The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney- Book Review

I am just getting back into the country after being in Montreal for a few days and where I read only one book, which will be reviewed Monday, but I finished The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney right before I left and it is a book that stuck with me the entire week.

I have passed by this book in the bookstore several times. I would pick it up, read the back, and for some reason would put it back on the shelf. The next week, I would pick it up, go back and forth, and then put it down. When I saw it on Blogging for Books, I figured I would give it a try as it was now fate. When I started the book and even when I finished it, I didn't much care for it. It is a really IRISH book. I don't write that in a derogatory way, but many Irish books and movies are dark in tone with a bit of black comedy running throughout. The characters are often working class with troubled lives. Irish books are often more real in a world where escape is usually in order.

This book is a very Irish book in that sense. We are in Cork a working class town, where Jimmy is a big mobster and he has just put his mother Maureen into a house he owns. The house used to be an old brothel where Georgie, a 16 year old run away now prostitute who is hooked on drugs used to work. Georgie winds up in a religious commune after her boyfriend/pimp/drug dealer disappears. There is also Ryan a 14 year old who sells drugs because he doesn't want to wind up like his father who is an alcoholic.

The story is Maureen has accidentally killed an intruder with a holy stone. The intruder is now dead in her kitchen and she has to call her son to help clean the body up. The body is the connecting point to all the stories as Maureen accidentally learns the victim's name. She feels the need for penance for what she has done. She goes to a priest (a very funny scene), but winds up feeling the need for more.

The writing in this book is so good. The book has won many awards for McInerney's writing and deservedly so. As stated earlier, it is both funny and dark at the same time. The world of Cork just comes to life as these characters begin interacting with one another and nothing seems out of place.

The tone of the book though is difficult. I started it on a bright day in summer with birds singing and big fluffy clouds overhead and I am reading about a 16 year old who gets dragged into prostitution after simply wanting a place to sleep and being offered a bed to sleep in. I am reading about Ryan who doesn't see a way out of his life, except through drug dealing, and doesn't believe his father as his father attempts to clean up his life. For these characters, there are few places for upward mobility. This might be the best life they are living and that is so difficult to read about. It stuck with me though to the point that I will probably want to re-read it in the future. It simply is a book that one has to be in the mood for though and I don't recommend a fluffy cloud day for this one. As stated, I didn't enjoy it at first, but the more it settled, the more and more I liked it.

Overall, I gave this one 4.5 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- The Glorious Heresies by Lisa Mcinnerney

*I want to thank BloggingforBooks and Tim Duggan Books for the opportunity to read this. I received a review copy of this for free in exchange for an honest review.