What do you think?
Rate this book
White City
A Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener.
Audiobook
First published April 15, 2021
99 people are currently reading
554 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Power
58 books29 followersAuthor of Bad Day in Blackrock (Lilliput Press, 2008; Pocket Books, 2010), filmed as What Richard Did (Element Films, 2012). PhD in American Literature. Lectures in English & Creative Writing in the School of English, Dublin City University. Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2009 and the Hennessy XO Award for Emerging Fiction 2008. Writes regularly for The Sunday Business Post and Literary Review. Has also written for The Dublin Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Dublin Review of Books, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Sunday Times, Strange Horizons, UCD Scholarcast, The Mailer Review, Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, Emerging Perspectives, The Stinging Fly. Short fiction has appeared in Banshee, on RTE Radio 1, in Reading the Future (Arlen House 2017), in The Stinging Fly, The Sunday Business Post, The Hennessy Book of Irish Writing 2005-2015 (New Island 2015), New Irish Short Stories (Faber 2011), These Are Our Lives (Stinging Fly Press 2006), Guts, Circle & Square (Fiery Arrow 2015). New novel on the way. Tweets @KevPow3.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
February 17, 2022
Kevin Power burst onto the Irish literary scene in 2008 with Bad Day in Blackrock, which was later turned into an acclaimed film by Lenny Abrahamson. We've had a while to wait for his second novel, and Power recently gave a fascinating account of his writing struggles in the Irish Times. But White City has finally arrived, and it is a pleasure to be back in his capable hands.
Like Power's debut, it's also a tale of privilege and greed involving a wealthy family from Dublin's southside. Our narrator is 27-year-old Ben, son of a highly successful banker. Ben has drifted through the majority of this life of luxury, with faint ambitions of becoming a writer. His relationship with his parents is distant at best. And lately things have begun to fall apart. For one thing, he is telling his story from a rehab facility called St Augustine's, his drug habit having finally got the better of him. His father is being investigated by the authorities for embezzling an eye-watering sum of money. His relationship with girlfriend Clio is on the rocks. And he seems to have got himself into trouble with some kind of shady property deal. Ben's problems keep mounting and St Augustine's might be his last chance at figuring his life out.
Ben is a difficult character to warm to. He's a total narcissist, which Clio regularly tells him. He's selfish and self-destructive - the number of drugs he takes just to get through the day signifies much deeper issues. Yet's he's also self-aware, looking back on past deeds, and this is the one reason why I would cut him some slack. He realises now that he has acted like a horrible person. He's quite hard on himself and there are hints of his intentions to change his ways.
Power writes brilliantly about affluence and avarice in post Celtic-Tiger Ireland - the sense of entitlement embedded in this private-school educated set, their in-built arrogance and gigantic egos. The fact that he manages to generate any sympathy at all for Ben's plight is some feat. If I was to criticise the book in any way, I would say that the Serbian-based chapters didn't always ring true. Some of the characters in those pages felt a bit clichéd and two-dimensional. But maybe I'm nitpicking. I found so much to admire in this captivating, witty tale. Power is such a deft and perceptive writer, and I hope we don't have to wait as long for his next work of genius.
Like Power's debut, it's also a tale of privilege and greed involving a wealthy family from Dublin's southside. Our narrator is 27-year-old Ben, son of a highly successful banker. Ben has drifted through the majority of this life of luxury, with faint ambitions of becoming a writer. His relationship with his parents is distant at best. And lately things have begun to fall apart. For one thing, he is telling his story from a rehab facility called St Augustine's, his drug habit having finally got the better of him. His father is being investigated by the authorities for embezzling an eye-watering sum of money. His relationship with girlfriend Clio is on the rocks. And he seems to have got himself into trouble with some kind of shady property deal. Ben's problems keep mounting and St Augustine's might be his last chance at figuring his life out.
Ben is a difficult character to warm to. He's a total narcissist, which Clio regularly tells him. He's selfish and self-destructive - the number of drugs he takes just to get through the day signifies much deeper issues. Yet's he's also self-aware, looking back on past deeds, and this is the one reason why I would cut him some slack. He realises now that he has acted like a horrible person. He's quite hard on himself and there are hints of his intentions to change his ways.
Power writes brilliantly about affluence and avarice in post Celtic-Tiger Ireland - the sense of entitlement embedded in this private-school educated set, their in-built arrogance and gigantic egos. The fact that he manages to generate any sympathy at all for Ben's plight is some feat. If I was to criticise the book in any way, I would say that the Serbian-based chapters didn't always ring true. Some of the characters in those pages felt a bit clichéd and two-dimensional. But maybe I'm nitpicking. I found so much to admire in this captivating, witty tale. Power is such a deft and perceptive writer, and I hope we don't have to wait as long for his next work of genius.
May 3, 2021
This is a boy's book written for boys as evidenced by all the Martin Amis parallels. Like Bill Murray (notorious wife beater, famed for his feuds) men inexplicably love Amis.
Will men love this book? Probably.
White City is undeniably well written but the premise is not original (lots of borrowed motifs and strategems) and feels dated and massively out of step with contemporary mores, even if it does hark back to boomtime Celtic Tiger times.
The story is this: Rich kid turns against rich parents (alco mum and on trial dad for racketing) and instead gets in with other rich kids to defraud some poor men in Serbia who are horribly, stereotypically misrepresented. Structurally, it's split into three parts: Post trauma Therapy for drug addiction, In Serbia with the Lads, At home in Dublin in the lead up to the father's trial.
The comeuppance you're longing for comes after much, much foreshadowing and does manage to be a good twist although some plotholes linger after the last page.
Flaws
De Southside
It's possible that I am the wrong audience for this sort of book because I find discourse on the southside and how elitist and entitled it is incredibly tiresome. It had its heyday and now it's passe although never particularly enticing in the first place as Ross O Carroll Kelly had already saturated that market. This book's offered up no new insights to this species, which was a pity. If you're going to stick to one theme, you can't keep churning out the social observations from 2001. Otherwise, what's the fascination?
De psychology
Despite my best efforts, I could not get my head around the character abandonning his parents at their time of need. Motivated by greed, not morals, this made no sense and continued to make no sense throughout the novel. It's important to bear in mind this was a 27 year old not a child. It still puzzles me. This was a flaw of the book, I felt, not the character, unless the fact that he ran away from everything somehow eluded me. But you don't run away from your security blanket so this did not make sense.
De drugs
Long paragraphs describing drug misuse is incredibly boring for the reader. Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas did this well. No other book has.
De stolen techniques
While well written, it's not particularly well executed and this is mostly because the book is littered with hackneyed motifs like men in trench coats loitering in alleyways, Eastern European type mafia men with the obligatory poor English that double up as hired goons. I suppose it was kind of new having spoilt Irish guys in lieu of clueless American jocks but still. Tired, tired, tired.
De anger
The narrator frequently refers to his own anger but it's not adequately explored. We're told not shown. There's also no real reason for it which ties into the no real reason for abandonning the parents.
De Wit
Pettily, I would be highly dubious about the "savagely funny" praise that has been heaped on it. Sure, there were several nice sentences. Uproariously funny, though? No, even at a stretch. Overall, it was too drawn out. For every perfectly formed sentence, there was a paragraph or two of drug taking side effects; notably vomiting or sweating, a page of Serbian people talking in monogloid English and various places where the narrator or some bystander noted how angry he was.
Southside Boys_v.2 TM just is not on point anymore, even in "satire". Sorry.
Will men love this book? Probably.
White City is undeniably well written but the premise is not original (lots of borrowed motifs and strategems) and feels dated and massively out of step with contemporary mores, even if it does hark back to boomtime Celtic Tiger times.
The story is this: Rich kid turns against rich parents (alco mum and on trial dad for racketing) and instead gets in with other rich kids to defraud some poor men in Serbia who are horribly, stereotypically misrepresented. Structurally, it's split into three parts: Post trauma Therapy for drug addiction, In Serbia with the Lads, At home in Dublin in the lead up to the father's trial.
The comeuppance you're longing for comes after much, much foreshadowing and does manage to be a good twist although some plotholes linger after the last page.
Flaws
De Southside
It's possible that I am the wrong audience for this sort of book because I find discourse on the southside and how elitist and entitled it is incredibly tiresome. It had its heyday and now it's passe although never particularly enticing in the first place as Ross O Carroll Kelly had already saturated that market. This book's offered up no new insights to this species, which was a pity. If you're going to stick to one theme, you can't keep churning out the social observations from 2001. Otherwise, what's the fascination?
De psychology
Despite my best efforts, I could not get my head around the character abandonning his parents at their time of need. Motivated by greed, not morals, this made no sense and continued to make no sense throughout the novel. It's important to bear in mind this was a 27 year old not a child. It still puzzles me. This was a flaw of the book, I felt, not the character, unless the fact that he ran away from everything somehow eluded me. But you don't run away from your security blanket so this did not make sense.
De drugs
Long paragraphs describing drug misuse is incredibly boring for the reader. Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas did this well. No other book has.
De stolen techniques
While well written, it's not particularly well executed and this is mostly because the book is littered with hackneyed motifs like men in trench coats loitering in alleyways, Eastern European type mafia men with the obligatory poor English that double up as hired goons. I suppose it was kind of new having spoilt Irish guys in lieu of clueless American jocks but still. Tired, tired, tired.
De anger
The narrator frequently refers to his own anger but it's not adequately explored. We're told not shown. There's also no real reason for it which ties into the no real reason for abandonning the parents.
De Wit
Pettily, I would be highly dubious about the "savagely funny" praise that has been heaped on it. Sure, there were several nice sentences. Uproariously funny, though? No, even at a stretch. Overall, it was too drawn out. For every perfectly formed sentence, there was a paragraph or two of drug taking side effects; notably vomiting or sweating, a page of Serbian people talking in monogloid English and various places where the narrator or some bystander noted how angry he was.
Southside Boys_v.2 TM just is not on point anymore, even in "satire". Sorry.
March 29, 2022
Weird case of I liked the writing style, pace, story structure but I despised every character in the book and also feel weird about a real trauma of a country unrelated to the author being used alongside the character's self-inflicted pain.
Benjamin is a 27-year-old PhD student, who has actually done very little work on the James Joyce thesis he's spent the past 4 years working on and still lives on a monthly 'wage' from his wealthy father. When his father is arrested for embezzlement, Benjamin's idea of the life he was going to live (sponging off his parents forever) comes crashing down and he subsequently meets and moves in with actress girlfriend Clio - and starts taking drugs at an alarming rate. He then gets involved in a strange investment scam in Serbia with old school friends and it's far too late before Ben realises he's in too deep and can't swim.
This book....this book GAH. It was so infuriating to read because the character of Ben was probably the stupidest person I've ever read about in my life! He describes himself as an ostrich in this book and it is very apt - he sticks his head in the sand and hopes everything bad will pass him by but never does anything to try and rectify his situation. He also went from 0-100 with drug use so quickly, and it just adds to his level of stupidity in the book. There were some odd moments that almost felt like a parody such as when Ben met Clio and moved in with her the next day (!!), and then everything that happened in Serbia was just odd as every Serbian character felt like a caricature.
Obviously there is a tense history with Serbia (and maybe all of this felt heightened for me reading this due to the current Ukraine war) but I just thought that the author's use of Serbian war crimes within this story when they had nothing to do with the character, and another country's tragic and violent history was used to move the plot along - it felt a bit gross to me.
I didn't think the writing was bad in this book per se, and I did like the overall story structure and pace. The Gatsby esque start with Ben as a patient in a rehab facility chronically where it all went wrong was good. But I don't think this book deserved to be shortlisted for any awards at all, and it was really just the story of a pathetic white privileged boy with daddy issues.
Benjamin is a 27-year-old PhD student, who has actually done very little work on the James Joyce thesis he's spent the past 4 years working on and still lives on a monthly 'wage' from his wealthy father. When his father is arrested for embezzlement, Benjamin's idea of the life he was going to live (sponging off his parents forever) comes crashing down and he subsequently meets and moves in with actress girlfriend Clio - and starts taking drugs at an alarming rate. He then gets involved in a strange investment scam in Serbia with old school friends and it's far too late before Ben realises he's in too deep and can't swim.
This book....this book GAH. It was so infuriating to read because the character of Ben was probably the stupidest person I've ever read about in my life! He describes himself as an ostrich in this book and it is very apt - he sticks his head in the sand and hopes everything bad will pass him by but never does anything to try and rectify his situation. He also went from 0-100 with drug use so quickly, and it just adds to his level of stupidity in the book. There were some odd moments that almost felt like a parody such as when Ben met Clio and moved in with her the next day (!!), and then everything that happened in Serbia was just odd as every Serbian character felt like a caricature.
Obviously there is a tense history with Serbia (and maybe all of this felt heightened for me reading this due to the current Ukraine war) but I just thought that the author's use of Serbian war crimes within this story when they had nothing to do with the character, and another country's tragic and violent history was used to move the plot along - it felt a bit gross to me.
I didn't think the writing was bad in this book per se, and I did like the overall story structure and pace. The Gatsby esque start with Ben as a patient in a rehab facility chronically where it all went wrong was good. But I don't think this book deserved to be shortlisted for any awards at all, and it was really just the story of a pathetic white privileged boy with daddy issues.
August 4, 2023
3.5 ⭐️ The writing is brilliant. Love the style and one of my new favourite contemporary writers. Rating is reduced cos of the story and it’s tempo. Just after half way, the story began to lag.
April 14, 2021
“Sap, n. Hiberno-English slang. A gauche person; one ungifted with social nous. Also a dupe or mark. The butt of the joke. That one person at the party who just doesn’t get it and never will.”
A post Celtic Tiger story where the generation of unscrupulous profiteers that wreaked havoc on the Irish economy is still around and well. When fathers are sharks, members of a privileged, self-assured clique that has taken full advantage of the economic boom and various loopholes to cunningly divert money for personal enrichment, what are their children going to be like?
We are in South Dublin, an area partly associated with privilege and status. In a recent conversation with fellow Irish writer Niamh Campbell, Kevin Power has explained that he knows this world very well and has remarked that in Ireland class, privilege and social divisions are stark realities and that some structures and places still hold and have a meaning for many.
By reading this riveting novel, one actually gets the impression of cliquey places where privilege replicates itself, where you can make the right connections, of schools where pupils – future leaders -- forge long-lasting friendships and future alliances. This is the picture emerging in White City and the milieu that Kevin Power continues to scrutinize after his successful debut Bad Day in Blackrock. While his first novel was about murder case involving students connected with fictional Brookfield College (albeit loosely inspired by true events), in White City the Lads, former members of the rugby team, have grown up and have started moving their first steps in the world: a world “networked, brainless, awed by money, superdense with artificial pleasures, rigged from above in their favour.”
We first meet 27-year-old Ben in a rehab where he is processing all that brought him there, which he does by writing an angry, self-deprecating confession (Dostroyevsky-style: it is not a coincidence that we find him reading Notes from the Underground at the beginning), with his psychiatrist nagging him and struggling to make him accept responsibility for his actions. We learn that his father is a wealthy investment banker investigated for a major fraud and the family estate has been confiscated. Ejected from a world of privilege and left to his own devices, with an alcoholic mother and fraudulent father as a role model, he drops out of his Ph.D. and gets a) into drugs, b) into a relationship he navigates as if in a fog and c) into a sketchy investment scheme put together by the Lads and their wealthy fathers, a big deal he prefers to honest, low-paying jobs with a view to get his finances sorted. This deal takes them to the Balkans, where ruthless individuals are speculating on the ruins of ex-Yugoslavia. Ben is an interesting character: clueless, arrogant, selfish, a mirror image of those who surround him and a puppet in their hands. He is struggling to take charge of his life, let alone take a moral stance. Ben’s voice is truly engaging, particularly the use the author makes of the distance between the Ben who is writing his memoir, his resistance and his riveting commentary, and the Ben at the time of the facts: Kevin Power’s controlled use of language, humour and irony is excellent, and this allows him to deliver a witty social satire that is biting, ferociously funny and spot-on.
White City is an indictment of Celtic Tiger Ireland’s corrupt establishment and an unflinching portrait of a weak, hyper-protected generation that is utterly unprepared for the responsibilities of life because it has always had it all. And if you think you know where the story is heading (at the beginning I thought this would be more predictable), Kevin Power will baffle your expectations in unique ways. At 450+ pages the novel feels a bit lengthy at times, but still a very engaging, enjoyable read.
I am grateful to the publisher for an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A post Celtic Tiger story where the generation of unscrupulous profiteers that wreaked havoc on the Irish economy is still around and well. When fathers are sharks, members of a privileged, self-assured clique that has taken full advantage of the economic boom and various loopholes to cunningly divert money for personal enrichment, what are their children going to be like?
We are in South Dublin, an area partly associated with privilege and status. In a recent conversation with fellow Irish writer Niamh Campbell, Kevin Power has explained that he knows this world very well and has remarked that in Ireland class, privilege and social divisions are stark realities and that some structures and places still hold and have a meaning for many.
By reading this riveting novel, one actually gets the impression of cliquey places where privilege replicates itself, where you can make the right connections, of schools where pupils – future leaders -- forge long-lasting friendships and future alliances. This is the picture emerging in White City and the milieu that Kevin Power continues to scrutinize after his successful debut Bad Day in Blackrock. While his first novel was about murder case involving students connected with fictional Brookfield College (albeit loosely inspired by true events), in White City the Lads, former members of the rugby team, have grown up and have started moving their first steps in the world: a world “networked, brainless, awed by money, superdense with artificial pleasures, rigged from above in their favour.”
We first meet 27-year-old Ben in a rehab where he is processing all that brought him there, which he does by writing an angry, self-deprecating confession (Dostroyevsky-style: it is not a coincidence that we find him reading Notes from the Underground at the beginning), with his psychiatrist nagging him and struggling to make him accept responsibility for his actions. We learn that his father is a wealthy investment banker investigated for a major fraud and the family estate has been confiscated. Ejected from a world of privilege and left to his own devices, with an alcoholic mother and fraudulent father as a role model, he drops out of his Ph.D. and gets a) into drugs, b) into a relationship he navigates as if in a fog and c) into a sketchy investment scheme put together by the Lads and their wealthy fathers, a big deal he prefers to honest, low-paying jobs with a view to get his finances sorted. This deal takes them to the Balkans, where ruthless individuals are speculating on the ruins of ex-Yugoslavia. Ben is an interesting character: clueless, arrogant, selfish, a mirror image of those who surround him and a puppet in their hands. He is struggling to take charge of his life, let alone take a moral stance. Ben’s voice is truly engaging, particularly the use the author makes of the distance between the Ben who is writing his memoir, his resistance and his riveting commentary, and the Ben at the time of the facts: Kevin Power’s controlled use of language, humour and irony is excellent, and this allows him to deliver a witty social satire that is biting, ferociously funny and spot-on.
White City is an indictment of Celtic Tiger Ireland’s corrupt establishment and an unflinching portrait of a weak, hyper-protected generation that is utterly unprepared for the responsibilities of life because it has always had it all. And if you think you know where the story is heading (at the beginning I thought this would be more predictable), Kevin Power will baffle your expectations in unique ways. At 450+ pages the novel feels a bit lengthy at times, but still a very engaging, enjoyable read.
I am grateful to the publisher for an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 9, 2022
I’m not sure why I carried on reading this to the end. Admittedly, it’s generally well written and is amusing in parts but I fail to understand some of the rave reviews it has received. Nearly all the characters, especially the protagonist, are abhorrent and the narrative, such as it is, moves at a snail’s pace. It might be sort of admirable how many different ways Kevin Power can describe what it is like to be off your head on drugs and alcohol but it also gets very tedious. Finally, the Serbian characters are all unpleasant stereotypes.
June 28, 2022
One of the best books I read this year. Darkly funny with a Dublin that I only half recognise. Drugs, alcohol and misery form so much of the narrative but there is warmth and joy to be found within these pages. Strongly recommended!
July 7, 2025
ngl this slapped and im not just saying this bc he was my fav english lit prof
May 7, 2021
There is much to admire in Kevin Power’s White City. You take a twenty-seven-year-old never do well of privilege and place him in a testy situation: a Balkans land scandal. Power writes well of the various locales in the novel which is centered in Dublin. Not as well done is the narrative which switches to different times and places. The center of which is a rehab center. And why rehab? Here are some of the things mentioned in the novel and the number of times:
Cocaine 7
Weed 9
Xanax 25
Wine 36
OxyContin 5
Numerous single malt whiskies dot the landscape as well. Sometimes one feels in the midst of a drug movie like “The Trip.” Other times the descriptions of the drug experiences are downright boring.
What is not boring is a subplot about the father who is being indicted for financial misdeeds and the wife who is helping to cover up her husband’s crimes.
Less apparent is Power’s motive in writing. Is it to once again investigate the Celtic Lion’s demise? To indict the Balkan’s war criminals. To show the shallowness of capitalism. You get a healthy heaping of all. But you do have to go trudging through a pleonastic swamp. Also, a good working knowledge of T.S. Eliot’s poetry enhances the work.
Solid 3.5.
Cocaine 7
Weed 9
Xanax 25
Wine 36
OxyContin 5
Numerous single malt whiskies dot the landscape as well. Sometimes one feels in the midst of a drug movie like “The Trip.” Other times the descriptions of the drug experiences are downright boring.
What is not boring is a subplot about the father who is being indicted for financial misdeeds and the wife who is helping to cover up her husband’s crimes.
Less apparent is Power’s motive in writing. Is it to once again investigate the Celtic Lion’s demise? To indict the Balkan’s war criminals. To show the shallowness of capitalism. You get a healthy heaping of all. But you do have to go trudging through a pleonastic swamp. Also, a good working knowledge of T.S. Eliot’s poetry enhances the work.
Solid 3.5.
August 3, 2021
I bought this book because the writer is Irish, its set in Dublin, and supposed to be “darkly funny”. Unfortunately, I hated the main character and narrator, so struggled to care about the story at all. He goes from mooching off his parents, to mooching off his girlfriend, to getting involved in a scam, and ending up in rehab. Poor little rich boy. And I will read things about poor little rich boys, (Holden Caulfield! Bruce Wayne! Jay Gatsby!) but this particular one was truly obnoxious.
The depiction of Serbia and Serbians was farcical, and I didn’t believe in the psychiatrist or Ben’s psychological breakthrough either.
Having said that, the depiction of a certain kind of Dubliner was on the nose, and pretty funny at times, and there was a point in the book where the plot became compulsive.
But overall, not my kind of book!
The depiction of Serbia and Serbians was farcical, and I didn’t believe in the psychiatrist or Ben’s psychological breakthrough either.
Having said that, the depiction of a certain kind of Dubliner was on the nose, and pretty funny at times, and there was a point in the book where the plot became compulsive.
But overall, not my kind of book!
July 29, 2021
The main character (Ben) is completely insufferable and somewhat unrealistic. He lacks any personality and treats everyone around him like they don't exist. There's no antihero or redemption characteristics whatsoever. As I read I wanted Ben to fail.
There's 4 women mentioned in passing throughout the narrative: Ben's mother, a cold lifeless figure; his girlfriend Clio, who he actively dislikes, and looks down upon while openly admitting to using just for sex; Nikki, Ben's crush and girlfriend of one of his peers who he admires but constantly oversexualises ; and finally, Maria, a makeweight Eastern European woman who unsurprisingly is just used briefly as a sex prop for the story. Is this really all that female characters are good for in a male authors book? It's extremely disappointing
The description of drugs is like someone pretending to be an addict after watching a stoner comedy. Its over the top and totally unrealistic. It's cringe-worthy. Similarly, the general attitudes and lifestyles of the 20-something year old characters is written in the most clichéd manner possible. Completely out of touch and full of lazy stereotypes. Speaking of which..
The description of Serbia is ridiculous. You'd imagine a writer should do more than a quick Google search when researching a setting. Nope. It's easier to rely on typical stereotypes of an Eastern European country. The Serbian characters are the same, dull, uninspiring, typical brash, chain-smoking "bad guys".
Aside from the father's storyline, which is almost too realistic, as well as the twist at the end, I don't think I enjoyed any of this book. I wouldn't recommend and I can't see myself reading anything by the author again. Very disappointed
There's 4 women mentioned in passing throughout the narrative: Ben's mother, a cold lifeless figure; his girlfriend Clio, who he actively dislikes, and looks down upon while openly admitting to using just for sex; Nikki, Ben's crush and girlfriend of one of his peers who he admires but constantly oversexualises ; and finally, Maria, a makeweight Eastern European woman who unsurprisingly is just used briefly as a sex prop for the story. Is this really all that female characters are good for in a male authors book? It's extremely disappointing
The description of drugs is like someone pretending to be an addict after watching a stoner comedy. Its over the top and totally unrealistic. It's cringe-worthy. Similarly, the general attitudes and lifestyles of the 20-something year old characters is written in the most clichéd manner possible. Completely out of touch and full of lazy stereotypes. Speaking of which..
The description of Serbia is ridiculous. You'd imagine a writer should do more than a quick Google search when researching a setting. Nope. It's easier to rely on typical stereotypes of an Eastern European country. The Serbian characters are the same, dull, uninspiring, typical brash, chain-smoking "bad guys".
Aside from the father's storyline, which is almost too realistic, as well as the twist at the end, I don't think I enjoyed any of this book. I wouldn't recommend and I can't see myself reading anything by the author again. Very disappointed
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2021
In White City by Kevin Power the central character Ben is studying for a PhD when faced with a family crisis that sets in motion an unpredictable train of events which ultimately leads to Ben spending a period in a drug rehabilitation institution where he contemplates his predicament under the watchful care of Dr Felix.
Ben's drug-taking in White City supercedes any that I have previously come across as he presents as a parody of middle class entitlement, firmly rooted in the infamous Celtic tiger attitudes that prevailed at that time. His attempts at escaping mundanity are epically detailed in a rich narrative style full of wit and humour. I enjoyed the bold characters and the adventurous plans concocted to get rich quick. This is an outstanding read!
Ben's drug-taking in White City supercedes any that I have previously come across as he presents as a parody of middle class entitlement, firmly rooted in the infamous Celtic tiger attitudes that prevailed at that time. His attempts at escaping mundanity are epically detailed in a rich narrative style full of wit and humour. I enjoyed the bold characters and the adventurous plans concocted to get rich quick. This is an outstanding read!
June 16, 2025
*Audiobook*
This is so weird - I really liked this book while at the same time hating it! Kevin Power's Bad Day in Blackrock is one of my favourite Irish novels, and I was so looking forward to this book. The writing is superb - pithy and withy and sharp in all the right ways! But the characters. Christ, there's not one likeable character (maybe the Dad, actually) in the entire thing. I began to panic very early in.
Ben, our main character, is such a pain in the hole, but that is exactly the way he is meant to be! Everyone is an asshole and you quickly realise that that is exactly the way they are supposed to be. It gets annoying, but it's also genius. Some of the observations and interactions between these privileged snots are just laugh-out-loud funny and intentionally so. It's so dark in places, and some heavy stuff goes down, but the humour really cuts through that.
Would I recommend this novel? Oh yes, certainly!
This is so weird - I really liked this book while at the same time hating it! Kevin Power's Bad Day in Blackrock is one of my favourite Irish novels, and I was so looking forward to this book. The writing is superb - pithy and withy and sharp in all the right ways! But the characters. Christ, there's not one likeable character (maybe the Dad, actually) in the entire thing. I began to panic very early in.
Ben, our main character, is such a pain in the hole, but that is exactly the way he is meant to be! Everyone is an asshole and you quickly realise that that is exactly the way they are supposed to be. It gets annoying, but it's also genius. Some of the observations and interactions between these privileged snots are just laugh-out-loud funny and intentionally so. It's so dark in places, and some heavy stuff goes down, but the humour really cuts through that.
Would I recommend this novel? Oh yes, certainly!
September 10, 2021
A huge leap forward from A Bad Day in Blackrock in terms of both character development and pace. It follows a similar theme (often seeming very much like 10 years on with the same characters) but far more nuanced. I really enjoyed the comic timing of much of the lead characters thoughts and comments and reminded me of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose.
May 7, 2023
While I really liked this book, I didn't love it - but that's because it's quite an uncomfortable read at times. The main character isn't particularly relatable or likeable either - but it's a very different storyline and that I did like.
Read
August 2, 2021A frenzied drug-fuelled tumble down a rabbit hole of dodgy-dealing old-school-tie Dublin banksters and real estate shysters, with a side-serving of Serbian genocide.
A riot of a read.
A riot of a read.
June 6, 2024
drugs, daddy issues, and dodgy business deals
September 6, 2021
White City is a sometimes funny and at times heartrending story of a young man struggling to redeem himself after his life is destroyed by his family, his friends and his own deeply flawed decisions.
Ben is the epitome of the spoiled rich kid you’d love to hate. A child of a wealthy, South Dublin family, brought up with nothing but the best; the best house, the best school, the best vacations, the best clothes. Now he’s enrolled to do a PhD but with money flowing into his bank account every month, there’s no need to do anything but party.
‘South Dublin’ is more than a geographical area. In Ireland, it’s code for wealth and ostentation — for good schools, expensive homes, the ‘right’ kind of Dublin accent, golf, yachting and rugby clubs.
It’s all just fun and games, except it isn’t. Ben has grown up in an emotional vacuum with a work-obsessed father and an alcoholic mother, neither of whom seem to have any space in their lives for the son. His friends are drink and drug buddies. And then his father is arrested on a €600-million fraud charge and Ben’s money tap is switched off. We enter his life when he’s in rehab, looking back on the past, his family and the friends to whom he became a disposable pawn in a diabolical get-rich-quick scheme.
Anyone who would be even attracted to the scheme proposed by Ben’s former classmate is hardly deserving of much empathy. Eventually, we watch the whole thing go down the toilet. Ben is oblivious, stupefied by drugs and booze. It’s hard to watch.
The narrative is an interesting juxtaposition of Ben-then and Ben-now. The Ben who has been through rehab and gained important insights recounts the Ben who was flailing in a drug-hazed mess. It’s well done and it works. His whole life he has been surrounded by unscrupulous, profiteering frauds. Now he is struggling to see beyond the con and find out who he really is.
White City is not the first satire of its kind, exposing the dirt beneath the exterior gloss of wealth. Unlike many of those novels, however, this one succeeds in making the hero a likeable character, for all his weaknesses.
Note: I deliberately don’t use the word ‘privileged’ to describe Ben’s background. ‘Privilege’ is a term that is becoming increasingly politically loaded. It annoys me that a very useful word is being misappropriated. This book is just one of a zillion reminders that ‘privilege’ does not mean ‘if you’re rich, or come from a wealthy background, you de facto have a charmed life of unalloyed happiness’ (and by extension, no right to complain about anything, ever, so STFU).
My thanks to Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.
Like this review? You can find all my reviews on my book review site: BelEdit Book Reviews
Ben is the epitome of the spoiled rich kid you’d love to hate. A child of a wealthy, South Dublin family, brought up with nothing but the best; the best house, the best school, the best vacations, the best clothes. Now he’s enrolled to do a PhD but with money flowing into his bank account every month, there’s no need to do anything but party.
‘South Dublin’ is more than a geographical area. In Ireland, it’s code for wealth and ostentation — for good schools, expensive homes, the ‘right’ kind of Dublin accent, golf, yachting and rugby clubs.
It’s all just fun and games, except it isn’t. Ben has grown up in an emotional vacuum with a work-obsessed father and an alcoholic mother, neither of whom seem to have any space in their lives for the son. His friends are drink and drug buddies. And then his father is arrested on a €600-million fraud charge and Ben’s money tap is switched off. We enter his life when he’s in rehab, looking back on the past, his family and the friends to whom he became a disposable pawn in a diabolical get-rich-quick scheme.
Anyone who would be even attracted to the scheme proposed by Ben’s former classmate is hardly deserving of much empathy. Eventually, we watch the whole thing go down the toilet. Ben is oblivious, stupefied by drugs and booze. It’s hard to watch.
The narrative is an interesting juxtaposition of Ben-then and Ben-now. The Ben who has been through rehab and gained important insights recounts the Ben who was flailing in a drug-hazed mess. It’s well done and it works. His whole life he has been surrounded by unscrupulous, profiteering frauds. Now he is struggling to see beyond the con and find out who he really is.
White City is not the first satire of its kind, exposing the dirt beneath the exterior gloss of wealth. Unlike many of those novels, however, this one succeeds in making the hero a likeable character, for all his weaknesses.
Note: I deliberately don’t use the word ‘privileged’ to describe Ben’s background. ‘Privilege’ is a term that is becoming increasingly politically loaded. It annoys me that a very useful word is being misappropriated. This book is just one of a zillion reminders that ‘privilege’ does not mean ‘if you’re rich, or come from a wealthy background, you de facto have a charmed life of unalloyed happiness’ (and by extension, no right to complain about anything, ever, so STFU).
My thanks to Netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.
Like this review? You can find all my reviews on my book review site: BelEdit Book Reviews
July 4, 2021
Fantastic rollercoaster read, the writing was absolutely sublime, the characters and observations so well executed and the plot was so intense and gripping. Best book in ages. Brilliant. Can’t wait to read more by this author
October 5, 2021
This is a trivial send up of crooked business practices and over the top drug filled life of a twenty something. Your reading time is valuable it will be better spent on a more considered read.
May 10, 2021
A flawed, rambunctious, sharply observant and entertaining listen, especially through the narration of Patrick Moy, who nails the accents and the narrator Ben’s character perfectly. Ben is the son of a disgraced property magnate who is on trial for embezzling shareholder funds in a crime similar to the kind committed in the Anglo-Irish Bank scandal in the late noughties. Ben’s mother drinks too much and is involved in charity work. Floundering after his father’s disgrace puts paid to the Bank of Dad, Ben attempts and fails to get an extension for his PhD, meets an actress called Clio who introduces him to drugs and ends up working in a mordantly described dead-end job in a call-centre “pursuing B2B leads”. Then an old schoolfriend, James Mullins, materialises with an offer Ben in the end can’t refuse.
All this Ben relates in a journal for Dr Felix, a senior member of a rehab centre where Ben is trying to get clean. The narrative continues in a jumping fashion between Ben’s entry into the property world, his later trip to Serbia to seal a dodgy deal Mullins has cooked up, and his reflections at the rehab centre on the whole experience. Dr Felix pushes Ben to be honest with himself, though the hidden facts towards the end do make fascinating reveals. The novel reminded me a lot in subject and narrative style of Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes, particularly with Dr Felix and the parallels with Josephine.
What I liked about White City:
Dr Felix - “Writey write, chop chop,” is the kind of advice I need myself I think 🙂 He’s sardonic, does not suffer fools gladly but appears to have a soft spot for Ben. I want a Dr Felix to push me and make me be the best I can be. He’s a wonderful character.
Alexander - did I mention I have the hots for Alexander, the Serb translator who gets friendly with Ben. He’s intelligent, sensitive, artistic, modest, speaks truth to power - after a long acquaintance with narcissistic, dull Ben, Alexander was the hero I needed!
Clio - when she says to Ben “it’s not my job to save you any more” after he turns up and vents his bullshit just before she’s going on stage, I cheered and cheered.
The writing - I found the humour mordant and laughed out loud on several occasions. The antic of the Lads, the old school clique, were cringy and awful and hilarious.
The last 10% - the ending section was truly addictive and I just had to keep listening to find out what happened. A lot of it genuinely surprised me and after some of the slowness of the middle it was really exciting to break out and find how well the plot was crafted.
What I wasn't so keen on:
The drugs - oh my god the drugs, the uppers, the downers, the adderall, the oxycontin, the cocaine, the spliffs, the booze. Numberless bathroom scenes where narrator regards his own face before snorting or ingesting, constant vomiting, gastro issues, pains, uppers, downers - ! I get that addiction is boring, but perhaps to demonstrate this so completely does nothing for the readers and affects the pace.
Ben's naivete - ok we get that he is still young but he isn't a teenager, his credulity stretches limits sometimes.
Serbia - I'm a little troubled by the decision to use a real country here, particularly one the author has travelled to in the past. The references throughout are extremely pejorative and nothing is spared in telling us the place is, according to the story, a dump (I googled - it has its issues but also a lot of beauty.) There's a bit of Western myopia here and the scorn is unattractive, almost xenophobic at times. I think it might have been better if the country had been fictionalised, to be honest.
With these caveats, I enjoyed listening to this novel, it was a rollicking experience and I'm glad I kept going with it. Nice work.
All this Ben relates in a journal for Dr Felix, a senior member of a rehab centre where Ben is trying to get clean. The narrative continues in a jumping fashion between Ben’s entry into the property world, his later trip to Serbia to seal a dodgy deal Mullins has cooked up, and his reflections at the rehab centre on the whole experience. Dr Felix pushes Ben to be honest with himself, though the hidden facts towards the end do make fascinating reveals. The novel reminded me a lot in subject and narrative style of Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes, particularly with Dr Felix and the parallels with Josephine.
What I liked about White City:
Dr Felix - “Writey write, chop chop,” is the kind of advice I need myself I think 🙂 He’s sardonic, does not suffer fools gladly but appears to have a soft spot for Ben. I want a Dr Felix to push me and make me be the best I can be. He’s a wonderful character.
Alexander - did I mention I have the hots for Alexander, the Serb translator who gets friendly with Ben. He’s intelligent, sensitive, artistic, modest, speaks truth to power - after a long acquaintance with narcissistic, dull Ben, Alexander was the hero I needed!
Clio - when she says to Ben “it’s not my job to save you any more” after he turns up and vents his bullshit just before she’s going on stage, I cheered and cheered.
The writing - I found the humour mordant and laughed out loud on several occasions. The antic of the Lads, the old school clique, were cringy and awful and hilarious.
The last 10% - the ending section was truly addictive and I just had to keep listening to find out what happened. A lot of it genuinely surprised me and after some of the slowness of the middle it was really exciting to break out and find how well the plot was crafted.
What I wasn't so keen on:
The drugs - oh my god the drugs, the uppers, the downers, the adderall, the oxycontin, the cocaine, the spliffs, the booze. Numberless bathroom scenes where narrator regards his own face before snorting or ingesting, constant vomiting, gastro issues, pains, uppers, downers - ! I get that addiction is boring, but perhaps to demonstrate this so completely does nothing for the readers and affects the pace.
Ben's naivete - ok we get that he is still young but he isn't a teenager, his credulity stretches limits sometimes.
Serbia - I'm a little troubled by the decision to use a real country here, particularly one the author has travelled to in the past. The references throughout are extremely pejorative and nothing is spared in telling us the place is, according to the story, a dump (I googled - it has its issues but also a lot of beauty.) There's a bit of Western myopia here and the scorn is unattractive, almost xenophobic at times. I think it might have been better if the country had been fictionalised, to be honest.
With these caveats, I enjoyed listening to this novel, it was a rollicking experience and I'm glad I kept going with it. Nice work.
December 23, 2022
Until you get to the end you think this is a pacy, intelligent dressing-down of the revolting Dublin thrusting class of thickos with money and their privately educated spoilt children: a sector of Irish society that doesn't often get the kicking it deserves, and Kevin Powers might be just the man to do it, and get us away from all the bucolic, soft-toned, priest-in-the-village tragic and sweet dying that bedevils far too much Irish writing. This is much stronger, more cosmopolitan stuff about the rich bastards who actually pull the strings and who decide what happens - from the debasement and wrecking of the Dublin skyline (comprehensively described here) to the vapid party-going, wealth-flaunting and materialism that passes for "elegance" in a certain Dublin set of people who think they're sophisticated but are really just a bunch of drunks. Kevin Power's novel is a morally indignant tale that exposes and denounces these horrors with a clever plot that switches between different scenarios in a very lively way (Dublin, Belgrade mainly) as a vehicle for him to describe a complex financial scam that leads the protagonist deeper and deeper into a world from which he cannot escape, mainly because of his own foolish addiction to every kind of drug. The women in his life are mainly a nuisance to this egomaniac who is only aware of the female presence insofar as it it is either a botheration that gets in the way of his plans, or a support for them. The fact that the women have plans of their own seems to be a constant surprise to him that he can't deal with- can't encompass in his constantly hallucinated, deranged world-view. The financial scam is fascinating, and is described in detail as it plays out. It is equally refreshing to read about Irish parents who are unloved, unloving, and completely useless; the alcoholic mother with her 12 o'clock gin and tonics, etc. is hilariously described, as is the fraudulent activity that made the father rich and (formerly) successful. I can't tell you what a good read this all is - never a dull moment but intelligently, caustically so as in social criticism as our Hero takes more and more drugs to deal with the effects of the drugs he took before (whilst smoking three cigarettes at the same time). All great craic until you get to the bodies. The discovery of the bodies is the moment at which the story suddenly becomes serious as KP embarks on a denunciation of the warmongering, genocidal doings of what happened in the Balkans during the 1990s and the shennanigans that followed. Up until then he had described the Serbians as all being a bit of a laugh because their English no good. Very Benny Hill to laugh at foreigners because they can't speak English and their country is a nasty place where they eat incomprehensible food and have different manners and are all called Igor. You allow Kevin Powers to get away with this because really, the novel is all a bit of a laugh in the Martin Amis way to which another reviewer has alluded. Until you get to the bodies. But the bodies are not the end. What happens at the end of this novel is the biggest let-down. Until the last few pages I was thoroughly enjoying this comprehensive detailed exposé of the disgusting people who make the big money and are (I thought) getting their come-uppance. At last, I was thinking, an Irish writer who tells it like it horribly is, in Dublin specifically but could be anywhere else in this (we hope late) capitalist nightmare, Alas, at the very end, this isn't what happens: the people I think of as disgusting rise up into the firmament in a kind of apotheosis or revelation, creating the cheesiest, and completely unbelievable, of happy endings and all's-well-that-ends-well dénouements. What a let-down. But I enjoyed the ride. Sorry for the typos.
April 13, 2022
This was a powerful and intriguing story, following Ben, the son of a prominent Irish banker who has led a life on entitlement and indulgence, until outside forces start to dismantle his life. It is told through his recollections during a spell in rehab, looking back over the preceding months.
After attending an expensive and exclusive private school, he had passed on to university to study English. Thereafter, despite a fairly mediocre degree, he had enrolled as a postgraduate, working on a thesis about the early works of James Joyce. This had, in fact, been cover for a life of extraordinary ease but no focus, funded by a generous monthly allowance from his father. This comes to an abrupt end when his father is arrested, accused of having misappropriated around six hundred million Euros. With his father’s assets frozen, Ben finds his life of luxury is over. He does, however, fall on his feet, taking up with a beautiful aspiring actress called Clio. This coincides with his descent into a life of intense hedonism, leading to his increasing dependence on drugs.
It is while he is sinking to the deepest of these depths that he encounters someone from his old school who appears to have been immensely successful in the intervening period, working in the obscure avenues of international banking. He persuades Ben to join him and a handful of other fellows from the same school, in a property development venture in Serbia where they envisage the potential to make a commercial killing as a consequence of a loophole in the legislation. Ben is initially hesitant, but lured by what appears to be limitless access to money. The novel then moves between Serbia and Dublin, with the bankers’ experiences as they meet their very shady Serbian counterparts interspersed with flashbacks to events in Dublin just before Ben flew out to Serbia.
The plot is very carefully managed, with surprising revelations emerging throughout. This was one of those strange novels without any particularly appealing characters – even Ben is far from sympathetic, willing, by his own admission, to trick or abandon those who have tried to help him. That does not detract from the novel’s appeal however, and I found myself completely immersed and engaged in it right from the start.
After attending an expensive and exclusive private school, he had passed on to university to study English. Thereafter, despite a fairly mediocre degree, he had enrolled as a postgraduate, working on a thesis about the early works of James Joyce. This had, in fact, been cover for a life of extraordinary ease but no focus, funded by a generous monthly allowance from his father. This comes to an abrupt end when his father is arrested, accused of having misappropriated around six hundred million Euros. With his father’s assets frozen, Ben finds his life of luxury is over. He does, however, fall on his feet, taking up with a beautiful aspiring actress called Clio. This coincides with his descent into a life of intense hedonism, leading to his increasing dependence on drugs.
It is while he is sinking to the deepest of these depths that he encounters someone from his old school who appears to have been immensely successful in the intervening period, working in the obscure avenues of international banking. He persuades Ben to join him and a handful of other fellows from the same school, in a property development venture in Serbia where they envisage the potential to make a commercial killing as a consequence of a loophole in the legislation. Ben is initially hesitant, but lured by what appears to be limitless access to money. The novel then moves between Serbia and Dublin, with the bankers’ experiences as they meet their very shady Serbian counterparts interspersed with flashbacks to events in Dublin just before Ben flew out to Serbia.
The plot is very carefully managed, with surprising revelations emerging throughout. This was one of those strange novels without any particularly appealing characters – even Ben is far from sympathetic, willing, by his own admission, to trick or abandon those who have tried to help him. That does not detract from the novel’s appeal however, and I found myself completely immersed and engaged in it right from the start.
May 24, 2021
'In some secret corner of my brain I felt a tug, and then a slump, as if some crucial beam or joist had finally given way to rust or metal fatigue.' This is how antihero Ben reacts to the news that he is to be cut off by his parents at the age of 27, in the midst of an investigation into his father’s financial wrongdoings. Half-writing a novel called Decay: A Report, struggling through a PhD, and with no income other than a stipend from his parents, Ben is in a quandary. Fending for himself leads him to a call-centre job, an actress girlfriend, a drug addiction and a dodgy property deal in Serbia.
Privileged and scornful of pretty much everyone, but also funny and self aware, Ben is one of the most entertaining antiheroes I’ve read in ages. Visiting his thesis supervisor, he muses: ‘Here was a vision of the life I might already have earned, if it had ever occurred to me that I needed to earn anything.' At times, he’s oddly relatable: a frustrated artist, he dreams of living alone in a cabin in the woods, with nothing but books and wine for company. His friend group is made up of ‘a loose assortment of junior scholars, zine-editors, slam poets, bloggers, graphic designers, publishing interns and student journalists … We went to book launches and flirted with each other ... We complained loudly and often about how Dublin was being taken over by vulture funds who had rendered the city unaffordable for artists. We lived on allowances from our parents, or in apartments in boomtime residential units bought for us as graduation presents.'
Power has a way of introducing characters with a phrase or two that makes them startlingly familiar. The crowd at a funeral: 'Cousins, uncles, aunts, family members, all with similar faces, like different editions of the same book.' The Lads, the crew of private school ex-rugby players who ensnare Ben in their dodgy business deal: ‘that granitic crew of jocks and jeerers, those slab-like avatars of heedless privilege, with their monster-truck shoulders and their buzz-cut designer dos.'
Power wrote a brilliant Irish Times piece about why it took so long for his second novel to appear (Bad Day in Blackrock, his excellent debut, came out in 2008). It’s been worth the wait – White City is beautifully written, relentlessly entertaining, and everything is earned.
Privileged and scornful of pretty much everyone, but also funny and self aware, Ben is one of the most entertaining antiheroes I’ve read in ages. Visiting his thesis supervisor, he muses: ‘Here was a vision of the life I might already have earned, if it had ever occurred to me that I needed to earn anything.' At times, he’s oddly relatable: a frustrated artist, he dreams of living alone in a cabin in the woods, with nothing but books and wine for company. His friend group is made up of ‘a loose assortment of junior scholars, zine-editors, slam poets, bloggers, graphic designers, publishing interns and student journalists … We went to book launches and flirted with each other ... We complained loudly and often about how Dublin was being taken over by vulture funds who had rendered the city unaffordable for artists. We lived on allowances from our parents, or in apartments in boomtime residential units bought for us as graduation presents.'
Power has a way of introducing characters with a phrase or two that makes them startlingly familiar. The crowd at a funeral: 'Cousins, uncles, aunts, family members, all with similar faces, like different editions of the same book.' The Lads, the crew of private school ex-rugby players who ensnare Ben in their dodgy business deal: ‘that granitic crew of jocks and jeerers, those slab-like avatars of heedless privilege, with their monster-truck shoulders and their buzz-cut designer dos.'
Power wrote a brilliant Irish Times piece about why it took so long for his second novel to appear (Bad Day in Blackrock, his excellent debut, came out in 2008). It’s been worth the wait – White City is beautifully written, relentlessly entertaining, and everything is earned.
November 21, 2021
Ross O’Carroll Kelly on Yokes and Coke ... but even less likeable? That’s the impression I’m left of Ben - the lead character of Kevin Power’s “White City” – the wastrel son of a corrupt banker and whose entitlement and self-delusion is only matched by his gargantuan drug intake. Drowning in a sea of his own solipsism and substance abuse, Ben is seemingly thrown a lifeline by a gaggle of his old rugby school friends who inveigle him into an obviously bent Serbian property deal.
Kevin Power quite evidently – and with some justification – wanted to lift the lid on Dublin’s pampered, over-privileged, privately-educated self-perpetuating elite, and to shine a light on Ireland’s craven genuflection towards property rentiers, techbros, and globalised financial capitalism. Unfortunately, in “White City” he goes about this task with such a sledgehammer approach that practically every Irish character in the entire book is so appalling as to lack any morsel of charm or redeeming characteristic. The Serbian characters are drawn so broadly that they are practically twirling villainous moustaches throughout and could be starring in an Eastern European version of “Allo, Allo!”
Power has a knack for capturing the speech and mannerisms of a certain breed of South Dublin upper-class buffoon. But, if anything, “White City” is almost too angry, and too eager to relentlessly skewer every aspect of the target of its ire. Almost ceaselessly misanthropic and nihilistic, “White City” is a lesson that hard-hitting satire will be virtually unreadable if you insist that every one of your characters is an utterly irredeemable tosser.
Kevin Power quite evidently – and with some justification – wanted to lift the lid on Dublin’s pampered, over-privileged, privately-educated self-perpetuating elite, and to shine a light on Ireland’s craven genuflection towards property rentiers, techbros, and globalised financial capitalism. Unfortunately, in “White City” he goes about this task with such a sledgehammer approach that practically every Irish character in the entire book is so appalling as to lack any morsel of charm or redeeming characteristic. The Serbian characters are drawn so broadly that they are practically twirling villainous moustaches throughout and could be starring in an Eastern European version of “Allo, Allo!”
Power has a knack for capturing the speech and mannerisms of a certain breed of South Dublin upper-class buffoon. But, if anything, “White City” is almost too angry, and too eager to relentlessly skewer every aspect of the target of its ire. Almost ceaselessly misanthropic and nihilistic, “White City” is a lesson that hard-hitting satire will be virtually unreadable if you insist that every one of your characters is an utterly irredeemable tosser.
May 2, 2021
In Ben, Power has created an instant anti-hero. Ben is spoilt, he is lack lustre, he is naïve, he is neglectful of his girlfriend, but so funny and in need of a wake up call. So much of White City with its duality in terms of location (Dublin and Serbia) and time frames seems to mirror the almost split personality of the narrator. Ben despises his banker father, but seems destined to follow in his shoes trusting in his old school friend that the 'steal of the century' is just that. At his core Ben fully understands the path that he is taking and when sober can question the shady negotiations that are taking place, but the call of drugs is so convenient that he takes the route of least resistance. His intellectual aspirations make Ben believe that he is better than those around him, but time will prove him wrong. Think Trainspotting crossed with the Wolf of Wall Street coupled with the warmth of Irish lyricism. A joy to read with laugh out loud wit and excruciating moments of crushing belittlement.
September 2, 2021
It has been a while since I finished this book - and I can't remember what I thought about it! No detail, anyway.
It was a good story. Ben is lost - he is an adult man, stretching out his 'graduate studies' under the guise of writing a book. But does he really want to be a writer, or is it a way to keep being financially supported by his wealthy, successful father?
Ben doesn't feel loved. Somewhere along the way he disconnected with his parents. He has turned to drugs and mindless sex - but to fair he didn't start on the drugs until he met Clio.
In desperation (and knowing he's an idiot along the way) he falls in with old school friends who are out for the 'big win' - working with criminal Serbians (wanted for war crimes). Of course, it is all a scam. And Ben is the patsy.
I did enjoy reading this. But gosh, you could smack Ben around the head. He's such a baby - get over it, move on, I kept saying to him.
We learn Ben's story through the device of him keeping a journal for his psychologist.
It was a good story. Ben is lost - he is an adult man, stretching out his 'graduate studies' under the guise of writing a book. But does he really want to be a writer, or is it a way to keep being financially supported by his wealthy, successful father?
Ben doesn't feel loved. Somewhere along the way he disconnected with his parents. He has turned to drugs and mindless sex - but to fair he didn't start on the drugs until he met Clio.
In desperation (and knowing he's an idiot along the way) he falls in with old school friends who are out for the 'big win' - working with criminal Serbians (wanted for war crimes). Of course, it is all a scam. And Ben is the patsy.
I did enjoy reading this. But gosh, you could smack Ben around the head. He's such a baby - get over it, move on, I kept saying to him.
We learn Ben's story through the device of him keeping a journal for his psychologist.
October 8, 2021
I suspect the fact that a Ross O'Carroll Kelly character narrates this audiobook makes it a very different experience than reading in print. I didn't read "A Bad Day in Blackrock", but the the movie, What Richard Did is a very different tone. White City, or at least the "Roysh Lads" version depicted in the audiobook is quite farcical throughout. It's basically Ross O'Carroll Kelly and his rugby mates doing dodgy deals during the Celtic Tiger - if Ross was a raging Class-A caner. Even the trips to Serbia are quite farcical with two-dimensional Serbian stereotypes. A lot of it is written in the form of a journal entries by the protagonist Ben which is quite often hilariously purple prose. There are some moments of depth in discussions with his therapist to balance things out a bit. But to me it mostly read as farce and was quite entertaining overall. In fact, I don't think I could handle a very serious book about a bunch of entitled investment wankers, so the farce was quite necessary, for me at least.
April 17, 2022
It would be difficult to find a less likeable protagonist than Ben - an idle, rich, drug-addicted dropout who uses a girlfriend rather than loving her and dreams of an unachievable life of isolated luxury which he hopes to secure by joining with others in committing a stupendous crime. Fortunately, practically nothing that he aims to achieve actually happens, and almost everyone he deals with him turns out to be more astute than he is, so we grow to sympathise with him in his seemingly unstoppable misfortune.
We have a sense that he might ultimately be saved, as there is a parallel story, set slightly in the future, of him receiving psychiatric treatment. We can only wonder how he survives long enough to receive it, with the odds unremittingly stacked against him. There proves to be a salvation of sorts, but not before we have been horrified and delighted by his bizarre series of misadventures. There are moments of shocking violence, but also of laugh-out-loud humour. White City was an enjoyable ride.
We have a sense that he might ultimately be saved, as there is a parallel story, set slightly in the future, of him receiving psychiatric treatment. We can only wonder how he survives long enough to receive it, with the odds unremittingly stacked against him. There proves to be a salvation of sorts, but not before we have been horrified and delighted by his bizarre series of misadventures. There are moments of shocking violence, but also of laugh-out-loud humour. White City was an enjoyable ride.
February 26, 2024
The protagonist in this story is trying to unburden himself of reliance on drugs. He is the privileged son of a wealthy South Dublin businessman whose dubious practices have put him in legal jeopardy. Our protagonist is less concerned about the fate of his father and more interested in establishing a literary career despite his lack of ambition. He And his girlfriend become immersed in drugs when he accidentally encounters an old schoolmate who entices him to join-up with former classmates to take advantage of Serbian entrepreneurs in a land investment deal. Both parties are thwarted when it turns out that the land was formerly a burial ground for assassinated civilians during the preceding war.
The remainder of this tale leads to the eventual recognition of the many wrong moves made by the protagonist, including his dependence on drugs.
While the author is skilled at spinning out his story, the subject matter becomes wearisome and the characters, though well-defined, do not engender much sympathy to the reader.
The remainder of this tale leads to the eventual recognition of the many wrong moves made by the protagonist, including his dependence on drugs.
While the author is skilled at spinning out his story, the subject matter becomes wearisome and the characters, though well-defined, do not engender much sympathy to the reader.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews