At Swim, Two Boys: A Novel
by Jamie O'Neill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jamie O'NeillEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-25
ISBN: 0743222954
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of At Swim, Two Boys: A Novel
Book Review: "The Evil Thing is the English in Ireland"
Summary: 5 Stars
At Swim, Two Boys: A Novel
"The Evil Thing is The English in Ireland"
"A moment - then all of a glow the sun is on Jim's face. He looks up where the clouds have parted. The sun shines and bathes the world, and the land trembles at the touch. How green are the fields, how lush the grass. Each blade of grass glistens, and the leaves of the trees and hedges glisten with a silvery light all their own. The crows above cease their mockery. The fat contented cows look up in wonder. How rich is this land. It is a rich and rare land. Why wouldn't it be rare, fed on the martyred dead?"
Jamie O'Neill's "At Swim, Two Boys" can be read on several levels. On one level, it is a love story between two adolescent boys: one educated, privileged and destined for success; the other destitute, partially crippled,
seduced and corrupted by the gentry, and likely condemned to a Dickensian life among the poor.
On another level, it is a rich social and political history of the buildup to the Easter Rising of 1916 which, coming during the First World War, provides a natural dramatic backdrop. Irish Nationalism, Wolf Tone, the Green Flag and the Red Hand, Parnell , Roger Casement and the whole raft of heroes, traitors and martyrs figures in.
At yet another point, it is an evocation of the rich literary heritage of Ireland: Joyce's Ulysses and Dubliners; Yeat's poems and plays, and Wilde's iconoclasm and social commentary. There is enough material in O'Neill's book to keep your interest for at least a couple of weeks. (After all, it took O'Neill ten years of working as a night porter at a London psychiatric institution to write it)
O'Neill's style is intimidating at first ---local geographic references, Irish idioms and gaelic phrases. Several reviewers have faulted him for his hermetic difficulty-- but once you get the hang of it, it's understandable. (Joyce was no quick and easy read, either)
The characters are well-developed and complex. Jim Mack, the senstitive, intelligent boy, is dogged by a brother fighting in Gallipoli and a bourgeoise father. Doyler is the patriotic - even radical - Irish "everyman."
With his winning grin and boyish charm he's extremely likeable.
MacMurrough is the most complicated character, modeled on Wilde and also imprisoned by the British for sodomy, he is apparently schizophrenic, possessed by the voices of conscience and of experience. Beginning as the seducer and corrupter, he becomes the protector and mentor.
It has been many years since I've read a novel with as much substance, charm and emotion as O'Neill's "At Swim, Two Boys." Hopefully, there will be more to follow.
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