The Glorious Heresies: Winner of the Baileys' Women's Prize for Fiction 2016

"He wondered, as he walked, about the turns that made a man a murderer."

This novels starts when Maureen, a middle aged woman living alone, kills an intruder in her home by hitting him on the head with a religious knick knack. She calls her son, Jimmy Phelan, a man who gets things done. The man who

Show More

cleans up the mess at Jimmy Phelan's behest is Tony Cusack, an alcoholic father of six, a widow who truly loves his kids. His oldest kid, Ryan, is a good soul who, at age fifteen gets involved in small-time, and then big-time drug dealing as he also falls in love with Karina, a young woman who has dreams of her own. And those dreams involve Ryan. In addition to these colorful characters, the novel is peopled with prostitutes, drifters, hit men, and drug dealers but this is not a dark or desperate tale. Neither is it a whitewashed treatment of violence and graft. It's a balanced novel in which both good and lousy luck, and both wise and stupid choices, determine each character's fate. And it's the almost unbelievable manner in which all these characters are interconnected that provides the novel's momentum. The characters, flawed and (most of them) richly wrought, are memorable and multidimensional. Her ability to create such characters has to be McInerney's greatest strength as a novelist although her wry humor and ironic storytelling voice are notable as well. I didn't quite buy the ending but the journey to get there was delightful and worthwhile.

Show Less

Maureen Phelan, a tough Irish grandmother, caught by surprise at her home, strikes an intruder and kills the young man. This random event kicks off a series of consequences, that ripples across a Cork community, mainly affecting
a quartet of criminal misfits. This includes Maureen's son, a low-level

Show More

gangster. There is a fifteen year old drug-dealer and his alcoholic, woebegone father and lastly, a young pregnant prostitute, in search of her boyfriend.

This gritty, searing novel, is not for the faint of heart. The language and tone is harsh but the writing is strong and the author has created vivid, memorable characters, even though their actions, will leave the reader cringing at times.

“Parents sat gloomy and still, like rows of turnips in a grocer's box. Their little criminals sat with them, tapping LOLs on their phones, or milled in the yard outside stinking of Lynx and taut nonchalance. Solicitors strode in and out in a twist of slacks and briefcases.”

McInerney is an acclaimed author in Ireland and I can clearly see why.

Show Less

“He was definitely dead, whoever he was. He wore a once-black jumper and a pair of shiny tracksuit bottoms. The back of his head was cracked and his hair matted, but it had been foxy before that. A tall man, a skinny rake, another string of piss, now departed. She hadn't gotten a look at his face

Show More

before she flaked him with the Holy Stone and she couldn't bring herself to turn him over.” (11)

The Glorious Heresies is set in post-crash Ireland, where a messy murder entwines the lives of five social misfits. Ryan Cusack is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer, desperate to get away from – and hopefully turn out nothing like – his alcoholic father, Tony. Tara Duane, their next door neighbour, seduces young Ryan, and, in doing so, makes a mortal enemy of Tony. Maureen Phelan, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after four decades away – only to discover that the son she was forced to give up so many years ago is now a fearsome gangster – Jimmy. In an effort to clean up his mother’s mess, Jimmy calls on Tony, a childhood acquaintance, and the cleanup efforts are going not too badly until Georgie, a teenage prostitute – and former girlfriend of the now deceased Robbie Donovan – begins looking for him.

No question McInerney can write: her novel is raw, real, a rough and tumble account of working class Irish life – of life on the fringes of society. It’s a page turner, too! I found The Glorious Heresies certainly worth the read, and hope to have a look at what McInerny does next.

Show Less

Outstanding. Original, profane, funny and sad. Churning with anger towards the church and human indifference, this is a terrific debut. Rooted in Cork, Catholicism and cocaine, unblinking but heartfelt. Genuine talent. Fine, fine reading.

Thanks to Library Thing and the books publisher I received an ARC of this book.
This is a book you won't see recommended by the Catholic Church or the Irish department of tourism, that is for sure.
The Glorious Heresies is a gritty, dark, gothic Shakespearean tragedy set in post crash Ireland.
6

Show More

people linked together as a result of a dead man.
Tony a father of 6 who is a drunk and an abusive father especially towards his son Ryan.
Jimmy, a high school friend of Tony's who is now an Irish gangster/ crime lord who uses people for his needs.
Maureen, jimmy's long lost mother, a woman who fell from the good graces of her family by getting pregnant and was shipped of to London for a couple of decades until Jimmy found her and brought her back. Her hatred of the church is enormous.
Georgie, a whore and a drug addict who knows no other way, and who unfortunately lands on Jimmy's radar.
Tara, a complete degenerate, neighbor of Tony and Ryan who procures drugs and liquor for Georgie among others, and has a love hate relationship with Tony and his family.
Ryan, at the start of the book is a 15 year old drug dealer who happens to deal to Georgie among so many, and is lacking any direction and focus in his life. By 20 he is a significant coke dealer and a near perfect train wreck.
Each character is a degenerate to some degree or another, and the dark depressing Ireland they live in certainly doesn't offer much hope.
Parts of the book read of a tragic comedy, but you know there will be few if any happy endings.
One of the most amazing things about this book is that it is the authors first. The writing is amazing with each chapter told from a different character and yet they never blend together, each character remains the same throughout. This is an author to watch for in the future.
American readers will do well to have the Internet handy as there is a considerable amount of Irish slang which may be very unfamiliar, similar to reading some of Irvine Welsh's books. The language of this book is also similar to Mr Welsh's books as well, so you have been warned.

Show Less

I received this book for free through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers.

This isn’t a book that I would typically read, however, I did find it to be very interesting and fascinating. This isn’t a happy book. There’s organized crime, drug dealing, murder, and prostitution.

I really liked how the

Show More

author weaved all the character’s stories together. Everyone was connected to each other.

The author’s writing was also very engaging; she really is a talented writer.

Overall, this book wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.

Show Less

The Glorious Heresies makes the reader care about some fairly despicable people. Most of the characters reside in an Irish council estate in Cork City--roughly the equivalent of an American "housing project." Their stories are interwoven. Their lives involve petty and not so petty crimes. Yet there

Show More

is a sense of inevitability about it; a feeling that placed in the same circumstances the reader might well become involve in crime too. Throughout the novel, the Catholic faith is a light motive, with most of the characters angry at the Church.

Unfortunately, the book bogs down at the end. Earlier in the novel, the description of a few events leaves the reader guessing as to what exactly happened. Then near the end, there are mini chapters entitled "What __did" and What __did" which answer those questions. To me the placement felt tacked on and odd. It would have been fine to reveal actual events more slowly but tacking on a few pages late in the book to address these was awkward and hurt the story flow. Moreover, it wasn't as if all of the loose ends were tied up. The very end of the book came from left field and the behavior of one character seemed out of keeping with the way the character was portrayed up to that point.

Still, over all, this was a good read.

I received a free copy of this book through the Early Reviewers program.

Show Less

First, I would like to have a word with the translator. I don't know what language it was translated from, but it wasn't translated into good old 'Murcan English, that's for sure. It's not daycent.

This novel immediately reminded me of a review of Paul Murray's Skippy Dies, in which the reviewer

Show More

opined that the setting was obviously not really Ireland because the themes were too universal, an argument that undoes itself immediately. The circumstances in The Glorious Heresies are not my circumstances, but they are utterly believable. This is a novel that can take place only in the housing estates of Cork and yet is applicable to large swaths of human experience. There's a coincidence or two, but overall watching flawed people traverse what life throws at them in convincing ways is very worth the read.

Show Less

A slice of life. A messy, dark, sometimes hilarious slice with a cast of characters I'll find it hard to forget. You find yourself rooting for them even when they make awful decisions because they're so real and because the author paints such a deft picture that behavior we dislike becomes

Show More

understandable. We feel for these people, trapped in a terrible environment with few viable resources, even as they seem to spiral down or out of control. But there's a strong note of hope here as well. Very well done. Excellent read.

Show Less

In a word . . . glorious. (And heretical.)

Lisa McInerney’s story of interconnected Irish lives over five years in the underbelly and criminal world of Cork isn’t merely a fine and clever debut novel, it’s easily one of the best novels I’ve read this year. This is dark, hilarious, and

Show More

heartfelt stuff.

There’s something in her voice that reminds me of Roddy Doyle at his Barrytown best. There’s the obvious Irishness they share, of course, but it’s more than that: it’s their ability to create a fully realized fictional community populated by honest, complex characters whose lives swirl around each other in everyday and eventful ways. We see friends, enemies, drinking companions, criminals, neighbors, and family members – all finding their way in the same world together, stuck with each other for better and for worse. And, like Doyle, McInerney also has a gift for writing wry, pitch-perfect dialogue.

But for all the tenderness and warmth she portrays her characters with, there’s no sentimentality. These are characters who have been profoundly damaged and who live very tough lives. And yet we can’t help caring about them, warts and all. There are no false notes or easy compromises. We’re kept constantly off balance and, like the characters themselves, we’re never quite sure where their lives are headed.

It’s no easy thing to create multi-dimensional, real characters who are alternately smart and stupid, tough and soft, impatient and relaxed, stubborn and forgiving, and so on. But what I really like is that her other characters see each other differently at different times. And that’s real life, right? We’re not the same person in every situation over time. Others view us differently. We change, grow, regress, make mistakes, get things right. This, to me, is absolutely essential to good fiction, and McInerney gets it just right. Consider Tony, an alcoholic and unemployed widower who abuses his oldest son. Yes, we see him enraged and violent, but we also see him as a tender and loving father who manifestly cares for his children and mourns his dead wife. Sometimes he’s a criminal, but he mostly wants to do the right thing. I love this passage, which gets at some of that complexity (and also shows just how funny McInerney often is):

“An effervescent liar from the phone company had sold Tony a broadband subscription, which had had the effect of lobotomizing his three teenagers and giving him the cold comfort of meditative silence. Once a week Kelly commandeered the laptop and went through the jobs website with her father, and between them they figured out which posts were worth procuring rejection letters from. Sometimes he got an email back that thanked him for his efforts but denied the existence of suitable positions. When he was so blessed he showed them to his probation officer. The job hunt was going well.”

The novel isn’t perfect and it’s not without faults (the coincidences of the characters’ interwoven encounters can seem a bit much at times; some loose ends are left hanging; we’re teased with some things that are never fully developed). But never mind that. This is confident, beautifully crafted fiction. I can’t wait to see what the author does next. . . .

(Thanks to Crown/Tim Duggan Books for an advance copy via a giveaway. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)

Show Less

This fun caper reminded me a lot of Martin McDonagh's world of wise-cracking ne'er-do-wells, although I'm not sure I enjoyed it quite as much as everyone else. The sections about the younger characters were my favourite; frankly, the attempts to make Cuasck Snr more sympathetic were doomed given

Show More

how he's introduced. There also seemed to be a gulf between the compelling central story and the subplots, which left me longing to get back to the main players. I didn't love this, but I suspect the characters will stay with me.

Show Less

Received in exchange for a review. This is a hard to read book as the subject matter deals with people who are so far off the grid they make the lowest of the low seem high. Well written the story goes from fringe group to group that have something or some involvement in a death of an earlier

Show More

mentioned member to the group

Show Less

McInerney focuses on a handful of characters with intertwined lives, to explain the state of modern Ireland. Maureen accidentally kills an intruder in her home which creates a butterfly effect throughout Cork, even if the murderer and murdered are relatively invisible. Some of the characters use

Show More

not being able to get a job as an excuse to lead a life in the criminal underworld (but there also wasn't much job searching going on, according to the narrative). Lisa McInerney's debut novel has recently won the Baileys Women's Prize. For me, it's a little difficult to see why or how it stands out from the pack of excellent novels that are published every year. Possibly the fault is with me. I probably do not know enough about the state of Ireland, so a brief explanation of that would have helped within the novel. McInerney chose to focus on a few characters. If this was to be a book on the state of Ireland, I think the scope could have been pulled back a bit, to really show the state of the country itself, even while still focusing on Cork. As for the quality of writing, it's hard to see the forest through the trees...the dialogue is quite peppery seeing as the drug dealers and gangsters are doing the talking. The book couldn't possibly be the most eloquent for that reason alone. I loved some of the very memorable similes here. Though I don't usually choose to read books about drug dealers, McInerney does a great job of giving a lot of heart and equal page time to each of these characters you can only wish the best for. But these are life stories from people of many countries from many eras and isn't specific to Ireland now.

Show Less

A promising debut focusing on the underside of Ireland - the drug-dealers, prostitutes, mob bosses (and their mothers). Dialect was spot-on - as was the story itself, a narrative that wove seamlessly between the prospectives of the seedy characters. Highly recommended.

Author Lisa McInerney shows off virtuoso skills in a first novel set in the seamy side of Cork. Events are set in motion when the mother of a local hoodlum comes across an intruder in her kitchen and brains him with a souvenir stone decorated with a garish portrait of the Virgin Mary. What follows

Show More

is a dark story, with characters facing day-to-day struggles just to survive, and not all of them succeeding. The style is gritty, perhaps overly so. I had the sense that the depiction of life in the drug and sex trade is spot-on. I hope, though, that the author’s next novel might find a setting less filled with doom. There are occasional flashes of humor here. It would be great to let them shine through a little more.

Show Less

This well-crafted novel gives a gritty, sometimes darkly comic, view of the underside of life in Cork, Ireland after the crash of the Irish economy. Jimmy Phelan is a viscous crime boss who brings home to Ireland his mother, Maureen, from whom he as an illegitimate child was separated at birth. He

Show More

situates Maureen in a former brothel he ran where she kills an intruder, Robbie O'Donovan, in her apartment. Phelan asks an associate from his youth -- Tony Cusack -- to dispose of the body. Tony is a drunkard who looks after his six children from his widowed wife. The intruder was the boyfriend of Georgie Fitzsimons, a prostitute and drug user who is obsessed with finding out what happened to him. Tony's teenage son, Ryan, deals drugs and has developed a love relationship with Karine D'Arcy, a school mate.

The plot weaves around what happens with these characters stemming from O'Donovan's death. Maureen is obsessed with guilt, seeing Robbie's ghost and looking for ways of redemption. Her attempt at confession brings to light her cynical and hostile view of the Catholic church over what it has done to Ireland and, particularly, Irish women. Tony has genuine love for his children, but is often physically abusive with Ryan that leads to Ryan's hatred of him. Ryan has a sexual encounter with next door neighbor Tara Duane, a floozy who is the bane of Tony's life. Tony becomes a bitter enemy of Tara and his efforts to retaliate for her abuse of Ryan leads to serious trouble for both of them. Ryan and Karine have a deep relationship that is marred by their mutual infidelity. Georgie ends up for a time with a Christian cult-like recovery group until she becomes pregnant by one of the members there. She falls out from them after they arrange for her baby to be given to the father's parents. He continuing search for what happened to her old boyfriend leads to trouble for everyone.

The interweaving of the characters is reminiscent of Dickens. A principal theme of the story is family ties that despite their often significant dysfunctionality cannot be cast aside.

The book contains many Irish slang words that won't be familiar to American readers. It was an enjoyable challenge to look up their meanings. Here for the benefit of fellow readers is a listing (I couldn't find them all):

Gowl – annoying, stupid person
Yoke – thing, any thing, object or person
Yokes – ecstasy drug tablet
Wan – one
Hames – to ruin or destroy
Gaff – house
Clatter – a slap or a belt
Gawk – sick
Craic – talk, banter
Eegit – idiot
Gom – fool
Puck – hit with a closed fist
Gatch – the walk of someone
Lasher – a drinker
Gatting – drinking alcoholic beverages with friends
Gatch – vagina
Naggin – small bottle of liquor
Sprog – a kid
Punter – prostitute’s client
Bint- a contemptuous word for a girl or woman
Skite – boastful talk; a person of contempt
Puck – a strike; a hard blow
Langer – a disagreeable person
Gawper – a person who stares stupidly
Geansai – a jersey
Gardai – police
Guards – police
Rira – hubbub, uproar
Feck – fuck
Scrag – a thin or scrawny person
Feen – a person who causes annoyance
Boreen – a country lane or narrow road
Blencher – someone who is pale or white
Scrote – a worthless fellow
Wanno – feeble, weak, half-hearted, lame
Junior cert – examination at end of junior year of high school
Leaving cert – examination at conclusion of high school
An garda siochana – the police
Jackeen – a slick, self-assertive, lower class Dubliner
Aggro – aggression, fighting
Gurrier – a low-class, ill-mannered person
Gob – to gab
Debs – a prom or dance at the end of high school(?)
Slash – peeing
Puca – pack of fools
Plimsolls – sneakers
Sidhe – related to fairies or devils(?)
Ceann – head of hair
Barney – a fight or brawl; a noisy argument
Slab – six-pack of beer
Banjax – defeat utterly
Buffers – fools, incompetent persons
Emos – angst
Whinge – whine
Beour – attractive woman

Show Less

I Loved! this book. The author's writing style is raw and real. This book could be compared to as an Irish Irvine Welsch, who is one of my favorite authors. I loved the not so subtle slams at the Catholic Church and how the characters kept plodding on no matter the circumstances. I hope the Author

Show More

continues on with this storyline, she could write for generations. I won my copy from Library Thing.

Show Less

This is a dazzling first novel which explores a slice of life for a handful of people living in Dublin, Ireland. The action takes place against a background of drug use, desperation and despair and I found myself, over and over again, quietly hoping for the ultimate escape of young Ryan from what

Show More

seems to be an unalterable path down the same violent, sad path followed by his father. The characters are instantly engaging and the plot is complex enough to keep the reader fully involved. Nice work.

Show Less

Darkly funny is the best way I can describe this book. It centers on interconnected characters in Cork, Ireland. Absolutely not predictable and rich pictures of characters who you feel you get to know, but still surprise you at times.

Ever felt like you have been living on the fringe of society? These characters live on the fringe of poverty-stricken Cork, Ireland. Mobsters, punks, prostitutes, druggies and crazy grandmothers, oh my! Murders need to be mobbed up when religious relics become weapons. Young people are crippled by

Show More

their economic situation. Such a snapshot of a place in time! The writing is luxurious. My thanks to the author and Penguin's First to Read program for a complimentary copy.

Show Less

This book has a literary feel, with eloquent wording and a strong emotional connection. I wish I could say that I loved the story because, really, the phrasing is quite beautiful throughout. But, while I certainly didn't hate it, I also didn't love it.

According to the marketing description, this

Show More

book is "Biting and darkly funny...". I didn't find that at all. In fact, to me this is an extremely dark story, lacking even a glimmer of hope, and nothing about it struck me as comical.

Lots of characters inhabit this story, most of them introduced quickly, from the start. Initially, I found it difficult to keep up. But, as the story unravels, we get to know them better and we see the connections with them all. Most of the characters are complex and fascinating, while also not particularly likable. Even with those we want to root for, we see the destruction they're heading toward, even creating for themselves, and all we can do is grit our teeth and continue watching until it all crashes down. We know, instinctively, that happy endings don't happen here.

The pace is more in line with a slow-burning literary novel than any sort of crime novel. We spend a lot of time on the emotional scars left in the wake of bad behavior, sometimes criminal and other times just people treating each other badly. In fact, most of the story is spent with people wading through their own misery.

I also want to mention that the author uses quite a bit of regional dialect and slang. I don't mean this as a negative critique. The story takes place in Ireland, so it makes sense that the characters would speak accordingly. However, I'm not familiar with a lot of the words, and it took me a while to get a feel for the language.

In the end, there are some memorable characters, and maybe a glimmer of something that, if not happiness, might at least be a tolerable existence.

*I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher, via Blogging For Books, in exchange for my honest review.*

Show Less

This just wasn't my kind of book. Although well-written in colorful contemporary dialect of modern Ireland, I could not develop sympathy for any of the characters. They seemed to be going nowhere, except to more drugs, sex, and ways to get by with something and make a quick buck. Even the murder

Show More

that occurs just before the story begins is quickly covered up. I finally gave up on it about half way through.

Show Less

The IRISH TIMES says that Lisa McInerney is “arguably the most talented writer at work in Ireland today.” Most readers will probably agree after they read THE GLORIOUS HERESIES.

This is a character-driven book. And the dialog sounds so authentic and is so good that McInerney doesn’t waste

Show More

paragraphs on descriptions of people and their surroundings, as so many authors do. Most of it is contained in the dialog. Also, McInerney assumes that her readers are intelligent and will understand her allusions.

The only problem with such a character-driven novel is that it can leave the reader wondering about the plot. The best novels, in my opinion, are usually both plot- and character-driven. I say “usually” because THE GLORIOUS HERESIES is so exceptionally written that I cared about most of the characters (even the crazy arsonist and the prostitute) and was as anxious to read it as I am the best plot-and character-driven novels. This book is the exception to my rule.

You’ll care about one character more than the others. For this character’s sake, by the time you read half of THE GLORIOUS HERESIES, you may be angry that nothing good ever seems to happen. It does get difficult to read bad news all the time. I’d like to read something by McInerney that deals with normal people who have jobs.

Another irritation: THE GLORIOUS HERESIES mentions several times the horrible economy in Ireland that some of the characters blame for their states in life. But they never consider that the problem could be the other way around. That is, maybe the way they live their lives is keeping the economy down.

Read THE GLORIOUS HERESIES. It may be the only character-driven novel that makes you anxious for the author’s next.

I won this book through librarything.com.

Show Less

I love noir style. Whether in film or books I find the anti-hero and doomed tales enthralling. So I started Lisa McInerney’s “The Glorious Heresies” with a certain amount of anticipation. Set in the underworld of modern day Cork, Ireland her tale is very well told, but I did have trouble with

Show More

the unrelenting gloom she employs. Noir is best when giving us a gleam of hope, the anti-hero down on their luck that gets one last chance to save someone. But this plot gives us none of that, the downward spiral of all the characters continues from page one and never lets up. So while this is a wonderfully written book, it did take a bit to get through as it never lets up. This is a heavy tale, one worth reading, but you will taste the despair and feel as though no one is floating; only sinking

Show Less