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Kilbrack
O'Leary Montagu was born at age twenty-five - a difficult age, as he himself admits. For the past eleven years, which is as far back as he can remember, O'Leary has been sustained by two his girlfriend, Mary, traumatized by O'Leary's neuroses, and Nancy Valentine, author of Ill Fares the Land. Her memoir of an idyllic childhood in Kilbrack ends as she returns to the village after inexplicable banishment and finds it abandoned.
Now Mary has left him, and O'Leary finds himself homeless and laboring under an ill-starred fate. With his treasured copy of Ill Fares the Land, he arrives in the dilapidated village of Kilbrack and finds it hasn't been abandoned at thin old Downey, the pharmacist, is still dispensing medicines and advice; Nellie Maguire is still languishing in her pub; and stout Mrs. Cuthbert, still frenzied, arranges for O'Leary to marry her daughter, who has vowed to become a nun.
What has happened to Kilbrack? O'Leary's coming will change everything, but in a manner no one - in his right mind - could foretell.
Now Mary has left him, and O'Leary finds himself homeless and laboring under an ill-starred fate. With his treasured copy of Ill Fares the Land, he arrives in the dilapidated village of Kilbrack and finds it hasn't been abandoned at thin old Downey, the pharmacist, is still dispensing medicines and advice; Nellie Maguire is still languishing in her pub; and stout Mrs. Cuthbert, still frenzied, arranges for O'Leary to marry her daughter, who has vowed to become a nun.
What has happened to Kilbrack? O'Leary's coming will change everything, but in a manner no one - in his right mind - could foretell.
305 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2003
1 person is currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Jamie O'Neill
12 books220 followersJamie O'Neill is an Irish author, who lived and worked in England for two decades; he now lives in Gortachalla, in County Galway, Ireland. His critically-acclaimed novel, At Swim, Two Boys (2001) earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent claims that he was the natural successor to James Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Samuel Beckett.
O'Neill was born in Dún Laoghaire in 1962 and was educated at Presentation College, Glasthule, County Dublin, run by the Presentation Brothers, and (in his words) "the city streets of London, the beaches of Greece." He was raised in a home without books, and first discovered that books "could be fun" when he read Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. O'Neill was unhappy at home; he had a very difficult relationship with his father and ran away from home at age 17.
O'Neill was the partner of television presenter Russell Harty for six years until Harty's death in 1988. His current partner is Julien Joly, a former ballet dancer who now works as a Shiatsu therapist.
O'Neill lists as his favourite books: Ulysses, by James Joyce, The Last of the Wine, by Mary Renault, Hadrian VII, by Fr. Rolfe (Frederick Baron Corvo), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrell, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien, The Swimming-Pool Library, by Alan Hollinghurst, and The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt.
O’Neill met Russell Harty in 1982, during a two-week holiday in London. They became a couple and lived together in London and at Rose Cottage, Harty's home in Giggleswick, Yorkshire. Harty encouraged O'Neill's writing and read his manuscripts; he even mailed manuscripts of early novels to publishers without O'Neill's consent or knowledge, and a book deal was agreed with Weidenfeld. Soon after that, in 1988, Russell Harty died of AIDS-related Hepatitis B. Hounded by the tabloid press, O'Neill's nude photograph was splashed across the front of the Sunday Mirror; the picture was taken shortly after his arrival in London when he earned some money as a model. He turned down offers of up to £50,000 for interviews about his private life with Russell Harty.
This newspaper coverage was how O'Neill's parents in Ireland discovered that their son was gay. This event would have been traumatising enough; his distress was deepened when members of the Harty family threw him out of the cottage, burned his clothes and left him homeless. They did, however, allow him to take the couple's pet dog, Paddy; even though they did want it.
After Russell Harty's death, O'Neill sought therapeutic help. The following year, O'Neill's first novel, Disturbance, was published; Kilbrack followed in 1990. Both novels had been mostly finished while Harty was alive. But then, grieving for Harty and alone in London, O'Neill struggled to write, parted company with both his agent and publisher, and took the job as a night porter at the Cassell Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Surrey from 1990 up to 2000.
Two years after Russell Harty's death, Paddy was to accidentally introduce O'Neill to his future partner. O'Neill was in a London pub when he noticed the dog was missing. Paddy had been found by a ballet dancer named Julien Joly. They began a relationship and Joly was instrumental in helping O'Neill put his life back together. During the ten years that followed, O'Neill wrote At Swim, Two Boys, which was published in 2001. Its official launch at Somerset House in London was abandoned on the day -- it was September 11, 2001.
O'Neill was born in Dún Laoghaire in 1962 and was educated at Presentation College, Glasthule, County Dublin, run by the Presentation Brothers, and (in his words) "the city streets of London, the beaches of Greece." He was raised in a home without books, and first discovered that books "could be fun" when he read Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. O'Neill was unhappy at home; he had a very difficult relationship with his father and ran away from home at age 17.
O'Neill was the partner of television presenter Russell Harty for six years until Harty's death in 1988. His current partner is Julien Joly, a former ballet dancer who now works as a Shiatsu therapist.
O'Neill lists as his favourite books: Ulysses, by James Joyce, The Last of the Wine, by Mary Renault, Hadrian VII, by Fr. Rolfe (Frederick Baron Corvo), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrell, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien, The Swimming-Pool Library, by Alan Hollinghurst, and The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt.
O’Neill met Russell Harty in 1982, during a two-week holiday in London. They became a couple and lived together in London and at Rose Cottage, Harty's home in Giggleswick, Yorkshire. Harty encouraged O'Neill's writing and read his manuscripts; he even mailed manuscripts of early novels to publishers without O'Neill's consent or knowledge, and a book deal was agreed with Weidenfeld. Soon after that, in 1988, Russell Harty died of AIDS-related Hepatitis B. Hounded by the tabloid press, O'Neill's nude photograph was splashed across the front of the Sunday Mirror; the picture was taken shortly after his arrival in London when he earned some money as a model. He turned down offers of up to £50,000 for interviews about his private life with Russell Harty.
This newspaper coverage was how O'Neill's parents in Ireland discovered that their son was gay. This event would have been traumatising enough; his distress was deepened when members of the Harty family threw him out of the cottage, burned his clothes and left him homeless. They did, however, allow him to take the couple's pet dog, Paddy; even though they did want it.
After Russell Harty's death, O'Neill sought therapeutic help. The following year, O'Neill's first novel, Disturbance, was published; Kilbrack followed in 1990. Both novels had been mostly finished while Harty was alive. But then, grieving for Harty and alone in London, O'Neill struggled to write, parted company with both his agent and publisher, and took the job as a night porter at the Cassell Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Surrey from 1990 up to 2000.
Two years after Russell Harty's death, Paddy was to accidentally introduce O'Neill to his future partner. O'Neill was in a London pub when he noticed the dog was missing. Paddy had been found by a ballet dancer named Julien Joly. They began a relationship and Joly was instrumental in helping O'Neill put his life back together. During the ten years that followed, O'Neill wrote At Swim, Two Boys, which was published in 2001. Its official launch at Somerset House in London was abandoned on the day -- it was September 11, 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 21, 2007
This book has, quite possibly, the funniest passage about avocados and lesbians in all of literature.
March 22, 2012
Definitely not as good as his later novel At Swim, Two Boys (but that's one of the best books I've ever read.) But it is charming, if a bit ridiculous at times. I liked the denoumont a lot more than all the suspense, which at times felt a bit contrived. The characters were all really well drawn though.
May 31, 2020
This is a very funny novel, almost farcical at times. There is a running joke about the title of the book with which the central character, a thirty-something amnesiac with virtually no connection to anything save the book itself, is thoroughly besotted and obsessed. There is an abundance of quick jabs, jibes, puns, comic misunderstandings, jokes, and just plain fun wordplay herein, so if you are looking for a fairly quick read that will tickle your ribs, this might do the trick.
September 28, 2020
A delightful read. Funny to hilarious. Extremely clever plot. Vivid characters. Very, very Irish, set in an extremely small village in the West of Ireland. A big revelation towards the end that I didn't see coming and that makes a profound statement about not judging family members. A real pleasure.
September 8, 2016
Un uomo senza più memoria e identità a causa di un brutto incidente piomba all'improvviso in un paesino irlandese per scrivere la biografia della sua scrittrice preferita e sconosciutissima. Ma è realmente esistita?
I suoi personaggi sì, e presto viene a conoscerli:
un farmacista che propina inconsapevolmente a tutti i clienti cocaina, credendola un farmaco di prodigioso di recente scoperta; un monsignore amante del vino che gioca in borsa e pensa solo agli affari e alle speculazioni, e tanti altri personaggi che sembrano usciti da un libro di Paasilinna.
In questo paese l'uomo dovrà fare i conti col suo passato, che tornerà prepotentemente alla sua memoria.
Un libro vivace, godibilissimo, a tratti cinico e con battute al vetriolo, che affonda le sue radici nella grande tradizione folkloristica irlandese e che oltretutto rappresenta un omaggio al fu Oliver Goldsmith.
I suoi personaggi sì, e presto viene a conoscerli:
un farmacista che propina inconsapevolmente a tutti i clienti cocaina, credendola un farmaco di prodigioso di recente scoperta; un monsignore amante del vino che gioca in borsa e pensa solo agli affari e alle speculazioni, e tanti altri personaggi che sembrano usciti da un libro di Paasilinna.
In questo paese l'uomo dovrà fare i conti col suo passato, che tornerà prepotentemente alla sua memoria.
Un libro vivace, godibilissimo, a tratti cinico e con battute al vetriolo, che affonda le sue radici nella grande tradizione folkloristica irlandese e che oltretutto rappresenta un omaggio al fu Oliver Goldsmith.
May 14, 2021
O'Leary Montagu has no memory and only a copy of Nancy Valentine's "Ill Fares the Land" when he breaks ties with the nurse who cared for him and takes off to research Nancy in Kilbrack, the site of the book. All the characters in the book are still in the town and we eventually learn that O'Leary wrote the book himself under a pen name, is gay, and his amnesia was caused by a car accident involving his father.
A weird book with NO clues as to the real ending. The "gay" twist seemed unnecessary, but the author's background explains that agenda.
A weird book with NO clues as to the real ending. The "gay" twist seemed unnecessary, but the author's background explains that agenda.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2013
I feel a bit meh about this novel. I almost gave up on it (seems to happen to me a bit these days) because the characters were a bit unlikable and it was unclear what the point of many of them were (as it turned out no point by the end for many) and the plot was rambly and not really going anywhere. But it got there in the end and there were moments of gentle humour which kept me going to the finish line.
March 22, 2016
While this book does not compare at all to O'Neill's later novel, "At Swim, Two Boys," it is also a funny and witty book. More of a satire about Irish society, it touches on many questions, including the hypocrisy of the Church and Ireland's fear and hatred of homosexuality. At the same time, there is a lot of warmth in the tale. I'm glad I read it.
August 3, 2016
I love to read a books by English or Irish authors. This book, by Irish author Jamie O'Neill, did not disappoint. Witty and quirky characters, lots of words for items that I had no idea what they were. As usual, I tried to figure out their meaning from the story without looking them up, a challenging and entertaining way to broaden my vocabulary. Much better read than I expected it to be.
October 18, 2021
An odd mystery of love and identity. I almost didn't make it past the first couple of chapters because the main POV is very annoying. However, it pays to stick with it, more POVs come into play which give depth and context to characters that could otherwise seem like stereotype rural Irish tropes. It even has a rather satisfying happy ending.
October 10, 2011
An interesting and unusual read. It's a fairly humorous novel, and the reader is usually one step ahead of the bumbling characters. But it does have a poignant message, and I would like to read other works by this author.
May 6, 2014
Overall, not a huge fan, but also not something I would've picked up on my own. As someone in my book club pointed out, this would've been way better as a play or movie. Didn't care for the characters, thought the plot was a little predictable, but very well might've enjoyed it in another medium.
June 20, 2008
I'm liking it so far. Thank you, Andrew.
July 21, 2008
Up until nearly the end I loved this beek, but still like it.
June 26, 2011
I loved this book. It was silly, moving, unbelievable -- everything I like in my fiction.
Read
July 30, 2011If you like satire and irish humor, then get this book. It is a delight. Very sharp and witty and completely nuts. You'll love it.
July 7, 2013
Very funny Irish novel. Joycean use of words and characters misinterpreting each other. Laugh-out-loud read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews