Last of the High Kings

by Ferdia Mac Anna

Plagued by his anarchic mother, tormented by his sister, abused by his brain-damaged brother, and generally driven to despair by everyone, Frankie Griffin, the Last of the High Kings of Tara, is going to embark on a coming-of-age story with a difference... Set during the summer of punk in Howth, a small fishing town in North Country Dublin, the riotously funny The Last of the High Kings tells Frankie's story as he tries to deal with his eccentric family and come to terms with his life. The Last of the High Kings was made into a Hollywood movie starring Gabriel Byrne, Jared Leto, Stephen Rea and Christina Ricci in 1996. First published in 1991 New Island's Modern Irish Classics series brings this hilarious novel to a new generation of readers.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Maria Hill AKA MH Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the adventures a middle class Dublin Boy who suspects he has failed his leaving certificate exams (High School exams) and that he won’t get into University and will have to emigrate to California. He has one Summer before his results are out and he will have to face the music. Set in the early 70’s his mother is a mad republican catholic and his dad absent due to his acting career.
There are a lot of stories contained within such a small volume, most of them with the potential of being funny or maybe even sad. Unfortunately, there is no Character development, no descriptions and no way in hell I cared less about what happened to any of the characters in the book. Except for a general uneasiness that the author considers killing a cat is a funny story and that its funny when Nationalist assumes someone is evil if they are Anglican, I have no emotive response to this book.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankie is sure he's not going to get enough points in his Leaving Cert exam to get into university. He has the summer ahead of him to wait and nothing to do. If he doesn't get into Uni he has even less of a plan. His mother is a splendid character who insists that her family is descended from the High Kings of Ireland. When a neighbour complains about the youngsters sitting on her wall, the mother orders the kids to get up and walk along the wall, saying they have every right to go anywhere in Ireland.

This is the time of punk rock in Dublin, early nineties, and Frankie listens to music, fancies girls and gets into some misadventures like all teenage boys.

This coming of age book is a lively read and the assorted cast is great fun. This was filmed with Gabriel Byrne, and Stephen Rae as a chatty taxi driver.

Also read The Ship Inspector by this author.

[R.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Κριτική στα Ελληνικά πιο κάτω...

This is a decent book to pass the time, narrating the life of a 17 years' old Irish boy in the '70s, during the summer after he finished school. It has its fun moments and if one is familiar with Irish culture and history it helps to understand some incidents etc, but sometimes the text seemed to be a bit pointless and boring too.

The book is representative of its era or the era it's set in I guess, but there is lots of bulling and sexism and discrimination and other stuff that get repetitive after a while and a bit too long-winded. There are some over the top ridiculous incidents and scenes that take the characters' eccentricity too far to be convincing and the main character seems too immature for a person at this age. Too goofy and it's hard to believe that the character depicted here managed tosucceed his exams and be able to study in a university at the end.

I liked the book, but I had higher expectations to be honest. I found it a bit too silly rather than fun most of the time...

Είναι ένα αξιοπρεπές βιβλίο για να περάσει η ώρα, που αφηγείται τη ζωή ενός 17χρονου Ιρλανδού τη δεκαετία του '70, το καλοκαίρι αφού τελείωσε το σχολείο. Έχει τις διασκεδαστικές του στιγμές και αν κάποιος είναι εξοικειωμένος με την ιρλανδική κουλτούρα και ιστορία, αυτό βοηθάει στην κατανόηση κάποιων περιστατικών κλπ. Αλλά μερικές φορές το κείμενο φαινόταν λίγο άσκοπο και βαρετό.

Το βιβλίο είναι αντιπροσωπευτικό της εποχής του ή της εποχής στην οποία διαδραματίζεται η υπόθεση υποθέτω, αλλά υπάρχει εκφοβισμός και σεξισμός και διακρίσεις και άλλα πράγματα που γίνονται επαναλαμβανόμενα μετά από λίγο και λίγο μακρόσυρτα. Υπάρχουν μερικά γελοία περιστατικά και σκηνές που πάνε την εκκεντρικότητα των χαρακτήρων σε άλλο επίπεδο για να είναι πειστικά και ο κύριος χαρακτήρας φαίνεται πολύ ανώριμος για ένα άτομο σε αυτήν την ηλικία. Πολύ ανόητος και γκαφατζής και είναι δύσκολο να πιστέψει κανείς ότι ο χαρακτήρας που απεικονίζεται εδώ κατάφερε να πετύχει στις εξετάσεις του και μπόρεσε να περάσει σε πανεπιστήμιο στο τέλος.

Μου άρεσε το βιβλίο, αλλά είχα μεγαλύτερες προσδοκίες για να είμαι ειλικρινής. Το βρήκα κάπως ανόητο παρά διασκεδαστικό τις περισσότερες φορές...

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don´t read comedy very frequently, but sometimes a lighter work is appreciated and any opportunity to read a previously unknown Irish author needs to be grabbed.
This book does everything it says on the tin - it is a most amusing account of a troubled adolescent growing up in an archetypal, suffocatingly anarchic family during a happier, more innocent time when it was not a crime to give either siblings or offspring a good box around the ears. Coming from a large Irish family myself I can testify that however surreal some of the incidents in this book might seem, far stranger things happened during my tender years. Indeed such households have become almost stereotypical; initially I mistakenly took certain of Roddy Doyle´s books to be blatant plagiarisms of High Kings, but upon checking I discovered that this short novel is contemporaneous with The Barrytown Trilogy, so my suspicions were unfounded. Nevertheless, the similarities are remarkable. Great affection is shown for family life and our unique culture, all the more so because the author is not afraid to poke fun at its all-consuming nature.
Needless to say, all of the above have been turned into films (my cousin used to take the lead in The Commitments, Andrew Strong I think his name is, to school on his bike) in what almost became a genre of its own back in the day, and while films seldom age as well as books, these remain wonderful reflection of the period.
I would recommend Last of the High Kings for anyone who enjoys a good reminisce because we were all young once, even though not everyone is lucky enough to be Irish.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of "Catcher in the Rye," this is a story of the varying moods of a Dublin teenager. It's a short and easy read, but somehow never really works. I never managed to get beyond a neutral reaction to Frankie, the central character, and aside from his 12-year-old brother and maybe his mom, the other characters are not at all memorable.

It is impressive, though, the extent to which the story reads as if much or all of it really happened. I found myself wondering the extent to which parts of it, at least, may be autobiographical.

The cover blurbs promise effective humor, but the book failed utterly in that respect for me. This is not "The Ginger Man" in any way. It also fails to generate much emotion in the reader, aside from a mild reprise of teen-age angst. I guess we were all a lot more dull at that age than we imagined we were!

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short book is a light hearted story of a family living in a small town just outside Dublin in the late 1970’s, mainly focusing on the elder child, Frankie Griffin, a character presumably based on the author himself. Five kids, a Brit hating Republican mother and father who spends most of the book away as an actor on tour in the US, the main element of the book is 17 year old Frankie’s coming of age, his friendships, scrapes, experiments with drink, drugs and girls.

Written in a style reminiscent of Roddy Doyle, although a bit two dimensional and slightly less funny, the book was made into a Hollywood movie in 1996.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was originally published in 1991 and I couldn't figure out how to get the proper cover scanned. This is a coming of age story of a teenager in 1970s Ireland (near Dublin) and his trials and tribulations as he waits to hear whether he'll be going to college in the fall or stuck with noisy, weird family. His father is a successful actor who travels a lot and his mother is an Irish patriot with four living children, including one who needs extra looking after (he keeps swearing at people and throwing cans at them). Frankie isn't sure what he wants, but he keeps hanging with his mates, fantasizing about girls, and listening to rock and roll music. His family would drive me crazy!

[Rebecca Haslam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the book that the film 'Summer Fling/Last Of The High Kings' starring Jared Leto is b ased upon. Having seen the film a number of years ago, I was intrigued to see how the book version played out. The book is relatively small in terms of number of pages and so it didn't take me long to get through, plus having seen the film, I could identify the majority of parts as the chapters went on. I won't be reading this again but instead am sending it to two Jared fans in Ireland.

[BRT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing vignette of one family's life, and the coming of age of their eldest son, in Ireland in the 70's and 80's.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, easy to read, nice to read something set where I live.