Ollie Ewing has returned home from London to Sligo. In a daze, Ollie goes from job to job and from lodging to lodging until he settles in a run-down house with a group of art students. At night the noise comes from the street-drunks, screaming women, church bells, taxis, skinheads. Mornings he wakes up wondering what had happened, then goes to bed the next night wondering what will. Haunted by memories, Ollie hears voices interrogating him. And so unravels the story of the time he spent in London and how he has reached his present state of near madness. As he embarks on his journey to confront his experiences, we are led into the world of racketeering, sinister bosses, murder, and the hard, squalid life of foreign workers. A powerful, richly told story of an Irish working-class family, Sudden Times is original in concept and execution, tough but blessed with humor and empathy.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Funny, bewildered, guilty, more than half-mad, the voice that narrates Dermot Healy's Sudden Times is like a nightmarish illustration of the old bumper sticker that says: Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They're Not Out to Get You. Something terrible happened to Ollie Ewing while he was working construction in London, and as he wanders the streets and pubs of his hometown Sligo, he keeps his memories at bay with a ceaseless round of activity--walking, working, then walking some more. "What I've discovered is--once you're moving you're thinking, it's when you're not moving that things go awry. This numbness starts in the brain and what you see would sicken you." Ollie hears voices, although he tries to drown them out, and the world around him is shimmery and numinous, full of hidden and unfriendly signs. An empty wedding dress hanging in a cleaner's window transforms each night into the faceless apparition of a bride, and when he closes his eyes, he sees flames, courtrooms, corpses stuffed in the back of lorries. Eventually even this slight purchase on reality slips, and as Ollie travels to England to reconcile with his father, the book telescopes horribly backward, to his time in London and the mess it made of his life.
There, Ollie worked as a day laborer on building sites, joining a shadowy underworld of foreign workers, crooked bosses, violence, and drugs. This in spite of his best efforts to stay out of trouble:
I don't like hearing talk of governments. Politics makes me dizzy. They're cat. If you're paranoid about government then the psyche is unsettled. You're not well. Next thing is you're standing in Saint Columba's in your pyjamas talking to some bollacks about the phallus and chewing something to bring you down.But this is an Irish novel, of course, its rough, lyric vernacular haunted by the ghosts of Beckett and Joyce, and Ollie's great tragedy is that politics find him whether he likes it or not. The strains of the traditional song "Cunla" torment him along with the voices of his dead, and the "reels and jigs" that echo through his head have names like "Rifles from High Buildings," "Protection Rackets," "Come Back Me Auld Mate," and "Is the Place Being Watched?" If the book has a fault, it's that its first half simply slips away; we're drawn into Ollie's London story, and the trip we took to get there seems in retrospect like an extended narrative tease. But in trying to make the two halves fit together, you might well pay this mad and beautifully terrifying novel the highest praise of all: that is, to read the last page, and immediately turn to the beginning and start again. --Mary Park
Dermot Healy is a poet, a playwright, and a novelist. His short-story collection Banished Misfortune won two Hennessy Awards and the Tom Gallon Award. His novels include Fighting with Shadows and A Goat's Song. He is a member of Asodana, the academy of distinguished Irish writers. He lives in Sligo, Ireland.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00046347012
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Good condition ex-library book with usual library markings and stickers. Seller Inventory # 00065553265
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: More Than Words, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. . Former Library book. All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofi9780393706468 t job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. Seller Inventory # BOS-A-01d-02158
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 7815639-6
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP97690109
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 25-0151005788-G
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Dunaway Books, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Seller Inventory # 42468
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002631375
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: Carlson Turner Books, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: VG+. Dust Jacket Condition: VG+. A very nice copy with clean, bright interior pages and solid binding. DJ in very nice condition. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 331 pages; Lit. Seller Inventory # 43673
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: My Dead Aunt's Books, Hyattsville, MD, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Stated first ed., first printing; 331 p., immaculate and unmarked except for cryptic book seller's mark on upper margin of front end page; pristine boards; unclipped d.j. is without edgewear but has sticky sticker ghost on upper margin of front panel. Seller Inventory # SKU1029173
Quantity: 1 available