This Is the Country

by William Wall

In an Ireland far removed from the familiar images of travel brochures, a bright teenager is heading for son of a single mother who has given up, rarely at school, taking drugs, and hovering on the fringes of the city's criminal underworld. When he falls for Pat The Baker's sister his life changes irrevocably, not least because when she gets pregnant, Pat breaks his legs. But as he tries to make a new start and adjust to being a lover and father, he realises he cannot evade vengeance forever. "This is the Country" is a hard-hitting, tense and deeply moving novel that sets power and corruption against the fragile defences of love, friendship and family. As gritty as it is tender, as funny as it is dark, it tells a riveting tale of survival against the odds.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Novels, Irish Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quiet power of this novel of identity and survival resides in its deceptive simplicity. Intimacy is easily established by WW from the first pages, he is a gracious host drawing the reader in to a world unfamiliar to most. So unsentimental that I was astonished to discover it is a love story shot through with melancholy and rough grace.

As I was looking through this before returning, I read again the curious poem at the beginning. After reading the book, it made more sense. Lo! It is also the table of contents. What a grand thing!

[Babs · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What I learned from this book".... well in a nutshell that not all modern books on sale in Waterstones are necessarily shit. I pretty much never read anything 'new' and featured in the Guardian arts section because (as if this latter were not enough) invariably they are actually utterly facile and only had attention paid to them because the author was a recent graduate of the CW course at UEA (more often than not middle-aged, female and lesbian. And ok yes I did find HOTEL WORLD a big disappointment, Ali Smith). I just think that modern writers don't tend to be very intelligent these days. Anyway, so I read THIS IS THE COUNTRY for work, fairly begrudgingly. And I really enjoyed it. It is one of those books where things are brought to you in a bit of a haze, like being on a waltzer in a heavy mist - cahracter interaction, conversations and feelings are described but rarely anything concrete is: therefore you feel as though you have been tagging along throughout the story holding on the character's sleeve but unseeing, as though pre-cataract op. Things are dream-like and yet despite this still utterly human; the characters are real and you somehow know that Jazz's earrings are the ones you get from Elizabeth Duke, and that their cheap electric doorbell has tiny cement splashes over it. So I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks modern publishing amounts to Lionel Shriver and that bloody endless burble of Alexander McCall Smith books. It's not going to rival the greats, and ok, one of the characters is called Jazz, but it does mean that I now occasionally go to Waterstones for something other than to buy birthday cards.

[Sisī · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grāmatā ir daudz narkotiku, daudz necenzētas leksikas, motori, dīzelis, bandu kari, mirstoši suņi un draugi. Bet visam pa vidu arī mīlestība. Citāda. Grūtāka. Skaudrāka.

Grāmata lika aizdomāties par to, ka dzīve nav tikai pūdercukurs un krāsaini vienradži. "Vēja suņa klasika" mani allaž pārsteidz ar kontrastiem. Nežēlīgā narkomānu un prostitūtu pasaule un viņu krāsainie sapņi, vīzijas, murgi, kas aprakstīti gandrīz kā dzeja. Tur aizvien aiz adatām, ripām un totāla pagrimuma pavīd kaut kas neticami dvēselisks un poētisks.

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started off reading this book thinking I don't really like the style. Backwards and fowarding all the time, even changing things from paragraph to paragraph but in the end I thought it was well written. A great book for discussion at book club.

An Irish lad (I don't think we were told his name and if we did I missed it) whose mother was on the game and a drunk gets to run wild with a bad crowd and he's into everything that he shouldn't be. His best friend Max dies and tells him to get with this girl Jazz. He does, she gets pregnant, her brother Pat (a drug dealer & all round nasty guy) breaks his legs and when he recuperates he goes on the run until he can come back and get Jazz and the baby (Kaylie). They make a decent life for themselves because he is clever and has become a diesel engineer (without any formal training) and can fix engines, then Pat finds where they are and the good life changes.

After reading this I think I would like to read another of William Walls books.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a gripping read. The author clearly knows the cities and countryside of Ireland and the characters that frequent them - both the good and the dark sides, and there's plenty of dark in this novel. Occasionally one too many plot twists, or perhaps a bit lacking in explanation, or maybe just my poor attention span. Well worth a read, and I'll be looking for more William Wall.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story of a drop out teenager with no father and a disinterested mother transformed by love. There's a point where you think he's made it and then the bottom drops out of his world. But he's learned to play the long game, no longer the impulsive kid he once was and at some point, after the book ends, he gets the ending he deserves.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the Country is narrated by an Irish man who's start in life wasn't the best, coming from the Norries of Cork, a deprived area with a lot of drug taking and social problems. He loses lots of friends to drug deaths and has to deal with the criminal underworld that is the only way lots of his neighbours can survive. He explores whether someone from this background can hope to escape and set up a less dangerous life for themselves and gain the respect of others and fair treatment by the legal and welfare systems.

That all sounds very worthy but the book doesn't read that way. It's a beautifully written, stream of consciousness style work with lots of fine imagery and humorous observations about real life. The protagonist starts in the style of a rough hoodlum but you might or might not sympathise with him by the end.

[Laurence Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I approached this book rather like a pizza. The idea of it was appealing and when you take your first bite, it seems like the best thing in the world. Then the second bite is much the same and by the third bite it's starting to feel like a slog. There's a lot of talent here and some great moments of insight and perception, but the problem with narratives that try to get into the heads of characters like this is that they become erratic and unfocused. That may be a good representation of the person (but it may also NOT be) but it's certainly not good in building up tension. By the end, I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. It wasn't that they were dislikable, just that the book seemed to have run out of energy

[Fran]

Mint. Loved the language and humour. As the cover says gritty and tender story of Max, Jazz, Pat, full colourful cast plus Wayne the dog. Great description of learning to love the sea and sail

[Ian Mapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its quite easy to get this book mixed up with the previous one.

This is written in a style that starts off engaging but runs out of steam.

Think there is more to this book that the simple, poetic and hallicinary text. But what, i am not sure.

The tale is simple enough - a young druggie gets involved with a gangsters sister and gets his legs broken when she gets pregnant.

He runs away to the country and gets himself straight and then re-establishes contact with her and sets up a happy home, getting himself money as a marine mechanic.

His past catches up with him and his girlfriend is murdered by one of her brothers heavies (likely - I think not) and then his daughter gets put into care. You think that it may be set up for some sort of revenge novel but nothing happens - he takes his daughter from the foster parents and gets stuck out in sea in a shoal of jellyfish.

Once into it, the narrative delivers but the book loses tension and runs out of steam. Easy enough to read, as its fairly short but I am not sure that I will be hunting down wall's back catalogue.

[Sbrdsbks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het lukt me niet om me echt te laten meeslepen met dit boek. Er zitten wel mooie dingen in, soms humoristisch, het is soms best emotioneel, er zitten verrassende wendingen in. Maar zeker aan het eind is er wat weinig ontwikkeling. Het is lastig Engels voor mij, daardoor waardeer ik het boek misschien lager dan het verdient.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite disappointing,. Wall has an interesting style, and the subject was appealing, but ultimately I got bored of the inevitability of the characters' grim lives and penchant for screwing them up further.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes when you judge a book by it's cover it doesn't work out.... Not my style of writing and was lost by page 20.

[Louella]

ok

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I

[Skye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first English book I've ever read... EVERYTHING IS WAY TOO DARK. TOO DARK.