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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The struggle for Irish Ireland...is for the heart.",
By
This review is from: At Swim, Two Boys (Paperback)
The first seventy pages of this huge, eloquent, and multi-layered novel require the reader's patience--it is not always clear, at first, who the characters are or exactly what they are doing. But patience is gloriously rewarded as the cadences of the characters' speech, with its street slang, odd syntax, natural poetry, and homespun aphorisms, combine with vibrant details of their everyday lives and eventually bring these "ordinary" folks to life in Dublin in 1915.On the eve of the Easter Rebellion, we meet Jim Mack and Doyler Doyle, two teenage boys who are trying to sort out who they are, emotionally, politically, and sexually. They get no help from home, where their fathers relive their memories of fighting for the British during the Boer War and where sex and the facts of life are never even hinted at. They get no help from their priests, who severely punish confessions of "the solitary sin," while sometimes fondling their students. Secret revolutionary societies troll for members, and priests sometimes help them. Neither boy has close friends his own age. As naïve Jim gravitates toward the more street-wise Doyler, their friendship blossoms, they rejoice in each other's company, and they begin to try on roles for the future--Doyler finding an outlet with Irish rebels, and Jim considering a priestly vocation. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that this will be a gay coming-of-age story within the broader context of the Irish rebellion, and these two stories mesh seamlessly, with many obvious parallels. Quietly, without beating any drums or making any polemical statements, O'Neill allows his characters to discover their feelings for each other and their inborn nature, even as the political rebellion takes shape. O'Neill's characters are who they are, and he respects them and the reader too much to use them simply to prove a point. The parallels he draws between them and some of the famous leaders of the Irish rebellion, such as Roger Casement, and between them and the Sacred Band of Thebes are incidental to the story, though they do give a broader context to the gay relationship. The only problem I had with this engrossing novel was with the character of MacMurrough, an older "mentor" to both boys. MacMurrough is a sexual predator, at least at the beginning, a man guilty of violent rape in a graphic early scene which made me cringe. The fact that he is later depicted sympathetically, and to some extent heroically, remains a problem for me, an anomaly in what is otherwise a beautifully wrought novel. Mary Whipple
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most sublime book ever,
By
This review is from: At Swim, Two Boys (Paperback)
I was eleven the first time I read a truly sublime book: the kind that tells a truth so compelling that it blinds you to the parallel knowledge that it is something special and, in the most devastating sense, unique. Inevitably, when I turned the last page, I was someone different. I didn't know the word `epiphany' then. I only knew that that book had slapped me in the face, touched me to the quick, and for a while, thrown everything into a clearer light.But from that day onward, I read in hopes of finding another such book. Twenty years on, despite my novel-a-week habit, I can still count those that qualify on one hand - and this is by far the best of them. Long live Jim & Doyler!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ireland and a lil' bit of everything else,
This review is from: At Swim, Two Boys (Paperback)
This book is about a lot of things: Ireland vs England. Ireland vs Itself. Heterosexuality vs Homosexuality. Young vs Old. Religion vs Secularism. Peace vs War. Revolution vs Acceptance. Sometimes the book concentrates on only one of these topics at a time, allowing first time novelist Jamie O'Neill to indulge in fleshing out the various sides of the debate. Other times the book tackles several of these subjects at once, at times all the subjects at once, and O'Neill captures the intricacies of each with an effortlessness that hints at literary genius. Purposeful without being preachy, inspirational without being contrite, and firmly rooted in actual events of history without being bogged down in details, "At Swim Two Boys" is a compelling and unforgettable novel about two boys growing up during one of Ireland's most tumultuous times.The year is 1915 and Ireland is about to be rocked by what would turn out to be a failed revolt against England. World War One is underway. The two boys of the title are adolescents confronting the reality of being gay- a reality opposed by the Church, their peers, and the culture in which they live. As the boys grow closer and experiment with their necessarily hidden feelings, they also must confront their feelings about Ireland, its role in the Great War, and the upcoming revolt of which they both find themselves in the midst. Jamie O'Neill, through his characterization of the two boys and his sly use of Catholicism's own language, defends the fact that homosexuality is NOT a choice with a subtle strength that is inspiring; yet this is not simply a book about two gay boys. It is a book about life- about living in a world where tough decisions (coming out, joining a revolution, fighting in a war) have to be made. The boys just happen to be gay, and Irish, and Catholic, and while these traits are essential to the success of this book, they no way limit the appeal of "At Swim Two Boys" to gay Irish Catholics. This book speaks to the masses and while O'Neill is not the easiest of authors (talented without a doubt, but in a wordy, sometimes obtuse way), the story he tells is universal. A must must read.
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