhood in Belfast. He describes himself as an, "Eponymous Bastard," which sums up the unrealistic nature of his life almost like a play and at the same time the harshness. The novel starts with him describing his own birth in the third person. This sets the scene for the quirky nature of the book to follow. He writes, "Unnamed and ugly, he makes little impression on that world room. An augury of his river catching life." His use of language and word choice clearly shows that he views his entrance into the world as a misfortune. `Unnamed' suggests a lack of identity and care, his mother was a prostitute and didn't have much time for her children. `Ugly' as if the world had already decided he wasn't going to have an easy time of it and `augury' continues this looking to the future struggles an omen for what is to follow. Moving from his birth, we are now with Bogle on the streets of London. It very quickly becomes apparent that Bogle is a clever person. His word choice and the images he uses portray him as an intelligent thinker. He says of June, "Only we the destitute know the Siberian truth about an English June. We are its allies its confidants. We are on first name terms with its frozen frosty grip." I think his positioning of the word `Siberian' is clever because it conveys the coldness but also exaggerates the word `truth', as if we have all been fooled that June is a summer month. `Allies' and `confidants' convey the struggle for survival like a battle. Finally his use of alliteration `frozen frosty' adds poetry and hints at a good education. Because Wilson allows Bogle to describe himself we do not get a good 2

single physical account or a summary of his personality. He spends most of the time rambling on about different things. Wilson writes on the back cover of the novel, "To come with me you must brave the air and the wide bare boredom." Bogle's boredom is vital in making the novel believable. It makes the reader always look for the little bit of excitement, usually coming when he has flashbacks about his past. He has had an amazing roller coaster life from Belfast to Cambridge University to London. It makes you really consider Bogle's life, his situation and that of all tramps. The last section of the book promised to be very dull. We have heard about all of his life, but Wilson puts a quirky twist in the plot which holds your attention until the end. In short, he lied through most of the book. Having lied about girlfriends and fights he writes, "Quantitively speaking that's a whole hell of a lot of untruth, and such major plot points too!" This holds the readers attention right until the end. Wilson uses the closing cleverly he leaves us with Bogle telling us about his lies and does not give the book an ending. This has the effect of making the truthful retelling of certain parts seem like a confession. We leave the book sad at the lack of prospects for Bogle and sure that he will die. Coinciding with his `last confession' Wilson gives Bogle a rash of illnesses and so the only conclusion is that he will die. But not knowing is better because it always gives the unpredictable Bogle a chance. Wilson has a wonderful understanding of his fellow Irishmen and spares no offence in pursuit of the Irish life he tries to portray. He says of his father, "He was part Welsh and part Irish... this is a F* awful thing to be... Whom I loathe most... the Welsh generally have it." He describes Irish women as "hideous," and his mother as, "an old rolling fat bag." These negative comments about the people about him give you more respect for him because he has had to come through more to achieve the same as others. He makes some wonderful observations, "I'm sitting three hundred yards from Buckingham Palace... The Queen's in there laughing at me while I get pissed on." These give Bogle a hard edge but also continually remind us of his cleverness. He claims that "Wealth is of course merely a gauge of ones distance from poverty." It is these observations and poetic descriptions that keep you reading even when Bogle is rambling on about the lack of excitement in his life. He describes night, "The grubby night now begins to weave its icy threads around my faltering heart." 3 Wilson gives Bogle the ability to laugh at his own situation, making some serious problems seem more light-hearted and so lifting the tone at depressing times in the book. He writes a poem called `The Neoplasims' Verse one reads, "We laugh at radiation, Chemotherapy leaves us cold, We are the bold incurables, We're Canker, Rot and Mould."Bogle smokes heavily, and although his intelligence shows he knows the dangers, he believes he needs cigarettes. Other characters in the book come and go but the characters that he chooses to have relationships with underlines his diverse nature. Dierdre is his first girlfriend we hear about. She is Protestant and Bogle is Catholic and whereas he is intelligent and went to Cambridge, she is, "stupid." This relationship reflects his desire to be different and to overcome problems and it also represents his relationship with Ireland, his most successful but also dangerous. As Bogle leaves one so does he lose the other which underlines this. Bogle meets Laura at Cambridge and he falls in love. She is "beautiful," and is intelligent, he is, as he says, "gorgeous," and clever. They are much more suited in many ways but she never acknowledges him. Their non-existent relationship represents Bogle's turbulent life were he can achieve the, `impossible,' but cannot find stability. She also represents Cambridge with its surreal atmosphere and beauty. Perry is a fellow tramp who is generous, quiet and wise. But because he is a fellow tramp can do little to offer more than friendship and advice. He dies, and at that point their relationship represents the relationship between Bogle and London, all right for a while but doomed to fail. I have read Ripley Bogle several times now and I still find sections dull as is planned by Wilson. Then in other parts I still find it enthralling. Wilson uses old cliches like the poor boy to Cambridge, but he does it with originality and realism. The ending, or lack of one, adds to the realism because life isn't neat and round which is what Wilson is trying to get across. I often look at people and ask myself questions about their lives, and this book is a perfect response to all these questions for Ripley Bogle the Irish tramp in London.