A Sort of Homecoming

by Robert Cremins

Coming home for Christmas is a cliché Tom Iremonger hopes to explode. After a six-month "transcontinental lost weekend" spent blowing his grandfather's legacy, Ireland's self-proclaimed Greatest Resource returns to Dublin armed only with his beloved leather jacket, a dwindling supply of Eurocheques, and a truly monstrous ego. Dublin, however, has changed. It seems, in fact, as smoothly sophisticated as Iremonger himself. Shaken, Tom finds himself violating some precious Rules of Cool--collecting for charity, cheating during the Forty-Foot Swim in the frigid Irish Sea, and above all trying (and failing) to win back Mainie Doyle, the urbane and beautiful daughter of a supermarket magnate. As he fights for his spot atop Dublin's trendy new elite, can it be that Iremonger's future is finally catching up with him? A novel of pints and posterboys, ravers and priests, semtex and sensibility, Cremins's hilarious debut―part Less Than Zero , part Look Homeward, Angel ―is as much about some very old truths as it is about the new Ireland.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Contemporary, Novels

314 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining romp of a book. The narrator reminds me of every guy I went to high school with. Except, you know, Irish.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 20 pages are an interesting first person character introduction that establishes the narrator’s voice, his circumstances, his background, and a big part of what he needs to overcome—all of which occurs as he exits a plane, passes through customs, claims his luggage, and is met by his parents. What I find interesting about this beginning is that it is the type of scene that could have been dashed through quickly in a paragraph, but Cremins chose to use it to introduce his narrator/character, and several of the minor characters. He takes what could have been a boring event and brings it to life via his narrator’s voice. It’s impressive to see how much back story and character personality is packed into these 20 pages and yet it never feels like we are getting the information dumped on us. It all feels like the natural thoughts this character would have in that setting. Nice feat, and a good model for how to get the job done.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cremins is a great writer.

[Huw Rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frivolous entertainment. This is all pretty superficial. Nothing much happens beyond drinking, posing and drinking some more. But amusing enough at times.

[Andrea Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I didn't really enjoy the book because I couldn't identify with someone who's main purpose was to score more drugs. But by the end, I enjoyed it and the character's growth.

[Sadhbh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the only reason i really liked this book was because i could relate to it. I'm a young Irish person home from the US temporarily, and the blow by blow description of arriving in Dublin airport exactly as it is drew me straight in. But to be honest the book doesn't have all that much going for it. The prick of a main character remains largely flat and is very hard to take a liking to. Which is probably the point, in fairness, but if you're going to do that then you have to make other parts of the novel shine, and they don't. This book is a glimpse into what Dublin was like before the internet and mobile phones, and just at the beginning of the Celtic Tiger, which is fascinating and the combination of things i recognise and things i don't was the only thing that kept me reading until the end.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me a bit of Less Than Zero and American Psycho - the characters being just as shallow (some wealthy, some psychotic, and most abusing drugs), but significantly less interesting. The main character was a narcissistic and shallow person that makes a slight transformation towards the end of the story, but there are only two events that happen to help shake him awake to make his minor transformation. Basically, a man child finally realizes that he is letting life slip by while in the pursuit of living life to its fullest extent. Kind of an interesting idea, and something that a lot of people might relate too. This isn't a book that I would read again, but it was entertaining enough to read once.

[Mikey Hops · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done and extremely relevant given the fact I'm a 22 year old on an anti-Odyssey of my own. Takes a The Beautiful & the Damned approach vivid descriptions of materialistic excess and wanderings in 20th century Dublin through the eyes and ears of a recent college graduate who has come into a bit of money thanks to a dead grandfather. Interesting examination of main character, Fish, and his fragile yet hyper-inflated ego, his relationships with friends of old and new, and his struggle to find connection with something in his narcissistic and hedonistic reality.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written by an English teacher at my high school. I never had him or knew him, and I didn't know what to expect. The protagonist had depth, moving from impressive (briefly) to annoying to pitiable. I was really pulling for him, but not to accomplish what he wanted. Rather, I desperately wanted him to learn from the lessons in front of him, which he eventually did somewhat.

[Jenny Gendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book was good, but didn't end the way that I expected it. I had hoped the main charicter would have had a complete change, but didn't seem to have a complete change. It was a bit unsatisfying ending.