This is an author with proven pedigree as far as I am concerned. I did very much enjoy "Skippy Dies" (2010) but he really surpassed this with his 2015 novel "The Mark And The Void" which I read pre-publication and considered whether it might be "The Great Comic Novel Of Our Time". I expected it to be a really big seller which didn't quite happen as I anticipated. That year in my Best Books retrospective it ended up at #2 behind the 2009 translation of Hans Fallada's "Alone In Berlin". It was my favourite book published that year and at this stage of 2023 this looks like it might be the case again.
Eight years feels a long time to wait for another book from this Irish writer and it does seem now that this is the title to confirm his reputation. Winner of Novel Of The Year at the Irish Book Awards and much favoured on the Booker shortlist it is doing well in hardback and when the paperback arrives (scheduled May 2024) this big book should become a big seller.
"Skippy Dies" explored school life, "The Mark And The Void" made financial institutions funny (who'd have thought?), "The Bee Sting" sees the author settling into an area where Irish writing is so strong- the ups and downs of family life. Meet the Barnes family, especially school leaver Cass and her younger brother PJ and their parents Dickie and Imelda. They each get focused narratives and I found myself from the initial spotlight on Cass and best friend Elaine loving this book right from the start. Imelda's sections are more tricky to read as they lack full stops (there are capital letters at the start of where each sentence should be though). I would imagine this is done to reflect an area of Imelda's personality but it's not really necessary. The past and present combine to create a tale which is funny, moving, unpredictable and extremely impressive. It was one of those books I didn't want to end and yet I must admit as the end approached the author concertinaed the narratives and switched to the third person, the narrator directly addressing the protagonists which I didn't enjoy as much as the rest of the book but I was completely sucked in by the time this occurred in Paul Murray's tale and it did build up a sense of urgency as the plot drove to a conclusion.
I wonder if it was these small aspects which saw the Booker judges awarding the prize to "Prophet Song" by Paul Lynch. I was mid-way through when the prize was announced and at that point it seemed inexplicable that there could have been a better book published this year than this. I was so hopeful that this would do for this writer's career which a previous outstanding Booker choice "Shuggie Bain" did for Douglas Stuart.
I've not focused much on plot here and that's deliberate but I do need to tell you that the novel is so rich and rounded. Backtrack to "Skippy Dies" where I felt in the opening stages of that novel the author threw so much into it that I was initially bewildered, here he does much the same throughout the novel but 13 years on it works superbly. This also makes it a book which will reward re-reads. I'm certainly keeping my copy on the shelves.
The Bee Sting was published by Hamish Hamilton in June 2023.
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