Set in Ireland, the book is a
narration by an eight year old. He narrates about his friends, his family and
his school, though the priority changes as the narration progresses. He narrates how he spends his days, his
studies, his friends and the numerous acts done together. He also narrates the
families in his locality and the changes in the locality and his life. The story
follows how a naïve eight year old tries to become a responsible ten year old. The
narration of the different instances is interspersed by his musings about his
life in general, and it shows the growth of maturity in him.
“If you were going to be best
friends with anyone Kevin, you had to hate a lot of other people; the two of
you, together. It made you better friends.”
“That was what school was about,
not being caught and watching other getting caught instead.”
The narration is continuous and
has no chapters. This requires a constant vigil from the reader over the
context of each paragraph. What catches the reader are,
a. The continuous
flow of narration, for the narration does not start or stop anywhere. Every scenario
narrated has an easy flow from the earlier scenario though they may be
disjoint.
b. The scenarios
narrated bring back many of our childhood memories. However, after a point it
does not hold on.
c. The book is
the narration and has no other plot in it, or, so you feel till about three
fourths of the book.
d. The build up
to the end is subtle and the reader can be sure to miss it.
e. The usage of
colloquial slangs.
Overall it was not a great read
for me. I would suggest that it can be chewed in parts but largely to be
swallowed.
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