This is a book you won't see recommended by the Catholic Church or the Irish department of tourism, that is for sure.
The Glorious Heresies is a gritty, dark, gothic Shakespearean tragedy set in post crash Ireland.
6 people linked together as a result of a dead man.
Tony a father of 6 who is a drunk and an abusive father especially towards his son Ryan.
Jimmy, a high school friend of Tony's who is now an Irish gangster/ crime lord who uses people for his needs.
Maureen, jimmy's long lost mother, a woman who fell from the good graces of her family by getting pregnant and was shipped of to London for a couple of decades until Jimmy found her and brought her back. Her hatred of the church is enormous.
Georgie, a whore and a drug addict who knows no other way, and who unfortunately lands on Jimmy's radar.
Tara, a complete degenerate, neighbor of Tony and Ryan who procures drugs and liquor for Georgie among others, and has a love hate relationship with Tony and his family.
Ryan, at the start of the book is a 15 year old drug dealer who happens to deal to Georgie among so many, and is lacking any direction and focus in his life. By 20 he is a significant coke dealer and a near perfect train wreck.
Each character is a degenerate to some degree or another, and the dark depressing Ireland they live in certainly doesn't offer much hope.
Parts of the book read of a tragic comedy, but you know there will be few if any happy endings.
One of the most amazing things about this book is that it is the authors first. The writing is amazing with each chapter told from a different character and yet they never blend together, each character remains the same throughout. This is an author to watch for in the future.
American readers will do well to have the Internet handy as there is a considerable amount of Irish slang which may be very unfamiliar, similar to reading some of Irvine Welsh's books. The language of this book is also similar to Mr Welsh's books as well, so you have been warned. ( )

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 tomorrow, 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.

*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. ( )

This is beautifully written. Its themes are: the sins of the fathers..., How religion f*cks people up, how religion f*cks Ireland up, how alcohol and cocaine f*ck people up, how Humans hurt and kill each other, how "love" f*cks people up....these are the main themes.

Tony meets an Italian woman in London, they fall in lust and get a baby, and then five more, and they're drinking all the time, so when they have a huge fight (bigger than the other huge fights), she gets in her car and drives it into a ditch--boom, she's dead. Now Tony and his kids are left alone with his drinking. Ryan, his oldest, gets Tony's fists in his face to pay for Tony's guilt.

Ryan is a drug dealer, and is connected with Georgie the sex worker, Ms Duane, his nextdoor neighbor, who is also connected to Cork's biggest gangster, and Ryan's dad. There're are more connections, and violence, tears, jail, hospitals, churches, religious cults...read it for yourself. McInery is a writer who knows how ugly the human soul can be, but the redemption that is possible therein. ( )

left me lost for words and feeling pretty hollowed out. I'm not sure what to think, it was certainly nice to read, but it was equally horrible to read. ( )

4.5* - 5* on re-read

What an excellent read this is! I'm not at all surprised that it won the Women's Prize for Fiction, and I'm only cross with myself for leaving it lingering on my to-read shelf for as long as I did. The story gallops along, the characters are wonderfully-drawn, the writing is bloody marvellous and there is plenty of deep philosophy written in profane language. (That's "profane" as in "irreverent", not necessarily as in swearing, although there's some of that too!) I am very eagerly looking forward to reading more of McInerney's work. Highly recommended! ( )