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The Blocks
The Blocks is a story of a visionary artist growing up in the inner city tower blocks of Dublin in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, with drug dealers and addicts, stolen cars, fights, malign and benevolent spirits, prostitutes. A story of family, friends, bands and poetry. A story about the redemptive power of art and love, and the quest to break free from spiritual suffering. Karl Parkinson is a writer from inner-city Dublin. He is one of Ireland's most acclaimed live literature performers and has read by invitation at festivals and events in Ireland, the UK, the US and Canada. In 2013 Wurmpress published Karl's début poetry collection, Litany of the City and Other Poems, and his second poetry collection, Butterflies of a Bad Summer, was published by Salmon in 2016. The Blocks is his début novel.
284 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 18, 2017
Think Gritty Dublin saga.
Think a quasi-memoir feel.
Think drugs, poverty and violence.
Think drug deaths, suicide, dream sequences and ghosts.
Think use of vernacular language and spelling.
Think you've read this all before, YOU HAVE! Only better written, with an actual plot, with characters who are well developed.
Think about a narrator who spends the book talking about how he is going to become a poet; and yet this is the most un-poetic book you will ever read. The author thinks by quoting just the names of actual poets that he can fool us into thinking that the narrator is himself a poet by association.
Listen take my advice - read Irvine Welsh for the vernacular language, and read Frankie Gaffney for a book set in Dublin with an actual plot, and stunning characterisations.
Think a quasi-memoir feel.
Think drugs, poverty and violence.
Think drug deaths, suicide, dream sequences and ghosts.
Think use of vernacular language and spelling.
Think you've read this all before, YOU HAVE! Only better written, with an actual plot, with characters who are well developed.
Think about a narrator who spends the book talking about how he is going to become a poet; and yet this is the most un-poetic book you will ever read. The author thinks by quoting just the names of actual poets that he can fool us into thinking that the narrator is himself a poet by association.
Listen take my advice - read Irvine Welsh for the vernacular language, and read Frankie Gaffney for a book set in Dublin with an actual plot, and stunning characterisations.
August 7, 2016
High Praise for The Blocks in its First month of realise:
I stumbled along for a few lines, the Dublin language rendered in unfamiliar spelling, more extreme than anything I'd read before (or written myself) made me falter. Then the sounds emerged. Not just the sounds, the rhythm, not only the rhythm of speech, of our dialect - but of the inner-city itself. By the second page I was nodding - not just at the tempo, at all the sights, the smells, the places, the people, the emotions, the dirt, the sex, the violence, all the things I recognised captured so effortlessly. By the 5th page I was crying.
"Lift me up Ma. Lift me up Ma. Lift me up Ma. Dat wuz de mantra I chanted wen a boy." How many times have we heard a plaintive little voice vainly repeat those words as we pass a brashly pushed buggy on O'Connell Street? Or uttered them ourselves? This book takes what we all see - even if only with a glance - and presents it to us anew, from the inside, from the outside, inside-out and upside down.
Mark my words: this book is an ESSENTIAL part of our literary heritage, and deserves a place in the canon of Irish literature.
Frankie Gaffney. Author of Dublin Seven (liberties Press).
The Blocks, set in and around O Devaney's gardens in the 80s, 90s, & 00s and managing the major feat of being both unflinching about inner city existence and at the same time uplifting in its overall spiritual outlook on life. It's the first piece of openly and proudly visionary/prophetic literature to emerge from working class Dublin since James Clarence Mangan was on the prowl back in the mid-19th century and for that reason, as well as the fact that it is written with commanding eloquence in the language actually spoken by inner city Dublin residents, it is certain to go down in literary history. This is art by the people, for the people, and with the people. Dave Lordan, Poet, editor, Critic.
Mark Twain used dialect, Joyce used dialect, Karl Parkinson has dared to let dialect use him. Forget the precise elocution of The Quiet Man, Irish Spring soap commercials, and sweet Jaysus in heaven do forget whatever the hell it was Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts affect as 'Oirish.' These are the sounds, the voices of urban Dublin captured as precisely as a hidden microphone.
His novel shows the way out and through that exit is something of the brighter, something of the better, something of the universal and best of all – something of the eternal.
--Hubert O Hearn, Reviewer, by the book reviews.
Karl Parkinson is amongst the most courageous of modern Irish writers- Bernard Clarke Nova, RTE Lyric FM.
Overall, Parkinson’s blocks are a place where beauty pervades an otherwise frustrating atmosphere. His personal view of the blocks and Dublin’s inner city is one largely absent elsewhere in Irish letters. The portrayal is real and the reader cannot forget, or escape, the shadows that hang over the narrator. It is difficult not to share in the joy of Kenny’s triumphs, as the power of the The Blocks lies in its positivity. --CONOR O'DONOVAN Headstuff magazine.
Everyone: Buy. This. Novel. It's a masterpiece. Mike Igoe, Poet.
Karl Parkinson blew the roof off Irish literature tonight at his book launch#theblocks All I can say is this book is going to be massive!! His natural creative talent is flawless. Have a listen and buy the book X Melanie Dunne.
A brilliantly poetic and honest look into the life of growing up in the inner city flats
Carrie Connell.
Managed to put my Saturday on pause as I immersed myself in "The Blocks" ..A thought and emotion provoking novel , wonderfully executed captivating from beginning to end... highly recommended...! Anita Ni Chiosog.
He has written a mental, radical, beautiful book called The Blocks which you should all read. Oisin O Fagain, author.
its impossible not 2 realise ur witnessing a rebirth of Irish writing buy it! Rob Buchanan, Poet.
Feeling inspired, vunerable & open............
Reading "The Blocks" unearthed every emotion in me that i wasn't prepared for & more. It took me into haunting places, fears, nightmares, anger, pain, injustice, sadness, memories, hopes & dreams, heroes, legends, laughter, love, life, living, reality, suppressed feelings & denials. Awakened & stirred something in me that I'm trying to figure out & wondering am I to take it anywhere, to explore it, to sit with it, to feel it, go deep into the depths of me & not be afraid of releasing it, express it. A new journey beckons, a journey of the unknown, a journey of curiosity, a journey of being, a journey of feeling, a journey of experiencing, a journey of expressing, a journey of screw it just do it. ENJOY IT!!!
A powerful book of which i'll definitely be reading again. Thank you Karl Parkinson for sharing your gift of rare writing & expression & telling it how it is with a unique difference. Love it ❤ & may the angels be always with you
Theresa Burns.
'The Blocks' Karl Parkinson I'm hooked !!
To view life growing up O'Devaney Gardens through the eyes of a Sixth Sense character (Deadly) Adds a whole new dimension to the harsh reality of Inner City Life. I ❤️ it, defiantly recommend !!! Gillian Ni Briain, activist.
The Blocks is weird visionary altered state of a book. Bernard 0' Rourke, writer, poet.
I stumbled along for a few lines, the Dublin language rendered in unfamiliar spelling, more extreme than anything I'd read before (or written myself) made me falter. Then the sounds emerged. Not just the sounds, the rhythm, not only the rhythm of speech, of our dialect - but of the inner-city itself. By the second page I was nodding - not just at the tempo, at all the sights, the smells, the places, the people, the emotions, the dirt, the sex, the violence, all the things I recognised captured so effortlessly. By the 5th page I was crying.
"Lift me up Ma. Lift me up Ma. Lift me up Ma. Dat wuz de mantra I chanted wen a boy." How many times have we heard a plaintive little voice vainly repeat those words as we pass a brashly pushed buggy on O'Connell Street? Or uttered them ourselves? This book takes what we all see - even if only with a glance - and presents it to us anew, from the inside, from the outside, inside-out and upside down.
Mark my words: this book is an ESSENTIAL part of our literary heritage, and deserves a place in the canon of Irish literature.
Frankie Gaffney. Author of Dublin Seven (liberties Press).
The Blocks, set in and around O Devaney's gardens in the 80s, 90s, & 00s and managing the major feat of being both unflinching about inner city existence and at the same time uplifting in its overall spiritual outlook on life. It's the first piece of openly and proudly visionary/prophetic literature to emerge from working class Dublin since James Clarence Mangan was on the prowl back in the mid-19th century and for that reason, as well as the fact that it is written with commanding eloquence in the language actually spoken by inner city Dublin residents, it is certain to go down in literary history. This is art by the people, for the people, and with the people. Dave Lordan, Poet, editor, Critic.
Mark Twain used dialect, Joyce used dialect, Karl Parkinson has dared to let dialect use him. Forget the precise elocution of The Quiet Man, Irish Spring soap commercials, and sweet Jaysus in heaven do forget whatever the hell it was Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts affect as 'Oirish.' These are the sounds, the voices of urban Dublin captured as precisely as a hidden microphone.
His novel shows the way out and through that exit is something of the brighter, something of the better, something of the universal and best of all – something of the eternal.
--Hubert O Hearn, Reviewer, by the book reviews.
Karl Parkinson is amongst the most courageous of modern Irish writers- Bernard Clarke Nova, RTE Lyric FM.
Overall, Parkinson’s blocks are a place where beauty pervades an otherwise frustrating atmosphere. His personal view of the blocks and Dublin’s inner city is one largely absent elsewhere in Irish letters. The portrayal is real and the reader cannot forget, or escape, the shadows that hang over the narrator. It is difficult not to share in the joy of Kenny’s triumphs, as the power of the The Blocks lies in its positivity. --CONOR O'DONOVAN Headstuff magazine.
Everyone: Buy. This. Novel. It's a masterpiece. Mike Igoe, Poet.
Karl Parkinson blew the roof off Irish literature tonight at his book launch#theblocks All I can say is this book is going to be massive!! His natural creative talent is flawless. Have a listen and buy the book X Melanie Dunne.
A brilliantly poetic and honest look into the life of growing up in the inner city flats
Carrie Connell.
Managed to put my Saturday on pause as I immersed myself in "The Blocks" ..A thought and emotion provoking novel , wonderfully executed captivating from beginning to end... highly recommended...! Anita Ni Chiosog.
He has written a mental, radical, beautiful book called The Blocks which you should all read. Oisin O Fagain, author.
its impossible not 2 realise ur witnessing a rebirth of Irish writing buy it! Rob Buchanan, Poet.
Feeling inspired, vunerable & open............
Reading "The Blocks" unearthed every emotion in me that i wasn't prepared for & more. It took me into haunting places, fears, nightmares, anger, pain, injustice, sadness, memories, hopes & dreams, heroes, legends, laughter, love, life, living, reality, suppressed feelings & denials. Awakened & stirred something in me that I'm trying to figure out & wondering am I to take it anywhere, to explore it, to sit with it, to feel it, go deep into the depths of me & not be afraid of releasing it, express it. A new journey beckons, a journey of the unknown, a journey of curiosity, a journey of being, a journey of feeling, a journey of experiencing, a journey of expressing, a journey of screw it just do it. ENJOY IT!!!
A powerful book of which i'll definitely be reading again. Thank you Karl Parkinson for sharing your gift of rare writing & expression & telling it how it is with a unique difference. Love it ❤ & may the angels be always with you
Theresa Burns.
'The Blocks' Karl Parkinson I'm hooked !!
To view life growing up O'Devaney Gardens through the eyes of a Sixth Sense character (Deadly) Adds a whole new dimension to the harsh reality of Inner City Life. I ❤️ it, defiantly recommend !!! Gillian Ni Briain, activist.
The Blocks is weird visionary altered state of a book. Bernard 0' Rourke, writer, poet.
August 2, 2024
Great book. Lyrical, funny, poetic. A real working class novel. Go buy a copy and read now.
June 10, 2016
first off some of the Dublinese was a little too hard to grasp and I speak a lot of it that's why only four stars, books on drugs and the life that surrounds it is not my usual genre and to be honest if I did not personally know the author I would have not overlooked it and stopped reading. now coming from the area the book is based on and knowing some of the people in it the authors description is very accurate and it was interesting to read it from his perspective.
all in all if you can get down with the lingo this is one you might like.
would I pick a book boyfriend ?
There is a lot of book boyfriends in this one but no sorry none of these are for me.
all in all if you can get down with the lingo this is one you might like.
would I pick a book boyfriend ?
There is a lot of book boyfriends in this one but no sorry none of these are for me.
January 24, 2017
Pretentious egomaniac escapes flats. Sorry, perhaps I should have flagged a spoiler alert.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews