Killoyle: An Irish Farce

Killoyle is a book to be savored -- if you try to rush through it, I don't think you'll enjoy it. Roger Boylan's style demands a thoughtful, reflective pace of reading.I think of Boylan as an Irish Nabokov. Like Nabokov, he is a virtuoso of language who apparently writes for the pure pleasure of doing so. And what fun he seems to have! His unpredictable, spontaneous flashes of merriment keep the reader entertained throughout. I found the uniquely Irish charm of Killoyle so delightful that I have gone on an Irish literature binge since reading it: Joyce, Beckett, and Flann O'Brien. I can't thank Roger Boylan enough!

Any book subtitled "An Irish Farce" is worth a thorough reading, and Killoyle was no disappointment. The story alternates between despair and hilarity - this is Ireland, after all - as it follows the lives of the inhabitants of Killoyle. Among many other folks, there is the aging editor of a glamour magazine, a waiter who is something of a poet, and the resident nutcase who likes making prank phone calls as much as he likes books by or about God. Of course, being a novel about Ireland, there are the requisite problems: drinking, sex, God, and Ireland itself.The real genius of the novel is the footnotes, including gems like this one: "This round-buying will be the death of the Irish nation, you mark my words. Once I was conned into buying eleven rounds in the space of a single wet lunch, with no one else in the bar!" The persona of the footnotes provides comic relief, criticism, rude comments, and seemingly random filler throughout the text. However, from driving directions to snappy comebacks, the footnotes provide, as they should, the details that flesh out the story.Besides being just plain fun to read, Killoyle is worth a look because Boylan rose to the challenge of doing something 'new' with the novel. I applaud him and his witty footnotes, and I highly recommend Killoyle if you are in the mood for a good yarn.

Brava, Mr. Boylan! It has been a long time since I read a book that made me laugh out loud, not just a titter here and there but frequent and hearty chuckles, chortles, and out and out belly laughs. Even rarer is the book that engages both your chortling mechanism and your mind. Killoyle does both. Slapstick and sophisticated simultaneously.