Call Me the Breeze

by Patrick McCabe

With T. S. Eliot's words as his guide, Joey Tallon embarks on a journey toward enlightenment in the troubling psychedelic-gone-wrong atmosphere of the late 1970s. A man deranged by desire, and longing for belonging, Tallon searches for his"place of peace" -- a spiritual landscape located somewhere between his small town in Northern Ireland and Iowa ... and maybe between heaven and hell.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Ireland

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Patrick McCabe came to prominence with the publication of his third adult novel, The Butcher Boy, in 1992; the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Britain and won the Irish Times-Aer Lingus Prize for fiction. McCabe's strength as an author lies in his ability to probe behind the veneer of respectability and conformity to reveal the brutality and the cloying and corrupting stagnation of Irish small-town life, but he is able to find compassion for the subjects of his fiction. His prose has a vitality and an anti-authoritarian bent, using everyday language to deconstruct the ideologies at work in Ireland between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. His books can be read as a plea for a pluralistic Irish culture that can encompass the past without being dominated by it.

McCabe is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His novels include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written a children's book (The Adventures of Shay Mouse) and several radio plays broadcast by the RTÉ and the BBC Radio 4. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan.

McCabe lives in Clones, Co. Monaghan with his wife and two daughters.

Pat McCabe is also credited with having invented the "Bog Gothic" genre.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first encountered Patrick McCabe through "The Butcher Boy" I was completely blown away. It is such a powerful novel and McCabe's ability to adopt the voice of someone who is mentally disturbed and render them in such authentic, sympathetic terms impressed me to no end. Unfortunately, having now read "Breakfast on Pluto," "Emerald Germs of Ireland," and now "Call Me the Breeze" it has become increasingly apparent that variations on the mentally disturbed narrator are pretty much all he can muster. He does it artfully here, but enough already! I'm ready for something new Mr. One-Note McCabe.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just weird, but what do you expect form the guy that brought you "The Butcher Boy"

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bono, Charles Manson, T.S. Elliot are his idols... Who is Joey Tallon... GREAT READ

[Tyler Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely ever want to re-read books, but I wanted to read this again the second I was done. Easy contender for my favorite book of all time. Not everyone will like it as much as me from a personal perspective but it's still just a terrifically written book in an objective sense, and I strongly recommend it to everyone.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange, ultimately haunting book. In addition to being an intricate story masterfully told, it contains passages of a surpassing beauty. It is those passages that are at the heart of the work, the very quietly beating heart of the work.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reinvention is the mother of necessity.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

surprising in every way, a collection of diary and journal entries and reminisces that adds up to a narrative of an astonishing life. I really did love it.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I was a little spoiled having read The Butcher Boy and been dazzled by its use of language and originality of voice. This book shares its quirkiness and undercurrent of derangement, but the protagonist is not nearly as interesting, and the book actually begins to plod a bit about two-thirds of the way through. It has some very humorous passages and a good bit of poignancy, but the saga of Joey Tallon's pursuit of the Place of Wonders, with all of its false starts and flights of grotesque fancy, in the end seems too labored and so did not work consistently enough for me to give it anything but a qualified recommendation.

[Just This · Rating 3 out of 5]

fat, unpopular joey becomes obsessed with jacy, tries to get elected, goes to jail & writes a book. basically.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read another of this author's books, The Butcher Boy, and loved it. It was bizarre and a little difficult to follow, but so creative and twisted.
This book, however, seems like it's the bad parts of The Butcher Boy. The main character, Joe, is just as "innocent" and messed up as the main character of The Butcher Boy, but Joe is also less likeable, which was a big part of Butcher Boy's charm. And the plot is even more difficult to follow.
I'm only giving it three stars because I like the author's voice. I think that if he had a really great editor, he could be amazing.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like McCabe, but this book seriously tried my patience. It's the first person story of Joe Tallon, famous Irish writer, living in a small border town during the Troubles. As you read, though, you realize that Joe is a fairly disturbed, and highly unreliable, narrator. Unfortunately, once you realize that, the book doesn't have much more to offer. There's no way of knowing how much of what Joe tells you is the truth or not, which becomes frustrating and finally, flat-out boring.

[Stephen Hero · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fired from my job as Martin Short's publicist immediately after I recommend that he title his soon-to-be-released autobiography "Short on Laughs."