The Spinning Heart: A Novel

I purchased this book based on the first paragraph of the first chapter that was used as part of the Kindle book description. It caught my attention. It was probably the best paragraph of the book. The story is set in a small community where a building firm has closed down following the collapse of the Irish economy. Each chapter is about a different character and their response to the situation they find themselves in. I thought this would be similar to books of this style that I've previously read - we see the characters through the eyes of the narrator and as the story progresses we build up an image of each one and the story comes together. This was not like that. For a start there were far too many characters. Each chapter is one person's monologue and there is no real connection between the individual narrator and the other characters so this book is just a series of short stories, nothing more. I think the main character is meant to be Bobby but after a few chapters he only get the odd sentence devoted to him so by the end of the book you don't really care what has happened to him because he has become a distant almost forgotten character. There are the usual stereotypes in this book, the single-parent, the long suffering wife, the psychopath, the gay one etc. There were so many chapters / characters that it just became hard work to read after a while. The narrator might fleetingly refer to some other characters but I couldn't be bothered trying to remember who was who because aside from their allotted chapter these individuals didn't have any impact on the overall story. The last few chapters were of characters who hadn't even been mentioned prior to that, it was as if the author needed to stretch out the story a bit which is understandable as it was only 150 pages long.Apart from a couple of people there was no real differences between the characters. As I started a new chapter, it was as if the previous character was speaking under a different name. With a few exceptions, most of them came across as small-minded, poorly educated and for some reason didn't seem to care much about there parents. Also the way they spoke was coarse and vulgar and if I didn't know Tipperary and some of the people there, this book would have left me with a very bad impression. It was doom and gloom from start to finish which was also unbelievable. Yes the economic collapse was horrendous but every character in this book reacted in the same way - hopelessness. In reality, people have reacted in all sorts of ways, some have remained positive, some have become depressed, some have been strong, some have discovered talents they didn't have, partners who haven't worked before have stepped into the breach. There was so much scope for variety around this theme and the author used none of it. I liked that this book was based around a very real and difficult era but I was disappointed that there was no story here just the monologues of 21 (I think) almost unrelated characters.

I discovered this guy, Donal Ryan, from a post on Facebook. He's apparently created quite a stir in Ireland over the past few years, but I don't know if he's much known here in the USA. In any case, he is a terrific writer. THE SPINNING HEART was his first novel, back in 2012, but it took a couple more years to make it over to this side of the pond when Steerforth Press published it here. I think he now has five books out, and they've all gotten rave reviews, although I don't know if he's making a living at writing yet. I hope so, because he ought to be.THE SPINNING HEART is a series of connected stories, each one with a different narrator - a couple dozen voices - all from the same small village somewhere near Limerick. All together the stories form an intricate web that tell different parts of the same story. Set in modern times, around 2009, THE SPINNING HEART is a kind of contemporary Irish WINESBURG, OHIO. Which is a modern classic, of course, and Ryan's writing is that good. The village featured here is very insular, very smug and self-contained. One of the characters, a young woman whose toddler is kidnapped, is an outsider, called a "blow-in.""That girl whose child was taken from the creche is a blow-in, Mam says. Blow-in. That phrase is used so derisively. As if to say it's a failing to not have been born and bred here, to have settled in a place outside of the place of your birth."And that kind of prejudice is common in the village, a community racked by malicious gossip, adultery, alcoholism, and rampant unemployment during the world recession. A child is snatched from a town daycare. An old man is murdered. A prominent developer skips town with all the retirement and unemployment funds for his workers. Immigrant workers are used and tossed aside. Forget Sherwood Anderson, there are echoes of PEYTON PLACE here, but brought up to date and flavored by Ireland's financial crisis of the 2000s.This is a damn good book. READ it. I've got three more Donal Ryan books waiting. Onward. Very highly recommended for consumers of serious literature.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

I must say that I enjoyed reading this book. I chose it because it had been nominated for a Booker Prize. I was dubious about the one-chapter-one-character at first, but I soon settled in to the story. The story unfolds quite well, and as it is set in a village, there is ample room for the chosen characters to tell their story. I loved how the contrasting views of the protagonist and his neighbours combined to build the true picture of the man.Set in a very real Ireland of today, this book is quite credible and seems to capture the mood of the country well.However, I feel that the author might be trying too hard to get the vernacular. Although some Irish people use the incorrect form of the verb to be, and it is appropriate to use it where relevant, there were times when I thought the "do be" was misplaced, not sitting quite comfortably with the character in question. That was the only aspect of the book that jarred, but for that reason I can't give it 5 stars.

The Spinning Heart is a metal heart, set in the gate of Frank Mahon's house. It spins round and round in the wind, never going anywhere.The novel opens with a first person narrative from Bobby Mahon. Bobby was a builder's foreman, working for his old friend Pokey Burke. As is well documented, the Irish economy benefited enormously from a property bubble in the 1990s-2000s and some people got very rich, very quickly. But by the time we meet Bobby, the bubble has burst; the Celtic Tiger has lost its roar. Pokey has scarpered, leaving his workmen and his investors in deep trouble. Bobby's immediate financial problems would be eased greatly if his father would only die and leave Bobby his land whilst it still had some small amount of value. But Frank seems to get healthier by the minute and Bobby sits watching the price of land trickling away to nothing.After a few pages, the narrative baton passes on to Josie, and then on through a series of 21 different narrators. At first it seems as though each narrator is just giving a different perspective on the same predicament. But as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that each narrative adds to the detail of a quite distinct plot. But given the individual perspectives, it is interesting to sometimes see the same events told through very different lenses. The reader's perceptions of people need to be constantly readjusted.Telling a story with 21 points of view, none of which is revisited, is an immense feat of skill. That the narratives manage to convince, written in differing voices and dialects that sound authentic and avoid sounding samey, is a work of genius. Donal Ryan avoids the temptation to give characters tics or quirks and this can make the reader want to zip back and check previous passages just to confirm who is who. But at the same time, Ryan uses enough signposts to guide an alert reader around the narrative.The novel is short, but there's a lot in it and it isn't a terribly quick read. The voices do slow the reader down - and that's necessary if the reader isn't going to miss out on vital detail. There are sub-plots and scheming, most of which make sense. There is an excellent insight into the petty rivalries and jealousies between smalltown Ireland and "the boondocks". The novel is set in Tipperary, but it could just as easily be in Cavan, or Louth, or Offally or Carlow. The shattered dreams are found all over Ireland and these responses to the slump will stand to tell future generations just how bad it got.The Spinning Heart is a novel that has humanity and warmth amongst the heartbreak. It is compelling reading and has a social importance. And like the spinning heart of the title, it shows that what goes around, comes around.

Being non-Irish, I purchased this book based on the good reviews and the promise to get a glimpse of the local language and socio-emotional structure of the author`s home counties Tipperary and Limerick.I expected a tough read. What I got was an endless sermon of violence, bitterness, hatred, fear, betrayal, denial and religious wrath. The language is very very hard to understand, but as this is supposed to reflect real Irish life, that is forgivable. The people and their stories appear shallow. The level of abuse and violence in action, thoughts and language is extreme, but in essence remains banal and petty. This was one of the few books in my life that left me so bored and annoyed that I couldn`t finish it. I have always enjoyed reading novels of Hubert Selby jr. and I can, if it is not just for the sake of violence, appreciate writers that deal with tough realities. I got the strong impression that the author somehow tried to reproduce that typical Selby language but fails to go all the way or at least provide some basic level of human insight. The only voice that reveals some sense of poetry and delicateness is that of Russian immigrant Vasya. It seems that the author solely chose to include someone like him in his novel to demonstrate that he is in fact able to write in this style also, but deliberately chooses not to.In Ireland, this book was hugely successful, critically acclaimed and even proclaimed "The best Irish book of the decade". I don`t know how tough the competition for this position really is, but for me, this book definitely does not deserve that praise.

There are 21 characters in this short first novel who tell their versions of the same set of dramatic events. The miserable poor time after the fall of the Celtic Tiger is the background, and the location is a series of towns, villages and a nearly deserted housing estate near Limerick (where Angela's Ashes took place). This approach really works. The characters all illuminate each other and the events. The reader only discovers later on that the first character in the series, Bobby the foreman, is admired and loved by (nearly) all, seen rather like the Paul Newman character in 'Cool Hand Luke'. But he is a modest person, as he would be, who in his own narration reveals himself as good only through his admiration for others. He talks of his love for his wife (the last of the 21 narrators), and says: "She saw more in me than I knew was there". He talks honestly of his father and how he would like to kill him - so the reader is rather fooled into thinking he is a violent man. Later on, other characters who seem weak or stupid reveal themselves to be morally strong and astute. And havoc is wreaked by two people in particular who have personality problems. The narrative's balance between good and bad is probably rather like that in most of our lives, if only we knew. As fraud and vindictiveness lead into more disturbing and violent crimes, tensions rise in this small community.Donal Ryan is still only in his 20s. It would be marvellous if he went on to write a lot more. Getting onto the 2013 long list for the Man Booker Prize is a great start. Like many Irish writers, he is very adept at describing alcoholics. Here he is on the reception by the alkies down the pub of a vicious non-drinker,Bobby's father, who inherits money and uses the cash to drink like a drunk: "They loved him, or loved the thought of him, what they thought he was: a man who could easily have had a good life who chose instead their life: spite and bitterness and age-fogged glasses of watery whiskey in dark, cobwebbed country bars, shit-smeared toilets, blood-streaked piss, and early death."

This was a quick and engaging read and interestingly written from the perspectives of a host of different characters in a small town in Ireland post economic crash. On the surface it could seem frustrating that we only get little vignettes each told from a particular character's point of view and no character's voice is revisited once their 'chapter' is over. The overall effect is that we never truly get to know the full story, the full history of the characters, what their real motivations are or what they are really like as people. The reader has to piece together events and draw his/ her own conclusions just like any of the characters in the book. This is the way the world is. We all make judgements without ever being able to know the full story. We feel a natural affinity and sympathy for some people and are repelled by others, but then, occasionally, we are given pause when we get a glimpse of things from their perspective and our opinions might shift a bit.The spinning heart is like a metaphor for the confusion and pain that people cause others and are caused themselves through lack of understanding and through an inability to put themselves in someone else's shoes. This is quite a sad and, at times, unsettling book but an insightful and inventive reminder to try to be compassionate towards others just as the author is towards his characters no matter how disagreeable they might seem at first glance.

Perhaps it's because I'm from a very similar background to the author and of a very similar age also, but from the very first page these characters, their stories and the setting the book is placed literally jumped off the page at me.As a study in modern day rural Ireland it is eerily accurate. While the idiomatic speech may well be impenetrable to outsiders take it from someone born in Tipperary (as the author was) its spot on.It's his ability to see inside the bluster of that speech however and cut to the very bone of his protagonists is what sets this book apart. Whilst the writing is of exceptional standard the story is progressed in an unconventional way and as such may not be to all tastes. This short novel is in my view a wonderful study in both the hope and despair life throws at us often in equal measure. It is a work of massive literary control to have so many different voices all of which rang wonderfully true for this reader.In conclusion I think this book is the first work of Irish literary fiction to capture the essence of the "now" in the Irish psyche. I haven't read Roddy Doyles new work yet which may well do the same in an urban setting.The writer here is using the Irish economic collapse to frame his story but not to define it, the characters do that and I for one came to love some of them by the end of this fantastic little book.