The Rest Just Follows

by Glenn Patterson

First of September 1974. Craig Robinson is starting secondary school. Instinct tells him he needs to keep his head down. The last thing he needs, therefore, is someone carrying the name St John Nimmo to be sent to sit beside him, but that is what he gets.

Across town Maxine Neill is starting her own new school, convinced that she shouldn't be there at all. She should be where Craig and St John are. Not that she has met either of them yet. Though meet them she will, and more.

Their lives and hers - and the lives of the entire Nimmo family - become entwined as pre-teens turn to teens, turn to twenties and thirties, turn inevitably to the eff decades and they go about the business of filling the spaces vacated by the generations that went before. It's called growing up, never mind that most of the time it feels like making it up as they go along, and sometimes like fucking up completely.

Around them meanwhile the world happens: to be specific Belfast happens, for good or occasionally very ill indeed. These are the circumstances life has contrived for them. What are they to do but deal with it?

Genres: Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2014

Reviews

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rest Just Follows, Glenn Patterson's ninth novel, charts the sometimes intertwining lives of three main characters, Craig Robinson, St John Nimmo and Maxine Neill, beginning on their first day at 'big school' in September 1974. Following them through school and into their adult lives, Patterson evokes everyday life in an ever evolving Belfast and beyond, and while the premise of charting narratives over a 30+ year sweep sounds ambitious in the 368 pages of the novel, he does so with great success.

I've been a big fan of Patterson's work since reading The International-still one of my top 5 favourite novels ever-in 1999, so this book was never going to be a hard sell for me. As always, Patterson's writing captures Belfast in its changing guises through the featured years to a tee, the finer detail in his descriptions bringing me back to exact places and times in my mind's eye. While I'm a dozen years younger than the characters portrayed in the book, many of the cultural and social happenings they find themselves involved in are universal, while specific incidents related to the Troubles made it very easy for me to fully empathise with them.

How well the book will translate to a readership with little knowledge of the city is debatable, but for me this is another 5 star read from an author deservedly labelled by Will Self as 'Belfast's Prose Laureate'.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ambitious story as it covers several decades and the lives of three friends. Beginning in 1974, in Belfast, during the Troubles, we see how peripheral the violence is for much of the time in the lives of these middle class kids. Occasionally, they are touched by death and events, but they are never paralyzed by it. It reminds me of Gerard Dawes' book My Mother City about Belfast in the 1960's. There are some exquisite lines in this book which I hesitate to quote. It's better to stumble across them as a reader. A recent review in the Guardian (April 11, 2014) points out one flaw which is due to the span of the book, some details in the lives of the three protagonists are lost. Nevertheless, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the city, as it captures one reality that many aren't aware of - the sheer ordinariness of the lives of many inhabitants of the city during troubled times.

[A.K. Biggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this novel begins in northern Ireland in the 1970's this is not a novel about the Troubles. Far from it it is a wonderfully told story about the circular nature of life. We meet Craig, Maxine and St John as they begin their second-level education. These formative years are marked by the minor triumphs and humiliations common to all teenagers, the torment of imperfect families, the passions, infatuations and insecurities that seem less significant the older we get, yet still linger with us into middle age.
I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first novel from this author I have read, but it won't be the last! As a Northern Irish Expat,
I'm always on the the hunt for my next fix. Having exhausted Adriian Mc Kinty, Stewart Neville and the engenui, Kevin Mc Carthy, I thought I was stuck. Then while reviewing another novel, this synopsis popped up.
From the first sentence I was hooked. The plot line, so unlike many others, had me wondering if I had made an error in genre.
Through character development and plot line this novelist obviously knows his stuff.
What a magnificent piece of writing !
Now a devoted fan.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

a belfast book. comforting, quiet, peacefully tracing out a sharp/tough past i never quite saw as a newcomer here, but never mistook the traces of either, & reminding me how long i’ve lived here & how hard a place it has been to be, for so many for so long, but how loved it is too. also one of the truest accounts ever of how formative THAT ONE PARTY can be, & how much of us lives (or comes to life) in the buildings we love

[T H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book> It provides a fair picture of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It is also an excellent story charting the lives of some young people who lived through such times with compassion and humoour

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing about young people growing up in the 80s in Belfast just seems so dated these days, but the freshness and vitality of the characters keeps this book's head above water. Why o why are all the sentences so long. It interupts the flow when you have to keep double checking the meanings

[Farzan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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