Home

by Frank Ronan

Born on a Devon commune in the sixties to a teenage single mother, Coorg is declared to be the new Merlin by the group (until he is supplanted by Marc Bolan) and grows up on peace, love and brown rice - until Coorg's grandparents abduct him when he is 6, taking him back to Ireland where he is renamed Joseph and introduced to Mass, sweets, and the back of his grandmother's hand. Joe grows up in a small seaside town trying hard to fit into a dysfunctional family and a Church that doesn't seem to reward his efforts, but when he decides to be bad he finds sinning gets him no further. Then his feckless mother reappears, on the trail of the Holy Grail and (when Marc Bolan dies) after Joe as the messiah who will save the world. On the cusp of adulthood, his head churning with Catholicism, mysticism as well as the more usual teenage concerns, Joe finally cracks.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kate Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most underrated Irish novelist ever. This is a totally charming story told through the eyes of a young boy who is the son of Irish hippies. Beyond cool. Ronan always has a slightly offbeat picture of Ireland that is refreshingly modern while capturing who we really are. Read it. Then go and get all his other books and read them too.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, funny and moving novel by one of Ireland's most overlooked and, to be honest forgotten authors (please seemy footnote *1 below for more information on Frank Ronan). I am not going to rehash the novel's storyline, that is what GR and sites like amazon are for, and in any case like all really great novels the plotline is merely the frame upon which Ronan, like all great writers, explores what really matters. And what is that? Home, but which home? Is it where his grandparents take him to and later where his mother wants him to live or is it hOme? the Devon commune he was born and lived on until he was six. But like all good novels about home Mr. Ronan's is as much about escaping home, or finding your own home or at least independence from the demands of home, as anything else. Rarely has a character in fiction been used as ruthlessly as poor Coorg. He is used by everyone for their own ambitions, dreams or schemes with none of them giving even a passing thought to who or what Coorg is or wants to be. If ever a youngster is left to wend their way through life's mysteries unaided in is young Coorg. That he is nearly destroyed is not surprising and while I would hesitate to say that we leave Coorg on the way to happiness there is every reason for optimism.

Having said all that I am aware that I am making this wonderfully funny and delightful novel sound deeply depressing. It isn't because Mr. Ronan, even when he deals with the heaviest of themes, cannot help allowing life to find a way towards the positive.

The novel is roughly set between 1967-1977 and the demise of hippies, the rise of glam rock and its replacement by punk is the cultural background. That all this is seen through the perspective of that Devon commune and then a run down seaside town in Ireland makes it all more real, for me, because I lived most of those years growing up in Ireland equally far from but as influenced by those distant schools of popular culture.

Mr. Ronan captures so much of that era from the misogyny and hypocrisy of so much commune life (please see my footnote *2 below) Irish TV beginning at 6pm with the Angeleus and the absurdly doleful influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland at that time. In particular a wonderful scene where the local priest gives a sermon on the dangers of thinking. It caused the fall of Eden and was at the root of the Reformation and was the work of the devil:

"...God had given us brains not to use them but as a test to tempt us. We could prove ourselves worthy of God's love by abstaining from unnecessary thought in the same way that we proved it by abstaining from unnecessary action in a certain physical department. The brain was an organ of pleasure and should be distrusted as such." (page 226)

It is horribly true and funny and deserves to sit with Joyce's depiction of the retreat sermon in 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'.

'Home' is, I repeat again, a wonderful, beautifully written, novel about growing up, the falsity of adults and the need to learn independence. I loved it and wish more people would love this and all Frank Ronan's splendid fiction.

*1 Between 1992 and 2003 Frank Ronan produced five novels and a collection of short stories all of which have been translated into various European languages such as French and German, in the case of this novel, and Portugese, Italian and French for his others. Despite what GR might lead to think they were all originally written in English. Mr. Ronan still regularly writes about gardening and I refer you to the only substantial interview with him that I can find:

https://www.estudiosirlandeses.org/wp...

I live in hope that he will write more novels and stories.
*2 Just how different the reality of late 1960s freedom and love was from its later portrayal is best captured by reading 'Slouching towards Bethlehem' by Joan Didion.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this, read in one sitting. Very charming; very Irish.

[Mair Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Poor Coorg what a crazy life he is born into.

[Flor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Não gostei.
Realmente o Ronan perde qualidades com o passar do tempo. Os primeiros livros dele são mesmo os melhores.

[Mady · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a child that is born in a permissive hippie comunity and is taken by his grandparents to live in a repressive society.