This novel focuses on a family in Derry in the 1970s, set against a
background of rancour and conflict. Life in the Logan household
never seems to be comfortable or easy, and young Joe Logan, with
his head full of poetry, wishes he could escape elsewhere. Joe's
dad is an embittered, crippled and spiky ex-Provo, who dwells on
past glories and rejoices when he hears of the death of a British
soldier. Joe's brother Brendan has been away working in England,
but, to the disgust of their mother, he returns hoping to help the
cause. She sees history repeating itself, and what with the
disillusion of her marriage, the violence, the shootings and the
eternal raids and lifting of suspects, she's worn out. Fiercely
protective of Joe, she wants him to have no part in the brutal
events that are happening daily. However, inevitably Joe gets drawn
into his brother's affairs and discovers that despite his hatred
for his father, family loyalty is bred in the bone. When Joe meets
Kathleen, a young, transient teacher, to him she represents another
world far away from Derry. In his confusion over his feelings for
her, he embarks on a course of action that brings his childhood to
an abrupt end and has unpleasant consequences for all concerned.
The dialogue in Jennifer Johnston's rites-of-passage novel sings
out so clearly and convincingly that the reader is effortlessly
drawn into the story. Haunting and disturbing, this novel describes
the pathos and the emotional cost of the Troubles at a very human
level. (Kirkus UK)
Derry in the 1970s: teenager Joe Logan is growing up in the teeth
of the Troubles, having to cope with embittered parents, a brother
who's been away and come back with money and a gun in his pocket,
harsh school teachers, and the constant awareness of the military
presence in the background. Central to the story is the friendship
that tentatively grows up between Joe and Kathleen, a young
school-teacher who brings a fresh perspective to his familiar
world.
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