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Eggshells
WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE 2018
A modern Irish literary gem for anyone who has felt like the odd one out.‘Inventive, funny and, ultimately, moving’ GUARDIAN
‘Wildly funny’ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘Beguiling’ THE IRISH TIMES
‘Delightfully quirky’ THE IRISH INDEPENDENT
Vivian is an oddball.An unemployed orphan living in the house of her recently deceased great aunt in North Dublin, Vivian boldly goes through life doing things in her own peculiar way, whether that be eating blue food, cultivating ‘her smell’, wishing people happy Christmas in April, or putting an ad up for a friend called Penelope to check why it doesn’t rhyme with antelope. But behind her heroic charm and undeniable logic, something isn’t right. With each attempt to connect with a stranger or her estranged sister doomed to misunderstanding, someone should is Vivian OK?
A poignant and delightful story of belonging that plays with the myth of the Changeling and takes us by the hand through Dublin. A poetic call for us all to accept each other and find the Vivian within.
A modern Irish literary gem for anyone who has felt like the odd one out.‘Inventive, funny and, ultimately, moving’ GUARDIAN
‘Wildly funny’ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
‘Beguiling’ THE IRISH TIMES
‘Delightfully quirky’ THE IRISH INDEPENDENT
Vivian is an oddball.An unemployed orphan living in the house of her recently deceased great aunt in North Dublin, Vivian boldly goes through life doing things in her own peculiar way, whether that be eating blue food, cultivating ‘her smell’, wishing people happy Christmas in April, or putting an ad up for a friend called Penelope to check why it doesn’t rhyme with antelope. But behind her heroic charm and undeniable logic, something isn’t right. With each attempt to connect with a stranger or her estranged sister doomed to misunderstanding, someone should is Vivian OK?
A poignant and delightful story of belonging that plays with the myth of the Changeling and takes us by the hand through Dublin. A poetic call for us all to accept each other and find the Vivian within.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 20, 2015
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April 16, 2019
I used to bring home damp and gleaming shells, I used to think if I found the perfect shell I would find the shape of the world, but I was always disappointed. When I washed them later, their sea-gleam would trickle down the sink, leaving a dull sheen the colour of dry lament.
this book is 100% character-driven, and how you respond to it as a reader will depend on how long you can appreciate/tolerate being immersed in this character's particular voice and perspective.
vivian is a sweet oddball of a woman living in dublin whose idiosyncrasies make it difficult for her to connect with others. the book opens with vivian being given the ashes of her recently-deceased great-aunt, with whom she'd been living after her parents died. she tosses a handful of the cremains into envelopes addressed to her great-aunt's friends, and when she runs out of those, she chooses strangers from the phone book to be recipients of the rest.
it's those kinds of actions that have always made her a bit different from those around her. she's tolerated, but pitied, dismissed as "poor vivian" or "away with the fairies."
she tries to socialize and initiate conversations with other people, mimicking behaviors she observes, but more often than not she ends up frightening people with her intensity and oddness, and she's alone in the world, entrenched in her aunt's house, finding comfort in the smells of her unwashed body, the mouse-riddled clutter of her hoard room of treasures, living in her own fantasy world searching for thin spaces that lead to other worlds, overly concerned with the feelings of inanimate objects, tracing her daily routes onto paper into a shapes she can identify and name, and trying, unsuccessfully, to care for her pet yellowfish.
she has family - an older sister who is also named vivian, but older-vivian has a husband and children she does not feel comfortable exposing to her sister's unpredictability, so vivian decides to make a friend. she advertises for this friend on trees across dublin, specifically for a friend named penelope, and she manages to connect with a penelope as odd and damaged as vivian.
at first, i was really charmed by her colorful, almost poetic observations and the unusual language she used to corral her experiences:
-I wake early and it's cold, so I decide to keep my night clothes on under my day clothes like stealth pyjamas.
and
-Penelope laughs, the sort of laugh that makes me think of wolf cubs being reunited with their mothers: it's the tail end of despairing.
but it's a relentless barrage of flaky fancy and it can be a bit overwhelming. one understands why people find talking to her so off-putting, even when i found myself agreeing with her musings:
-We should be allowed to choose when to use lower and upper case letters; having to use a capital letter at the start of a sentence is like saying the firstborn son gets all the money, no matter how vile he is.
and
-…I change channels to a film. Two cars are racing through narrow streets lined with stalls. The cars plunge through the stalls, people scatter, tables of fruit and vegetables and meat and fish are knocked and sprawled and squashed and smashed. I want to see the film about the cleanup, the film about the people who are injured by the cars, the film about the people whose livelihoods have been ruined by a man in sunglasses who values his life above all else. I feel like I'm the only person rooting for the fruit seller instead of the hero..
vivian's personality and "offness" is a combination of nature and nurture both. nature because, well - nature - i lack the clinical background to diagnose her - she seems to have bits and pieces of many disorders culminating in a general oddness, and nurture because her abusive parents told her from childhood that she was a changeling, causing her to spend her adult life trying to find the doorway back to her real world.
i'm a fan of using supernatural or otherwise magical elements to explain real-world phenomena, and i thought this book was going to be about an actual changeling who doesn't fit into our world because she is not of our world and everyone just perceives and dismisses her as "crazy," but she's simply responding to things the rest of us can't see. but it's not that, and it's not even ambiguously, mayyyyybe that.
vivian's is a charming madness, and as a reader, you root for her and feel sympathetic towards her in every one of her failed attempts to connect with a shopkeeper, bus driver, neighbor, but by the end of the book, after being just inundated by quirk and whimsy, you start to get a headache just trying to process it all.
it's funny, lyrical, always surprising, but when you take away the language, it's a bit insubstantial. and that's not a bad thing for many readers - appreciating a book for its language is just as meaningful a distinction as enjoying a book for plot or setting; language is one of nancy pearl's 'four doorways to reading' after all. but while i do like unexpected, lyrical language myself, i also need it to be wrapped around an engaging story, and this one feels like it drifts aimlessly and things will happen, but there's no real direction or closure to it.
at first, vivian reminded me a little of a Heather O'Neill character, in her memorable and unusual perspective, but she's a much more timid character than any of o'neill's, and because there was less actual story here, the voice became a bit too saccharine for my tastes.
i still loved many of her lines:
Penelope may look like an ice cream but she acts like a cone.
and her discomfort with bath-taking made me laugh:
…I can't relax when I smell like strawberry bubblegum and feel like dirty dishes.
but this was a 'like, not love' book for me.
come to my blog!
this book is 100% character-driven, and how you respond to it as a reader will depend on how long you can appreciate/tolerate being immersed in this character's particular voice and perspective.
vivian is a sweet oddball of a woman living in dublin whose idiosyncrasies make it difficult for her to connect with others. the book opens with vivian being given the ashes of her recently-deceased great-aunt, with whom she'd been living after her parents died. she tosses a handful of the cremains into envelopes addressed to her great-aunt's friends, and when she runs out of those, she chooses strangers from the phone book to be recipients of the rest.
it's those kinds of actions that have always made her a bit different from those around her. she's tolerated, but pitied, dismissed as "poor vivian" or "away with the fairies."
she tries to socialize and initiate conversations with other people, mimicking behaviors she observes, but more often than not she ends up frightening people with her intensity and oddness, and she's alone in the world, entrenched in her aunt's house, finding comfort in the smells of her unwashed body, the mouse-riddled clutter of her hoard room of treasures, living in her own fantasy world searching for thin spaces that lead to other worlds, overly concerned with the feelings of inanimate objects, tracing her daily routes onto paper into a shapes she can identify and name, and trying, unsuccessfully, to care for her pet yellowfish.
she has family - an older sister who is also named vivian, but older-vivian has a husband and children she does not feel comfortable exposing to her sister's unpredictability, so vivian decides to make a friend. she advertises for this friend on trees across dublin, specifically for a friend named penelope, and she manages to connect with a penelope as odd and damaged as vivian.
at first, i was really charmed by her colorful, almost poetic observations and the unusual language she used to corral her experiences:
-I wake early and it's cold, so I decide to keep my night clothes on under my day clothes like stealth pyjamas.
and
-Penelope laughs, the sort of laugh that makes me think of wolf cubs being reunited with their mothers: it's the tail end of despairing.
but it's a relentless barrage of flaky fancy and it can be a bit overwhelming. one understands why people find talking to her so off-putting, even when i found myself agreeing with her musings:
-We should be allowed to choose when to use lower and upper case letters; having to use a capital letter at the start of a sentence is like saying the firstborn son gets all the money, no matter how vile he is.
and
-…I change channels to a film. Two cars are racing through narrow streets lined with stalls. The cars plunge through the stalls, people scatter, tables of fruit and vegetables and meat and fish are knocked and sprawled and squashed and smashed. I want to see the film about the cleanup, the film about the people who are injured by the cars, the film about the people whose livelihoods have been ruined by a man in sunglasses who values his life above all else. I feel like I'm the only person rooting for the fruit seller instead of the hero..
vivian's personality and "offness" is a combination of nature and nurture both. nature because, well - nature - i lack the clinical background to diagnose her - she seems to have bits and pieces of many disorders culminating in a general oddness, and nurture because her abusive parents told her from childhood that she was a changeling, causing her to spend her adult life trying to find the doorway back to her real world.
i'm a fan of using supernatural or otherwise magical elements to explain real-world phenomena, and i thought this book was going to be about an actual changeling who doesn't fit into our world because she is not of our world and everyone just perceives and dismisses her as "crazy," but she's simply responding to things the rest of us can't see. but it's not that, and it's not even ambiguously, mayyyyybe that.
vivian's is a charming madness, and as a reader, you root for her and feel sympathetic towards her in every one of her failed attempts to connect with a shopkeeper, bus driver, neighbor, but by the end of the book, after being just inundated by quirk and whimsy, you start to get a headache just trying to process it all.
it's funny, lyrical, always surprising, but when you take away the language, it's a bit insubstantial. and that's not a bad thing for many readers - appreciating a book for its language is just as meaningful a distinction as enjoying a book for plot or setting; language is one of nancy pearl's 'four doorways to reading' after all. but while i do like unexpected, lyrical language myself, i also need it to be wrapped around an engaging story, and this one feels like it drifts aimlessly and things will happen, but there's no real direction or closure to it.
at first, vivian reminded me a little of a Heather O'Neill character, in her memorable and unusual perspective, but she's a much more timid character than any of o'neill's, and because there was less actual story here, the voice became a bit too saccharine for my tastes.
i still loved many of her lines:
Penelope may look like an ice cream but she acts like a cone.
and her discomfort with bath-taking made me laugh:
…I can't relax when I smell like strawberry bubblegum and feel like dirty dishes.
but this was a 'like, not love' book for me.
come to my blog!
August 23, 2018
This is a stunning book, written with insight, empathy, and a deft mastery of tone and language. I've read a lot of reviews that focus on the quirkiness and sweetness of Vivian, the protagonist, which is a testament to Lally's superb writing, because this book is, if anything, a penetrating, powerful and in-depth psychological profile of an abuse survivor and the techniques she uses to make sense of the world in order to cope with her mistreatment at her parents' hands.
The abuse Vivian suffered is touched on only obliquely - moreover, when her friend "Penelope" reveals her motives for befriending Vivian and tells her own story, Vivian cannot bear to hear the details of Penelope's suffering and shuts her ears to it - but the implications are sufficient to hint at what is really going on: Vivian's construction of her personal history and identity as a changeling is the only way she can make sense of how her parents treated her, for what parents would do such things to their own child? The only possible explanation Vivian can find for their behavior is that she cannot have been their real child at all, but a changeling. Her tragedy, when we meet her in this book, is that she is isolated and alone; she is regarded as an outsider, as crazy, by the neighbors, because they do not know her story, they have not heard or listened to her story, a story that it is difficult for Vivian to tell, and indeed, which she does not tell here.
In a nice touch of magical realism (in a book that, on the face of it, seems to be about magic), Lally cleverly contrasts Vivian's circumstances with that of her alter ego, her "sister," also named Vivian, but who in fact is what Vivian would have been had she not been a changeling, had she not been abused. This other Vivian is unreflective, conformist, stressed out, dull and unimaginative, and gives us pause to wonder whether the protagonist's quirkiness is something to be preferred, were it not for its origins. But Vivian's self-obsessiveness, her incapacity to get a life beyond the search for a way out of the world, is clearly not a happy place to be, and, for all the magic in her anomic fabrications, it is indicative of the destructive nature of abuse.
I find this to be an extraordinary work, laced with compassion and understanding. It is all the more remarkable for being a debut novel. I really hope it finds a large audience and gets the kudos it deserves.
The abuse Vivian suffered is touched on only obliquely - moreover, when her friend "Penelope" reveals her motives for befriending Vivian and tells her own story, Vivian cannot bear to hear the details of Penelope's suffering and shuts her ears to it - but the implications are sufficient to hint at what is really going on: Vivian's construction of her personal history and identity as a changeling is the only way she can make sense of how her parents treated her, for what parents would do such things to their own child? The only possible explanation Vivian can find for their behavior is that she cannot have been their real child at all, but a changeling. Her tragedy, when we meet her in this book, is that she is isolated and alone; she is regarded as an outsider, as crazy, by the neighbors, because they do not know her story, they have not heard or listened to her story, a story that it is difficult for Vivian to tell, and indeed, which she does not tell here.
In a nice touch of magical realism (in a book that, on the face of it, seems to be about magic), Lally cleverly contrasts Vivian's circumstances with that of her alter ego, her "sister," also named Vivian, but who in fact is what Vivian would have been had she not been a changeling, had she not been abused. This other Vivian is unreflective, conformist, stressed out, dull and unimaginative, and gives us pause to wonder whether the protagonist's quirkiness is something to be preferred, were it not for its origins. But Vivian's self-obsessiveness, her incapacity to get a life beyond the search for a way out of the world, is clearly not a happy place to be, and, for all the magic in her anomic fabrications, it is indicative of the destructive nature of abuse.
I find this to be an extraordinary work, laced with compassion and understanding. It is all the more remarkable for being a debut novel. I really hope it finds a large audience and gets the kudos it deserves.
January 5, 2018
When I began this I got frustrated because I kept waiting for the story to begin, at about half way through I realized that being inside Vivian's head was the story. Vivian goes on walks everyday and records interesting words and eats strange combinations of food and doesn't bath and tries to interact with others. If my lists of what Vivian does every day annoy you try reading an entire book in this manner. Once I got past the midpoint, I did enjoy it more and laughed out loud at poor Vivian's conversational gambits. The word play is fun, but the lack of a story or plot of any kind, except some hints at childhood abuse, left me a bit cold on the novel.
August 8, 2025
4.5, rounded up.
So ... here's the deal - superficially this is VERY similar to last year's Booker winner Milkman - both concern outcast, quirky young women in Ireland who live inside their heads and comment internally about their life, their families, their neighbors, etc., with not a heck of a lot happening PLOTwise. Both perambulate around the city (Dublin in this case), both are stuck in repetitious pursuits, both are not quite right in the head. Both authors also have intriguing, somewhat tragic backstories (Burns with multiple health issues; Lally having to work as a janitor to make ends meet at the university that actually awarded her the Rooney Prize).
However, I detested Milkman, found it extraordinarily boring, and truly saw NOTHING to recommend it. Lally's book, which, as mentioned, just won the Rooney Prize, as well as previously being nominated for the O'Brien Award, I adored. I couldn't wait to hear about Vivian's next adventure, I laughed many, MANY times (people have purported to find humour in Milkman - there was none!) ... and the ending was both unexpected and heart wrenching. Go figure.
So ... here's the deal - superficially this is VERY similar to last year's Booker winner Milkman - both concern outcast, quirky young women in Ireland who live inside their heads and comment internally about their life, their families, their neighbors, etc., with not a heck of a lot happening PLOTwise. Both perambulate around the city (Dublin in this case), both are stuck in repetitious pursuits, both are not quite right in the head. Both authors also have intriguing, somewhat tragic backstories (Burns with multiple health issues; Lally having to work as a janitor to make ends meet at the university that actually awarded her the Rooney Prize).
However, I detested Milkman, found it extraordinarily boring, and truly saw NOTHING to recommend it. Lally's book, which, as mentioned, just won the Rooney Prize, as well as previously being nominated for the O'Brien Award, I adored. I couldn't wait to hear about Vivian's next adventure, I laughed many, MANY times (people have purported to find humour in Milkman - there was none!) ... and the ending was both unexpected and heart wrenching. Go figure.
June 22, 2017
If this book had not made me laugh (a lot actually), I probably would have quit. It’s a good example of learning to like a character while getting to know her; spending page after page following her around Dublin as she traverses a different part of the city, as she notes streets, missing words, making lists, or simply doing something cockamamie crazy (happens to be where many of those laughs came in to play). I think she may be the busiest character I’ve ever met in a book. And it’s not specifically expressed, but Vivian falls into a category on the autism spectrum. It’s the reason she lives alone, has no friends, why even her own sister barely visits her. Within the first dozen pages, Vivian mails a pinch of her Great-Aunt Maud’s fresh ashes to the 22 people in her aunt’s address book (plus 4 from the phone book cause 26 is a “symmetrical person-per-alphabet letter ratio), and pens a poster advertising for a friend named Penelope. Tiny warning: A Penelope does answer, and although it’s important, her part in the story is much smaller than I had anticipated.
Besides the humor, there was something else that touched me. Near the end, a fact of Vivian’s childhood is revealed. I just about cried. If I didn’t like Vivian before that moment, I felt for her now. It was one of those moments in which years are revealed in a single sentence. You just have to fill in the blank. But she showed no emotion in that page, because it’s not who she is. Or maybe it’s that her emotions are expressed in a different way, unlike others. She is herself.
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Pre-review 6/21
Time to contemplate that review!
Besides the humor, there was something else that touched me. Near the end, a fact of Vivian’s childhood is revealed. I just about cried. If I didn’t like Vivian before that moment, I felt for her now. It was one of those moments in which years are revealed in a single sentence. You just have to fill in the blank. But she showed no emotion in that page, because it’s not who she is. Or maybe it’s that her emotions are expressed in a different way, unlike others. She is herself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre-review 6/21
Time to contemplate that review!
September 22, 2015
Vivian, whose sister is also named Vivian, was considered by her dead parents to be a changeling—a nonhuman from fairyland. She lives alone with no job and no friends in her dead great-aunt's house, where she tries not to hurt the feelings of all the inanimate objects in her life, and she seeks to mimic how "real humans" think and behave.
A winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2014, Eggshells is Vivian's story of trying to be normal, while searching desperately for an entrance to a place where she belongs.
I have never been to Ireland, but Eggshells gave me the kind of tour of Dublin that only a down-and-out resident could give. Through Vivien's confused and twisted mind, I saw street signs with letters blocked out, alleyways, boardwalks, buildings that "look like they were dropped from a height and shoved together, with the Central Bank sticking up behind, like a Lego brick they forgot to paint." I walked the roads, crossed bridges, visited shops, seeing everything through Vivien's skewed mind. Her extreme mind might have become too much if not for the hilarious interchanges she has when she actually talks to other humans—which mostly she doesn't.
The writing is so rich and idiosyncratic, I could probably quote something from each page. But here's an example from fairly early in the novel:
Following one of her random obsessions, Vivian decides to purchase only blue food. A "heap of giddy rises in [her] throat" as she approaches the check-out cashier:
Eventually Vivien manages to find a sympatico friend, after advertising for a friend named Penelope—because she wants to know why the name doesn't rhyme with antelope. Here is a description of Penelope's driving when the two women go on a car trip:
I loved Eggshells, a well-written, funny, and ultimately heartbreaking book about an extreme outsider, and I recommend it to anybody who feels or has felt like or is open to stories about people on the margins of society.
Other Information
A good interview with author Caitriona Lally in The Irish Times about how she wrote the book while she was having trouble finding work.
Some information about the Irish Writer Centre Novel Fair, an event to "introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas, and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents." (And here's the main Irish Writers Centre website.)
A very good Irish Times review says that Eggshells favors language over plot. Essentially I agree, however, I'd like to say that there are different ways to write plot, and Eggshells does have plot: It is the slow, light-handed, tender revelation of Vivian's background. This is done with such skill and love, with such compassion for the character, that some readers may miss it. But it is the way this information comes to the surface that makes this book become part of your heart.
A winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2014, Eggshells is Vivian's story of trying to be normal, while searching desperately for an entrance to a place where she belongs.
I have never been to Ireland, but Eggshells gave me the kind of tour of Dublin that only a down-and-out resident could give. Through Vivien's confused and twisted mind, I saw street signs with letters blocked out, alleyways, boardwalks, buildings that "look like they were dropped from a height and shoved together, with the Central Bank sticking up behind, like a Lego brick they forgot to paint." I walked the roads, crossed bridges, visited shops, seeing everything through Vivien's skewed mind. Her extreme mind might have become too much if not for the hilarious interchanges she has when she actually talks to other humans—which mostly she doesn't.
The writing is so rich and idiosyncratic, I could probably quote something from each page. But here's an example from fairly early in the novel:
Following one of her random obsessions, Vivian decides to purchase only blue food. A "heap of giddy rises in [her] throat" as she approaches the check-out cashier:
'Do you notice anything about my items?' I ask.
She looks like she doesn't want to play my game, so I make it easy for her.
'They're all blue!'
'Oh yeah, why?'
'I'm having a blue party!'
The snarl on her face melts a little.
'Is it his favourite colour?' she asks
'Whose favourite colour?'
She looks confused.
'Your little boy, are these not for is birthday party?'
I think for a moment.
'Yes, they are. And I'm making a Smurf cake!'
The woman behind me in the queue pokes her head into the conversation.
'Ah that's lovely, what age is he?'
'They're six. I have boy twins.'
The words glide out of my mouth like a silk thread.
'You must have your hands full with them,' the woman behind me says, but the shop assistant only stares.
'How come you never have them in here with you?'
'Oh . . .'
I think for a minute.
'They're in wheelchairs.'
'Ah God, that's terrible, terrible!'
'Who minds them?' asks the shop assistant. Her face is squeezed into strange shapes.
'What?'
'When you come in here to do your shopping, who minds them?'
'Oh, they're fine on their own.'
'You leave them alone?'
Her voice sounds like a cup shattered on a tile. I look from one angry face to the other.
'They can't get out of their wheelchairs, they're fine.'
They look at each other the way that girls in school used to look at each other: an eye-lock that doesn't include me. Then they look at me with a purity of hate that stiffens me. I pack my blue items into my bag—I wish I'd remembered to bring a blue plastic bag—and pay. The woman behind me is muttering to the woman behind her, and I catch the words, 'social services . . . shouldn't be let have kids . . . something wrong with her.' I take my change and hurry off with great big gulps of marbles in my throat. When I reach the house I rush in, close the door and bolt it. If social services come, they might be angrier that I'm not neglecting children I don't have than if I was neglecting children I did have. I feel sadder than I've ever felt before, sad like the end of the world has come and gone without me. (42–43)
Eventually Vivien manages to find a sympatico friend, after advertising for a friend named Penelope—because she wants to know why the name doesn't rhyme with antelope. Here is a description of Penelope's driving when the two women go on a car trip:
Penelope sighs and swerves to avoid a cyclist, who roars something I can't hear. She drives like a Don't Drink and Drive ad, she drives with a rattle and a wallop and a clang and a bang. When she doesn't like the feel of a lane or the colour of a puddle or the shape of a pothole, she glides into the other lane. I've never seen cars driving straight at me before, the drivers' mouths forming into cartoon 'O's before beeping and swerving. (144)
I loved Eggshells, a well-written, funny, and ultimately heartbreaking book about an extreme outsider, and I recommend it to anybody who feels or has felt like or is open to stories about people on the margins of society.
Other Information
A good interview with author Caitriona Lally in The Irish Times about how she wrote the book while she was having trouble finding work.
Some information about the Irish Writer Centre Novel Fair, an event to "introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas, and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents." (And here's the main Irish Writers Centre website.)
A very good Irish Times review says that Eggshells favors language over plot. Essentially I agree, however, I'd like to say that there are different ways to write plot, and Eggshells does have plot: It is the slow, light-handed, tender revelation of Vivian's background. This is done with such skill and love, with such compassion for the character, that some readers may miss it. But it is the way this information comes to the surface that makes this book become part of your heart.
August 22, 2016
Eggshells is the story of Vivian Lawler who lives in North Dublin. Her great aunt died and left Viv her house. Viv doesn't work, and it seems she lives on money her great aunt left. She is friendless, and her only family is her upwardly mobile sister, brother-in-law, and their two children. Viv occupies her herself walking all over Dublin in a manner not unsimilar to Leopold Bloom's perambulations. Everyday at the end of her ramblings Viv draws an outline of her walk and then decides what it looks like -a misshapen floor lamp missing the bulb, a staircase dangling from a fishing rod, a winter-bare tree knocked to its knees in a storm with a coffin and a flower dangling from its branches. Viv notices throughout the city many of the street signs have been vandalized with letters painted out. Devlin Terrace is IN TACE, Pembroke Street is _E_ broke Street, and Dominick Street, DOM.
Viv loves words and especially loves palindromes which is why she must be referred to as Viv. She shares that the longest palindrome in everyday use is a Finnish word : saippuakivikauppias. She loves language and is constantly creating long lists of words in the manner of Joyce. However her words tend to all be in the same category such as old treasures in the National Museum: " Gold Dress Fastener, Torc, Borget, Ring-Money, Bulla, Lunula, Lock-Ring, Ear Spool, Sun Disc, Basket Earrings, Folded Rod, Armlet, Beads, Bracelet, Sunflower-Pin, Collar, Neck Ring, Sleeve Fastener, Nine Hollow Gold Balls'.
Viv was labeled a "changeling" by her parents, and she is convinced that is why she is different. Her sister shows a lot of impatience with her. In shops she puzzles clerks with her odd responses to their questions. My favorite was the incident when she has a telemarketer on the line, and the man is so freaked out by her, he can't wait to hand up. Maybe I should try that.
She has a fanciful view of life. One day she goes out looking for hobbits, which is fruitless and gets some people she follows very upset. I loved this example of her view of ordinary things : " I especially like the tub of baked beans, all orange and smug like best-bean friends. My biggest achievement so far has been adding the final piece to a baked bean jigsaw. It might still be in the hoardroom if the mice haven't mistaken it for a real plate of beans".
Viv decides to advertise for a friend and she wants a friend names Penelope. She posts a sign on a tree and gets a message to meet with a time and place. Both women are eccentric and lack expected social skills, and they become friends. Each is willing to comply with strange requests from the other such as the day Viv asks Penelope to come to her house with a shovel and dig a big hole in the back yard. Penelope complies.
Viv is one of the more unique characters one might meet in literature. Her stream of consciousness is entirely natural. She paints a picture of contemporary Dublin that is enchanting, yet true to life. I hope her adventures find a large audience. She deserves it.
Viv loves words and especially loves palindromes which is why she must be referred to as Viv. She shares that the longest palindrome in everyday use is a Finnish word : saippuakivikauppias. She loves language and is constantly creating long lists of words in the manner of Joyce. However her words tend to all be in the same category such as old treasures in the National Museum: " Gold Dress Fastener, Torc, Borget, Ring-Money, Bulla, Lunula, Lock-Ring, Ear Spool, Sun Disc, Basket Earrings, Folded Rod, Armlet, Beads, Bracelet, Sunflower-Pin, Collar, Neck Ring, Sleeve Fastener, Nine Hollow Gold Balls'.
Viv was labeled a "changeling" by her parents, and she is convinced that is why she is different. Her sister shows a lot of impatience with her. In shops she puzzles clerks with her odd responses to their questions. My favorite was the incident when she has a telemarketer on the line, and the man is so freaked out by her, he can't wait to hand up. Maybe I should try that.
She has a fanciful view of life. One day she goes out looking for hobbits, which is fruitless and gets some people she follows very upset. I loved this example of her view of ordinary things : " I especially like the tub of baked beans, all orange and smug like best-bean friends. My biggest achievement so far has been adding the final piece to a baked bean jigsaw. It might still be in the hoardroom if the mice haven't mistaken it for a real plate of beans".
Viv decides to advertise for a friend and she wants a friend names Penelope. She posts a sign on a tree and gets a message to meet with a time and place. Both women are eccentric and lack expected social skills, and they become friends. Each is willing to comply with strange requests from the other such as the day Viv asks Penelope to come to her house with a shovel and dig a big hole in the back yard. Penelope complies.
Viv is one of the more unique characters one might meet in literature. Her stream of consciousness is entirely natural. She paints a picture of contemporary Dublin that is enchanting, yet true to life. I hope her adventures find a large audience. She deserves it.
April 17, 2017
I read for enjoyment. This book gave me a headache. About half way through I started skimming ahead, looking for a miracle, and to be honest, praying the goldfish didn't die. The main character needs therapy and meds. I need a Tylenol.
November 20, 2018
4.5 Stars: If you enjoy wordplay and odd characters, this novel is for you. There’s not much action, other than roaming the streets of Dublin, yet the inner musings of Vivian Lawlor, and the interaction Vivian has with the public is laugh-out-loud hysterical.
This is a dark comedy in that Vivian is odd to the point of pity. The reader cringes for her lack of social awareness. Yet, it’s that lack that brings some of the funniest and best lines in the novel. Vivian believes she is a changeling, as her parents told her they wanted to return her to get their human child. Vivian is in constant search of her portal to her fairy world. It’s sad. Plus, there is a loneliness surrounding Vivian.
It’s a short novel, 263 pages. For me, it ended abruptly with questions unanswered. Because Vivian is abundantly odd, and the novel is character-driven, it takes a few pages to get into the rhythm of the story. It’s quirky and human. It’s worth the effort in the beginning to get with the flow. You will be rewarded with some of the best wordplay written. I loved reading about Vivian; yet I wouldn’t want her as a neighbor!
This is a dark comedy in that Vivian is odd to the point of pity. The reader cringes for her lack of social awareness. Yet, it’s that lack that brings some of the funniest and best lines in the novel. Vivian believes she is a changeling, as her parents told her they wanted to return her to get their human child. Vivian is in constant search of her portal to her fairy world. It’s sad. Plus, there is a loneliness surrounding Vivian.
It’s a short novel, 263 pages. For me, it ended abruptly with questions unanswered. Because Vivian is abundantly odd, and the novel is character-driven, it takes a few pages to get into the rhythm of the story. It’s quirky and human. It’s worth the effort in the beginning to get with the flow. You will be rewarded with some of the best wordplay written. I loved reading about Vivian; yet I wouldn’t want her as a neighbor!
February 14, 2021
3.5 Stars for Eggshells (audiobook) by Caitriona Lally read by Alana Kerr Collins. I thought the story and main character were interesting and quirky. I just wish it went some place and maybe it had some backstory for the main character. The narration was good. I liked the accent the narrator used.
August 29, 2015
4.5 stars
Vivian is not great at social interaction. Actually, Vivian is extremely awkward in company and can go days without speaking to another human being. A grown-up orphan, she lives in an inherited house in Dublin's North inner city. She has sporadic contact with her sister, also called Vivian, and avoids her neighbours as much as possible. However, she would like to have friends, have a purpose to her days and someone to bounce her random thoughts off. Lemonfish, her decrepit goldfish, is not one for words, so she advertises for a friend. But Vivian, being the individual that she is, only wants a friend called Penelope. No nicknames, like Pen or Penny. She has her reasons, one being her love for certain words and their formations. When she receives a reply, Vivian embraces the idea of friendship, despite initial reservations, and travels outside her comfort zone. The reader is brought on a memorable journey, through the streets of Dublin, where Vivian looks upon the city from a unique angle. She sees places, landmarks and road signs unlike most of us. She sees colours where we may see grey, history in place names long ignored and symmetry that is taken for granted. But can one survive the streets of Dublin when unable to converse to an acceptable norm? Vivian walks the streets, to a certain pattern, determined to find answers within the city limits...
Vivian may be the most endearing character I have encountered in modern Irish fiction. Like Jonesy, from Donal Ryan's The Thing About December, there is a raw, honest and innocent feel about her. Caitriona Lally shuns the label of 'mental illness' and shows how the most intelligent minds can often hide behind the facade of awkwardness and insecurity. Vivian's personal hygene, for example, is atrocious, as she doesn't see the need to conform to the 'norm'. She is afraid of her own reflection and sees no need to change her clothes on a regular basis. To her, food is fuel, money is for the bare basics and the real goal in life is to find harmony in words, on the streets, in history and in books. When she makes an effort to conform, albeit in her typical unusual way, there are hilarious consequences. A trip to the hairdressers in the City's largest department store actually made me laugh aloud, while her attempts to gain the friendship of a taxi driver had a mixture of humour and sadness blended together. Vivian's sister is riddled with sibling embarrassment and disdain, yet she is aware that she is tied to her namesake forever. Their interaction is uncomfortable from her perspective, yet her oblivious sister tries her best to blend into their family unit.
Lally has created a character which will remain forever etched in my mind. Vivian is a woman who many would cross the road to avoid, yet could enrich the lives of others. Her idiosyncrasies may seem extreme and would make you wonder if such a character would survive without access to cash on a regular basis (not really touched on in the novel). But, this is fiction, and like The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simpsion, Eggshells is such a clever read, using the protagonist as a way of making the reader question the accepted 'norms' of our everyday lives. There is a also a touch of magic injected into Dublin's Northside, which is a welcome change to the more fiction-populated areas on the Southside. No need for leafy suburbs and canal walks, when Vivian shows the hidden gems on the other side of the Liffey. Some may say that not much happens in this debut novel. I would disagree. It is full of sincerity, spacial awareness, a reverse view of today's expectations and an massively memorable character. Highly recommended for lovers of Irish literary fiction...
Vivian is not great at social interaction. Actually, Vivian is extremely awkward in company and can go days without speaking to another human being. A grown-up orphan, she lives in an inherited house in Dublin's North inner city. She has sporadic contact with her sister, also called Vivian, and avoids her neighbours as much as possible. However, she would like to have friends, have a purpose to her days and someone to bounce her random thoughts off. Lemonfish, her decrepit goldfish, is not one for words, so she advertises for a friend. But Vivian, being the individual that she is, only wants a friend called Penelope. No nicknames, like Pen or Penny. She has her reasons, one being her love for certain words and their formations. When she receives a reply, Vivian embraces the idea of friendship, despite initial reservations, and travels outside her comfort zone. The reader is brought on a memorable journey, through the streets of Dublin, where Vivian looks upon the city from a unique angle. She sees places, landmarks and road signs unlike most of us. She sees colours where we may see grey, history in place names long ignored and symmetry that is taken for granted. But can one survive the streets of Dublin when unable to converse to an acceptable norm? Vivian walks the streets, to a certain pattern, determined to find answers within the city limits...
Vivian may be the most endearing character I have encountered in modern Irish fiction. Like Jonesy, from Donal Ryan's The Thing About December, there is a raw, honest and innocent feel about her. Caitriona Lally shuns the label of 'mental illness' and shows how the most intelligent minds can often hide behind the facade of awkwardness and insecurity. Vivian's personal hygene, for example, is atrocious, as she doesn't see the need to conform to the 'norm'. She is afraid of her own reflection and sees no need to change her clothes on a regular basis. To her, food is fuel, money is for the bare basics and the real goal in life is to find harmony in words, on the streets, in history and in books. When she makes an effort to conform, albeit in her typical unusual way, there are hilarious consequences. A trip to the hairdressers in the City's largest department store actually made me laugh aloud, while her attempts to gain the friendship of a taxi driver had a mixture of humour and sadness blended together. Vivian's sister is riddled with sibling embarrassment and disdain, yet she is aware that she is tied to her namesake forever. Their interaction is uncomfortable from her perspective, yet her oblivious sister tries her best to blend into their family unit.
Lally has created a character which will remain forever etched in my mind. Vivian is a woman who many would cross the road to avoid, yet could enrich the lives of others. Her idiosyncrasies may seem extreme and would make you wonder if such a character would survive without access to cash on a regular basis (not really touched on in the novel). But, this is fiction, and like The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simpsion, Eggshells is such a clever read, using the protagonist as a way of making the reader question the accepted 'norms' of our everyday lives. There is a also a touch of magic injected into Dublin's Northside, which is a welcome change to the more fiction-populated areas on the Southside. No need for leafy suburbs and canal walks, when Vivian shows the hidden gems on the other side of the Liffey. Some may say that not much happens in this debut novel. I would disagree. It is full of sincerity, spacial awareness, a reverse view of today's expectations and an massively memorable character. Highly recommended for lovers of Irish literary fiction...
February 7, 2017
I feel like this might have made a good short story. The premise is interesting. Vivian is under the delusion that she's a changeling, a child of fairies who was swapped with a human child. She wanders the streets of Dublin searching for a portal back to the fairy world. And then she traces her route on a piece of paper and describes the shape she's made. "A pony with a corn cob pipe up its ass." (Ok, I made that one up.) She does this over and over and over again. She writes down whimsical names in her notebook over and over. Street names, birds, insects, biscuits. She interacts with people who don't understand her- again and again and again. "Are you taking the piss?!" It could be sad. It could be heartbreaking - if it weren't so annoying! I wanted to stop reading this after 50 pages or so. But I had to see if this could possibly continue for the whole book without any real action or character development. It did. I know this author is talented, and many people liked the book. I'll just have to file it under "just didn't get it."
December 5, 2020
"Even her nose frowns at me. I don't know how to respond. I never know how to respond to people who want small complete sentences with one tidy meaning. I can't explain myself to people who peer out windows and think they know the world."
Meet Vivian. A woman of few words, but many actions. A woman who buys things by color and collects random chairs. A woman who creates lists and draws her walking route at the end of each excursion, interpreting the design as something known and meaningful to her. A woman whose primary task is to find the portal that will return her to her real world rather than stay trapped in this world as a changeling, where she doesn't belong even with her sister.
"Where's what?"..."Your kitchen stuff."...she starts opening the black doors and points to the appliances behind those doors. "Why are you keeping the kitchen a secret? Are you hiding it from someone?" My sister starts throwing words at me, whole lists of words, words that she took from her architect or her friends, words that mean nothing, words that say nothing, words from advertisements and brochures and people who sell things for a living."
The friend she advertises for comes as a mixed bag she doesn't quite know what to do with, relationship challenged as she is (they are?):
"...after a while I start to resent Penelope's presence. I feel suffocated and vexed that I can't escape her to sit in my lone, twenty-tog silence. She is touching my things and taking up my time and diluting the house-smell with her own...I don't know how to end the visit; I don't know how to say, "Please go, go now, just leave." I believe all introverts will resonate with this one!
Vivian is a puzzle to all who interact with her. "He looks at me like there's something behind my eyes that I don't know about."...."Sharon stares at me with an expression that contains a menace of questions marks, and lets out a sigh the length of a caterpillar."
This novel made me laugh many times as I was treated to Vivian's observations and wanderings. She gives the phrase "half a bubble off" new meaning, and the delightful prose kept me turning pages. Vivian reminded me of some of the most enjoyable people I've known as I was treated to the world through her eyes instead of my own.
This is primarily a character study within repetitive meanderings, so if you need lots of drama and action, this won't satisfy. There were a few times the repetitive nature of her wanderings grew a little thin as the novel wore on, but overall there was enough to sustain my interest and amusement. I enjoyed peering into the windows of her mind to see who she was. I think I could be friends with Vivian.
4.5 stars
Meet Vivian. A woman of few words, but many actions. A woman who buys things by color and collects random chairs. A woman who creates lists and draws her walking route at the end of each excursion, interpreting the design as something known and meaningful to her. A woman whose primary task is to find the portal that will return her to her real world rather than stay trapped in this world as a changeling, where she doesn't belong even with her sister.
"Where's what?"..."Your kitchen stuff."...she starts opening the black doors and points to the appliances behind those doors. "Why are you keeping the kitchen a secret? Are you hiding it from someone?" My sister starts throwing words at me, whole lists of words, words that she took from her architect or her friends, words that mean nothing, words that say nothing, words from advertisements and brochures and people who sell things for a living."
The friend she advertises for comes as a mixed bag she doesn't quite know what to do with, relationship challenged as she is (they are?):
"...after a while I start to resent Penelope's presence. I feel suffocated and vexed that I can't escape her to sit in my lone, twenty-tog silence. She is touching my things and taking up my time and diluting the house-smell with her own...I don't know how to end the visit; I don't know how to say, "Please go, go now, just leave." I believe all introverts will resonate with this one!
Vivian is a puzzle to all who interact with her. "He looks at me like there's something behind my eyes that I don't know about."...."Sharon stares at me with an expression that contains a menace of questions marks, and lets out a sigh the length of a caterpillar."
This novel made me laugh many times as I was treated to Vivian's observations and wanderings. She gives the phrase "half a bubble off" new meaning, and the delightful prose kept me turning pages. Vivian reminded me of some of the most enjoyable people I've known as I was treated to the world through her eyes instead of my own.
This is primarily a character study within repetitive meanderings, so if you need lots of drama and action, this won't satisfy. There were a few times the repetitive nature of her wanderings grew a little thin as the novel wore on, but overall there was enough to sustain my interest and amusement. I enjoyed peering into the windows of her mind to see who she was. I think I could be friends with Vivian.
4.5 stars
June 11, 2015
Uggghhhh.
Needlessly quirky, twee, whimsical shit that quickly became annoying (inner eye rolls galore) and repetitive, episodic chapters so you never felt there was a point to any of it.
Just no.
Needlessly quirky, twee, whimsical shit that quickly became annoying (inner eye rolls galore) and repetitive, episodic chapters so you never felt there was a point to any of it.
Just no.
May 23, 2017
I heard such great things about Eggshells and I really wanted to like it more and I should have loved it. It's the exact kind of book that I love; with quirky imaginative characters in their own little world, who make up their own superstitions. Two of my all time favourites are such books. The Wasp Factory & When God was a Rabbit.
I was really enjoying it at the start, highlighting passages all over the place. But I increasingly had problems with it as I read on. I just found Vivian a bit inconsistent. I could appreciate that she wasn't put into a lazy box "on the spectrum", or some "ism", but something just didn't quite gel for me. She was really wise at times and quite ignorant with so many other things.
These are wise observations. And there were many more like it. Yet the same person thinks a goldfish will survive the night in a hole in the garden, and asks people if they are leprechauns. Obviously, the wise observations are from the author, not the character. To such a degree that it seemed very sloppy writing to me. Regardless of specifics, it just didn't gel for me. And it was lacking in substance, and plot. I thought there might be some interesting reveal at some stage there was nothing. I'm not who enjoys books that rely on big reveals, or have to tie up all the loose ends. But there was just no story here at all. The very same daily events I enjoyed at the start of the book had completely lost their charm by the end when they became repetitive, and nothing of substance happened.
Oh and - I don't mean to rant - but I just remembered the sister. I find this kind of character so cliched in books. I rolled my eyes when the sister with the lovely modern house, a husband, 2.4 kids and a career is an absolute cow, with no imagination, sympathy for her sister, or any redeeming features. What assholes people with modern kitchens always are. And people who live in ramshackle homes, such angels of society.
Despite the many issues I had with it, I quite enjoyed it until it started to get repetitive. I just thought it had so much more potential to be as amazing as many people told me it was.
I was really enjoying it at the start, highlighting passages all over the place. But I increasingly had problems with it as I read on. I just found Vivian a bit inconsistent. I could appreciate that she wasn't put into a lazy box "on the spectrum", or some "ism", but something just didn't quite gel for me. She was really wise at times and quite ignorant with so many other things.
"I feel like a mediocre still life hung next to a Caravaggio."
"the word 'spiritual' makes my skin weep because it seems to say so much but really says so little."
These are wise observations. And there were many more like it. Yet the same person thinks a goldfish will survive the night in a hole in the garden, and asks people if they are leprechauns. Obviously, the wise observations are from the author, not the character. To such a degree that it seemed very sloppy writing to me. Regardless of specifics, it just didn't gel for me. And it was lacking in substance, and plot. I thought there might be some interesting reveal at some stage there was nothing. I'm not who enjoys books that rely on big reveals, or have to tie up all the loose ends. But there was just no story here at all. The very same daily events I enjoyed at the start of the book had completely lost their charm by the end when they became repetitive, and nothing of substance happened.
Oh and - I don't mean to rant - but I just remembered the sister. I find this kind of character so cliched in books. I rolled my eyes when the sister with the lovely modern house, a husband, 2.4 kids and a career is an absolute cow, with no imagination, sympathy for her sister, or any redeeming features. What assholes people with modern kitchens always are. And people who live in ramshackle homes, such angels of society.
Despite the many issues I had with it, I quite enjoyed it until it started to get repetitive. I just thought it had so much more potential to be as amazing as many people told me it was.
October 6, 2023
Protagonist Vivian is a neurodivergent woman living in a house left to her when her great aunt died. Vivian has always been different. Her parents told her that she is a changeling from the fairy world. She wanders around Dublin looking for a portal to the “otherworld” so she can find her people (presumably other changelings). She puts up flyers advertising for a friend named Penelope, eventually finding someone who is equally unusual. The storyline follows Vivian’s wanderings and the way people (mostly negatively) react to her. It is written in first person present tense from Vivian’s perspective. It is entirely character driven, with no discernable plot. Vivian tends to name things, and many of her lists are included. A little of this goes a long way and I think it is a bit overdone. The prose is the strongest part, but there is not much substance and lots of rambling. I am glad I read it but after a while it got tiresome.
March 24, 2017
My Rating:
4.5
Favorite Quotes:
My glance keeps returning to the urn; I’m expecting the lid to open and the burnt eye of my great-aunt to peek out. When they were deciding how to bury her, I said she had always wanted to be cremated. It was a lie the size of a graveyard, but I wanted to make sure she was well and truly dead.
Some of the white letters on the street signs have been coloured blue to match the blue background… I picture a band of Smurfs combing the city in the black of night with tins of blue paint, daubing over the street letters that offend them. For the higher-up signs they step on each other’s shoulders to form a pyramid, placing the most agile Smurf with the best blue head for heights at the top.
Her clothes are red and yellow and screaming. This must be Penelope; only people with three Es in their names would dress so loud. I wave. She smiles, the kind of smile that could reheat cold coffee, with yellow gappy teeth in need of a power hose.
I will eat only blue food for the rest of the day… It seems right that on the day of my blue feast I’m feeling blue myself. My belly feels bruised inside, as if all the blue foods were having a fistfight among themselves.
I would like to get things done and ticked off lists; some of my projects are endlessly roaming like lemmings without a leader.
Do uppercase letters feel superior to lowercase letters? Which would come off best in a game of thumb wrestling? The uppercase letters have pointed edges and size on their side, but their lowercase rivals are bendy with attitude.
I try to think of what is said at burials on television, and I say in my most solemn voice: ‘Scales to ashes, fins to dust… Your death is untimely, it’s so unjust.’
My Review:
Written from a first person POV, Eggshells was a smartly written and extremely amusing stream of consciousness narrative of a mentally disordered woman with a creative and childlike imagination, which had me frequently giggle-snorting and barking aloud in mirth. Ms. Lally has mad skills and her strong word voodoo conjured crisp and cleverly ridiculous and animated visuals. Vivian liked words, but didn’t enjoy using them aloud. She collected them in lists and had filled notebooks with them, but when forced to interact in the real word, she seemed to have a finite supply of verbal expression at her disposal. But she was apparently making an effort and claimed to be working on using sentences and some arm gestures she had learned from watching soap operas. Smirk.
Vivian’s history and family tree seemed rather bizarre and of questionable mental stability as well with oddities that were far beyond mere eccentricity. We aren’t given much information about that, just enough flavor to tease and tantalize. But unlike her harsher relatives, Vivian was a gentle soul, and I adored her. She was a fascinating character with extremely limited personal hygiene (she enjoyed her strong funk), dubious parentage, and an obvious mental disorder. She was hands down, one of the most intriguing and odd main characters - ever. She was in dire need of psychotropic medication and the monitoring of a mental health professional as she spent a considerable amount of time engaging in magical thinking. She also exhibited many OCD characteristics with a hoarding room, fixation on symmetry and even numbers, and completing tasks or behaviors in threes and sevens – for their “transformative powers.” She kept lists of words she liked and invented some to take the place of words she didn’t. I relished her word fixation, as I’m prone to that bit of oddity myself. She also searched each wardrobe for the passageway to Narnia and roamed Dublin on foot, bus, and taxi looking for hobbits, fairies, and portals to other dimensions.
Vivian was obviously highly intelligent and had a childlike imagination. One of my favorites of her odd thoughts was when she had placed several objects in her pocket and worried they may have “an inter-substance squabble.” Ingenious!
4.5
Favorite Quotes:
My glance keeps returning to the urn; I’m expecting the lid to open and the burnt eye of my great-aunt to peek out. When they were deciding how to bury her, I said she had always wanted to be cremated. It was a lie the size of a graveyard, but I wanted to make sure she was well and truly dead.
Some of the white letters on the street signs have been coloured blue to match the blue background… I picture a band of Smurfs combing the city in the black of night with tins of blue paint, daubing over the street letters that offend them. For the higher-up signs they step on each other’s shoulders to form a pyramid, placing the most agile Smurf with the best blue head for heights at the top.
Her clothes are red and yellow and screaming. This must be Penelope; only people with three Es in their names would dress so loud. I wave. She smiles, the kind of smile that could reheat cold coffee, with yellow gappy teeth in need of a power hose.
I will eat only blue food for the rest of the day… It seems right that on the day of my blue feast I’m feeling blue myself. My belly feels bruised inside, as if all the blue foods were having a fistfight among themselves.
I would like to get things done and ticked off lists; some of my projects are endlessly roaming like lemmings without a leader.
Do uppercase letters feel superior to lowercase letters? Which would come off best in a game of thumb wrestling? The uppercase letters have pointed edges and size on their side, but their lowercase rivals are bendy with attitude.
I try to think of what is said at burials on television, and I say in my most solemn voice: ‘Scales to ashes, fins to dust… Your death is untimely, it’s so unjust.’
My Review:
Written from a first person POV, Eggshells was a smartly written and extremely amusing stream of consciousness narrative of a mentally disordered woman with a creative and childlike imagination, which had me frequently giggle-snorting and barking aloud in mirth. Ms. Lally has mad skills and her strong word voodoo conjured crisp and cleverly ridiculous and animated visuals. Vivian liked words, but didn’t enjoy using them aloud. She collected them in lists and had filled notebooks with them, but when forced to interact in the real word, she seemed to have a finite supply of verbal expression at her disposal. But she was apparently making an effort and claimed to be working on using sentences and some arm gestures she had learned from watching soap operas. Smirk.
Vivian’s history and family tree seemed rather bizarre and of questionable mental stability as well with oddities that were far beyond mere eccentricity. We aren’t given much information about that, just enough flavor to tease and tantalize. But unlike her harsher relatives, Vivian was a gentle soul, and I adored her. She was a fascinating character with extremely limited personal hygiene (she enjoyed her strong funk), dubious parentage, and an obvious mental disorder. She was hands down, one of the most intriguing and odd main characters - ever. She was in dire need of psychotropic medication and the monitoring of a mental health professional as she spent a considerable amount of time engaging in magical thinking. She also exhibited many OCD characteristics with a hoarding room, fixation on symmetry and even numbers, and completing tasks or behaviors in threes and sevens – for their “transformative powers.” She kept lists of words she liked and invented some to take the place of words she didn’t. I relished her word fixation, as I’m prone to that bit of oddity myself. She also searched each wardrobe for the passageway to Narnia and roamed Dublin on foot, bus, and taxi looking for hobbits, fairies, and portals to other dimensions.
Vivian was obviously highly intelligent and had a childlike imagination. One of my favorites of her odd thoughts was when she had placed several objects in her pocket and worried they may have “an inter-substance squabble.” Ingenious!
July 22, 2018
Vivian might be away with the fairies, but she has the truest gaze of all. The world she lives in is tilted about 2 degrees, and with Vivian as the guide the mundane and routine are revived and freshened.
Best of all is just the way the words are arranged. It’s how Vivian describes her own thinking
Highly recommended.
Best of all is just the way the words are arranged. It’s how Vivian describes her own thinking
"The idea of owning something so unownable is strange: owning a house-sized quantity of air is like owning a patch of the sky. I laugh, but the sound is mean and tinny, so I take in a lung of air and laugh again – this one is bigger, but too baggy. I’ll save my laughs until I have worked on them in private. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them that I’m between laughs."or of the awkward relationships she has with others
"Bernie and Mary are outside my house talking. It feels like an attack of words that haven’t reached me yet”Vivian’s description of her new friend Penelope (doesn’t rhyme with antelope) — “She seems to gather up the outside and bring it in with her. She drips words, pours sentences, gushes paragraphs on me” — is how Vivian herself handles language.
"My sister sighs, a sigh so long that I snatch it up in my mouth and spit it right out again. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m cancelling out your sigh.’ "
“He talks like he’s being chased by words, swallowed up by sentences.”Even though it seems Vivian is quite incapable of looking after herself, I find good advice in some of her astute observations:
“Her voice has plumped up again, and she sends a clatter of words down the line. In between sups of wine, I say words like, ‘wow, ooh, mm, really, oh, aren’t they great, ah that’s nice’. The small words seem to be the most important, but I’m not sure if they count as actual words.”
“I should learn to bustle so I don’t look like an imposter in my kitchen.”This book bulges with the delight that makes you clap ‘yes!’ or unexpectedly snort-laugh.
Highly recommended.
March 15, 2017
In "Eggshells," Vivian doesn't fit in and never has. In fact, her parents told her that she was a changeling and the reader is left questioning whether or not this really might be the case. Vivian spends her life doing things that seem odd to others. She tries to model behavior that would be considered normal but fails every time. She is lonely and decides to advertise for a friend and not just a friend but a friend specifically named Penelope. She feels that this will be the first step to creating a new life for herself.
This book is very much a character driven novel. We get to see the world from Vivian's perspective. It's a world where normal interaction with others must be thoroughly practiced and where Vivian often has to remind herself of what a normal way to behave would be. Much goes unnoticed by her; she can't understand why her sister may not want her just showing up on her doorstep without announcement. At first, Vivian's character felt very fresh for me. Her point of view is definitely different and I love an eccentric character. I did get a bit distracted in trying to figure out exactly what was going on with her, which took away from the book even though this is indeed a character driven story.
Sometimes there is too much of a good thing and that became the case with Vivian's character. There doesn't seem to be a true arc other than Vivian behaving the way that Vivian does and trying to overcome the same feeling that all humans, even those that are less eccentric, try to counter: the feeling of loneliness.
This book is very much a character driven novel. We get to see the world from Vivian's perspective. It's a world where normal interaction with others must be thoroughly practiced and where Vivian often has to remind herself of what a normal way to behave would be. Much goes unnoticed by her; she can't understand why her sister may not want her just showing up on her doorstep without announcement. At first, Vivian's character felt very fresh for me. Her point of view is definitely different and I love an eccentric character. I did get a bit distracted in trying to figure out exactly what was going on with her, which took away from the book even though this is indeed a character driven story.
Sometimes there is too much of a good thing and that became the case with Vivian's character. There doesn't seem to be a true arc other than Vivian behaving the way that Vivian does and trying to overcome the same feeling that all humans, even those that are less eccentric, try to counter: the feeling of loneliness.
February 26, 2018
A story of an emotionally abused, socially awkward, and lonely girl. The character of Vivian is so complex and we brought into the mind of her everyday meanderings.
My gut reaction is that Vivian has some form of autism, with her amazing attention to detail and love of words. Because of this, her parents resented her and made her believe she didn't belong in this world.
Lally did an amazing job using intense imagery that made you feel you were walking right next to Vivian on the streets of Dublin.
Look forward to her next book!
My gut reaction is that Vivian has some form of autism, with her amazing attention to detail and love of words. Because of this, her parents resented her and made her believe she didn't belong in this world.
Lally did an amazing job using intense imagery that made you feel you were walking right next to Vivian on the streets of Dublin.
Look forward to her next book!
September 8, 2015
Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells is a poetic lyric to Dublin.
Meet Vivian, the most impressionable protagonist to hit shelves this year. When we meet her she’s living in the home of her deceased great aunt, a collector—borderline hoarder—of every type of chair. She’s the kind of woman who leaves five euro notes in the pockets of cardigans in shops, squeezes the cream from her cakes into her coffee and believes in the magic of words to take her away. Vivian, who lives convinced that she’s a “changeling” child now middle-aged, craves being somewhere over the rainbow.
Now take everything you think a book about life in Dublin should include. Have you got it? Now, close your eyes and shake your head… you might be surprised but delighted to see you’re holding a copy of Eggshells, Lally’s debut novel out from Liberties Press this year.
Lally takes the reader on perhaps the greatest trip around Ireland’s capital city since Ulysses, nailing those particularly overwhelming lovely or lonely feelings of life in the center of everything. It’s clear to see why Lally was selected as one of the twelve finalists in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair in 2014: she’s got the mysterious, sought after “it”.
Peeling back layer-by-layer, Lally exposes that there’s a little of us all in Vivian. At first you might resist the comparison but in the end it’s a sweeping victory for Lally in reminding her reader that not everyone is put together the same way. In her prose, Lally shows her reader that there’s nothing as dangerous as losing your imagination in as magical a place as Dublin.
By revealing pieces of Vivian’s background slowly, like the wet plops of sand on a beach drip sandcastle, Lally builds her story. Only in finishing the novel full of Vivian’s half baked yet earnest plans and schemes to return to her native land, are Lally’s clearly developed and well excuted motives revealed.
Consider it a promise that you’ll want to meet Lally’s creation of Vivian in her urban fairytale. Find your copy of Eggshells today where all good books are sold.
Meet Vivian, the most impressionable protagonist to hit shelves this year. When we meet her she’s living in the home of her deceased great aunt, a collector—borderline hoarder—of every type of chair. She’s the kind of woman who leaves five euro notes in the pockets of cardigans in shops, squeezes the cream from her cakes into her coffee and believes in the magic of words to take her away. Vivian, who lives convinced that she’s a “changeling” child now middle-aged, craves being somewhere over the rainbow.
Now take everything you think a book about life in Dublin should include. Have you got it? Now, close your eyes and shake your head… you might be surprised but delighted to see you’re holding a copy of Eggshells, Lally’s debut novel out from Liberties Press this year.
Lally takes the reader on perhaps the greatest trip around Ireland’s capital city since Ulysses, nailing those particularly overwhelming lovely or lonely feelings of life in the center of everything. It’s clear to see why Lally was selected as one of the twelve finalists in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair in 2014: she’s got the mysterious, sought after “it”.
Peeling back layer-by-layer, Lally exposes that there’s a little of us all in Vivian. At first you might resist the comparison but in the end it’s a sweeping victory for Lally in reminding her reader that not everyone is put together the same way. In her prose, Lally shows her reader that there’s nothing as dangerous as losing your imagination in as magical a place as Dublin.
By revealing pieces of Vivian’s background slowly, like the wet plops of sand on a beach drip sandcastle, Lally builds her story. Only in finishing the novel full of Vivian’s half baked yet earnest plans and schemes to return to her native land, are Lally’s clearly developed and well excuted motives revealed.
Consider it a promise that you’ll want to meet Lally’s creation of Vivian in her urban fairytale. Find your copy of Eggshells today where all good books are sold.
April 1, 2018
This urban fairytale is a modern take on Joyce’s ambulatory paean to the city of Dublin. Wordplay on ‘changeling’ and ‘challenging’ sums up the beguiling narrator, who seems, in the Irish phrase, to be literally ‘away with the fairies’. Her whimsical perspective, as she searches for a portal to the ‘otherworld’, bring the city and its culture to life in an entertaining and touchingly original way.
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
November 11, 2018
DNF.
I left it behind for a while and continued with my TBR list... but I can’t keep reading this book. It doesn’t happen anything and even though the first chapters were promising... the book turned out being boring. I find somethings disgusting and I don’t know.
Maybe I’ll give it another try in a future.
I left it behind for a while and continued with my TBR list... but I can’t keep reading this book. It doesn’t happen anything and even though the first chapters were promising... the book turned out being boring. I find somethings disgusting and I don’t know.
Maybe I’ll give it another try in a future.
October 26, 2016
Vivian doesn't feel like she fits in - and never has. Apparently, she was odd enough as a child that her parents told her she was "left by fairies," and now, living alone in Dublin, people tend to treat her like she's crazy. Friendless, she puts up an ad for a friend, specifically a friend named Penelope. In the meantime, Vivian wanders the city, mapping out a new area or neighborhood every day, seeking an escape to a better world, where there are fairies and where she will fit in. When a woman named Penelope answers her ad, Vivian's life starts to change.
"Debut author Caitriona Lally offers readers an exhilaratingly fresh take on the Irish love for lyricism, humor, and inventive wordplay in a book that is, in itself, deeply charming, and deeply moving." This bit is from Goodreads.
This is the strangest book I have ever read. Considering how many books I have read, that's saying something. It's not that I didn't like the book; in fact, I found myself laughing out a loud a few times. However, there are parts of this story that are a little disturbing. That bit about how Vivian's parents told her she was left by fairies? That means they thought she was a changeling, and if you know anything about changelings, you know that humans think they are dangerous. Vivian reveals something late in the story that ties directly into this. However, there is a hint early on: "I unfold the map. spread it on a patch of carpet and write in my notebook the names of places that contain fairytales and magic and portals to another world, a world my parents believed I came from and tried to send me back to, a world they never found but I will." (p 6)
Reading this book is like reading a book written by Delirium, the Dream King's sister. If you don't know who I'm talking about, try this: you know how, when you were a child, you'd spin around and around, making yourself dizzy, and then stop suddenly and feel that the world was tilting and spinning around you? That's what this book is like.
The narrative of this book wanders from one thing to the next, all with bits of connectivity to Vivian's desire to find herself entry into another world. She is constantly on the lookout for doors to another place, or evidence of fairies. Things make total sense to her, although to the people around her, she's a bit odd. Actually, I revise that; she is odd and disturbing. When Vivian speaks to other people, she has a tendency to ask questions that other people find strange, and as a result, people keep her at arms-length. However, at the same time, I found her character to be kind of charming. I like how she makes lists of things she likes, or words she likes. She has an unusual way of using language, and sometimes makes up words to suit her, or the situation.
Here's an example:
"I continue with my list: 'Donkey's Tufty Heads, Marshmallowed Silences, Butter Lumps, Elephants, Sooz in Winter, Pencils that Write Sootily, The NAme ALoysius, Anything Egg-Shaped, Mothes that Think They Are Butterflies....' " (p 20)
"I don't mind mice walking around my house - or maybe they think it's their house but I don't want to catch potential bubonic plague and have my own private Black Death." (p 78)
I was frustrated by the ending of this book because I felt like I had been on a long, dizzying ride, and then finished, looked around me, and realized I hadn't gone anywhere at all. However, I can't get this story out of my head, so perhaps it's the journey that's important, and not where you end up.
"Debut author Caitriona Lally offers readers an exhilaratingly fresh take on the Irish love for lyricism, humor, and inventive wordplay in a book that is, in itself, deeply charming, and deeply moving." This bit is from Goodreads.
This is the strangest book I have ever read. Considering how many books I have read, that's saying something. It's not that I didn't like the book; in fact, I found myself laughing out a loud a few times. However, there are parts of this story that are a little disturbing. That bit about how Vivian's parents told her she was left by fairies? That means they thought she was a changeling, and if you know anything about changelings, you know that humans think they are dangerous. Vivian reveals something late in the story that ties directly into this. However, there is a hint early on: "I unfold the map. spread it on a patch of carpet and write in my notebook the names of places that contain fairytales and magic and portals to another world, a world my parents believed I came from and tried to send me back to, a world they never found but I will." (p 6)
Reading this book is like reading a book written by Delirium, the Dream King's sister. If you don't know who I'm talking about, try this: you know how, when you were a child, you'd spin around and around, making yourself dizzy, and then stop suddenly and feel that the world was tilting and spinning around you? That's what this book is like.
The narrative of this book wanders from one thing to the next, all with bits of connectivity to Vivian's desire to find herself entry into another world. She is constantly on the lookout for doors to another place, or evidence of fairies. Things make total sense to her, although to the people around her, she's a bit odd. Actually, I revise that; she is odd and disturbing. When Vivian speaks to other people, she has a tendency to ask questions that other people find strange, and as a result, people keep her at arms-length. However, at the same time, I found her character to be kind of charming. I like how she makes lists of things she likes, or words she likes. She has an unusual way of using language, and sometimes makes up words to suit her, or the situation.
Here's an example:
"I continue with my list: 'Donkey's Tufty Heads, Marshmallowed Silences, Butter Lumps, Elephants, Sooz in Winter, Pencils that Write Sootily, The NAme ALoysius, Anything Egg-Shaped, Mothes that Think They Are Butterflies....' " (p 20)
"I don't mind mice walking around my house - or maybe they think it's their house but I don't want to catch potential bubonic plague and have my own private Black Death." (p 78)
I was frustrated by the ending of this book because I felt like I had been on a long, dizzying ride, and then finished, looked around me, and realized I hadn't gone anywhere at all. However, I can't get this story out of my head, so perhaps it's the journey that's important, and not where you end up.
December 8, 2019
I need to read this novel again. I remember feeling sorry for the main character but also felt some of her observations on life to be very insightful, humorous, and witty. I also found the author (or Vivian) drawing shapes in the book (geometric shapes) to be unique. I am glad many people have read the book on this site. I guess it took the author 3 years or so to write this while being a copyright editor and I think being a housekeeper at a university she was taking courses at.
....anyway I just read yesterday in the New York Review of Books (12.19.2019, p.41) that she has recently been awarded a 2019 Lannan Literary Award and Fellowship for Fiction. Congrats to her!
"Lannan Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities.
...The Foundation also gives awards and fellowships to writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and in the area of cultural freedom. Awards recognize individuals for extraordinary work in their fields. Fellowships provide time and support to continue with or to complete specific projects and also recognize those who show potential for future outstanding work."
https://lannan.org/about
....anyway I just read yesterday in the New York Review of Books (12.19.2019, p.41) that she has recently been awarded a 2019 Lannan Literary Award and Fellowship for Fiction. Congrats to her!
"Lannan Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities.
...The Foundation also gives awards and fellowships to writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and in the area of cultural freedom. Awards recognize individuals for extraordinary work in their fields. Fellowships provide time and support to continue with or to complete specific projects and also recognize those who show potential for future outstanding work."
https://lannan.org/about
June 17, 2015
I just finished this book and I thought it was fantastic. As a regular walker in Dublin you can feel the streets come to life through the pages. Eggshells is a love story but one with a difference. The love in Eggshells is the author's love of Dublin and the main character's quest for the love of friendship. It is both hilarious and poignant. Lally is yet another new voice in Irish fiction. If you're from Dublin, have ever visited Dublin, or ever want to visit Dublin then this is a book for you!
Eggshells got a great review in The Irish Times too - http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/boo...
Eggshells got a great review in The Irish Times too - http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/boo...
June 18, 2017
2.5 rounded up. This is normally my favorite kind of book, but it stopped working for me quickly. Some of the lines touched me deeply and I thought oh great, a five star book! But then it would pass and I suddenly I felt enough was enough, I couldn't go on... it felt as if every single line was written to befuddle, it became too much of a good thing and plot and purpose didn't want to show itself. I quit at 30%, unusual for me to abandon a quirky book, just didn't want to hear her blather on anymore, but fond wishes to others.
August 21, 2017
I like quirky characters, but the MC here goes way beyond quirky. She believes (and her parents believed) that she is a changeling. The book documents her various attempts to return to Faerie. She roams town testing various myths and baffling everyone she meets. The writing style and narration were great, but the story is a bit meandering and pointless. The MC is a sympathetic character, but I was left wondering if she was mentally ill/disabled.
Read
April 13, 2021Meet an Irish version of Eleanor Oliphant, except she is way odder. A pretty charming book which often made me smile and laugh.
Equally enjoyable on the second reading!
Equally enjoyable on the second reading!
July 30, 2015
This is a snapshot of one woman’s life. We don’t know how old Vivian is, exactly how she got to the point where we meet her, or where it is she is heading. It is written in first person present and is essentially a stream of consciousness. There is no plot as such. From her thoughts and her interactions with others we get a glimpse of her past but are never given the actual facts. And the book ends very abruptly, so much so that I thought I had some missing. But we had to leave her sometime and there was never going to be a resolution to the story. Does any of this matter? Not one jot. Normally I don’t do well with loose endings and get frustrated at not understanding the whys and wherefores of a story. With Eggshells, though, it adds to the intrigue and fits perfectly with the narrative.
We do know that Vivian has a sister, also called Vivian, and that her parents and her aunt are dead, and we get tiny hints as to how her relationships with her family were/are conducted. We know that our Vivian believes she is a changeling and she spends much of her time looking for the way back to the “other world”. The story is set in Dublin, and if you know the city that will undoubtedly be an added dimension for your reading, but it doesn’t matter at all if you don’t know it.
And what happens in this story? Well, very little and yet so much. Vivian is a wonderful character. This is a fabulous book. The writing is superb – it remains in character throughout. From the first sentence I had a “voice” for Vivian that didn’t falter once. I could see through her eyes and suffer her indecisiveness and awkwardness with people. I dodged her neighbours with her and, although I don’t know Dublin very well, I walked the streets with her. My heart broke for her.
Vivian is clearly intelligent but she is definitely wired up differently from most people. She is vulnerable and lonely. She does some “odd” things, yet usually with a view to making others’ lives a little brighter. She writes endless lists, and draws patterns of the routes she walks. She advertises and finds a friend – Penelope – yet doesn’t know how to act with one, so maybe she’s not had a friend before. She plans what she will talk about with people because conversation doesn’t flow naturally with her. She treats it as an achievement when she manages to answer someone’s comment about the weather.
I loved this book – its humour and quirkiness and pathos and the way it carried me along. It is right at the top of the pile in my favourite books this year.
We do know that Vivian has a sister, also called Vivian, and that her parents and her aunt are dead, and we get tiny hints as to how her relationships with her family were/are conducted. We know that our Vivian believes she is a changeling and she spends much of her time looking for the way back to the “other world”. The story is set in Dublin, and if you know the city that will undoubtedly be an added dimension for your reading, but it doesn’t matter at all if you don’t know it.
And what happens in this story? Well, very little and yet so much. Vivian is a wonderful character. This is a fabulous book. The writing is superb – it remains in character throughout. From the first sentence I had a “voice” for Vivian that didn’t falter once. I could see through her eyes and suffer her indecisiveness and awkwardness with people. I dodged her neighbours with her and, although I don’t know Dublin very well, I walked the streets with her. My heart broke for her.
Vivian is clearly intelligent but she is definitely wired up differently from most people. She is vulnerable and lonely. She does some “odd” things, yet usually with a view to making others’ lives a little brighter. She writes endless lists, and draws patterns of the routes she walks. She advertises and finds a friend – Penelope – yet doesn’t know how to act with one, so maybe she’s not had a friend before. She plans what she will talk about with people because conversation doesn’t flow naturally with her. She treats it as an achievement when she manages to answer someone’s comment about the weather.
I loved this book – its humour and quirkiness and pathos and the way it carried me along. It is right at the top of the pile in my favourite books this year.
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