The Glorious Heresies (2016)
Who wrote it?
Lisa McInerney (1981- ; active 2013- ), born Galway, Ireland. She is the duagher-in-law of Irish broadcaster Geraldine McInerney, but was raised by her grandparents. She studied Englsh and Geography at University College Cork. Her first publication was the short story 'Saturday, Boring' published in a 2013 Faber anthology of new Irish writing, but she became better known as the author of the 'Arse End of Ireland' blog, under the pseudonym 'Sweary Lady'.
The Glorious Heresies (publised in 2015) was her debut novel, and as well as picking up the Women's Prize it won the 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize for best debut novel. She has since followed it up with two sequels, forming a 'Cork City' trilogy and continuing to follow Ryan Cusack and other characters from her debut: The Blood Miracles (2017), which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Rules of Revelation (2021). The rights to the series have been bought by ITV Studios, with McInerney set to write the screenplays.
What's it about?
The Glorious Heresies is a darkly humorous yet moving tale set in the criminal underworld of Cork, in post-crash Ireland. It shifts perspective between five central characters, most centrally Ryan Cusack, the eldest of six siblings who has lost his mother and despite high intelligence and a talent for music has fallen into a life of low-level drug dealing, only really gaining satisfaction from his relationship with Karine. Elsewhere, we follow Maureen, a sixty-something who murders an intruder with a religious relic; her son JP - a jaded criminal overlord; Tony Cusack - Ryan’s dad who’s employed by JP to clean up his mother’s mess; and Georgie, a prostitute in JP’s pay who turns out to be the girlfriend of the murdered intruder. And that’s just the main cast…
A lot happens here, but the most significant action spins off both from Maureen’s actions and from Ryan’s inebriated encounter with neighbour (and one-time madam) Tara Duane. We also learn about Maureen’s past, narrowly escaping life in a Magdalene Laundry and instead exiled to London while JP is raised by her parents, and her subsequent disdain for her country and Catholicism. Tony deals with alcoholism, Ryan finds himself in prison for dealing, and Georgie joins a religious cult-of-sorts while simultaneously looking for her disappeared ex. Inevitably, all of these many strings of the story cross over in both predictable and occasionally surprising ways.
What I liked
This is a shift into a bit of a different space genre-wise in terms of winners of the two Prizes I’ve been covering. While it certainly still contains ‘literary’ themes it’s general style feels more like Crime / Mystery fiction. It’s a pacey and page-turning read as a result, and a nice shift of gear.
It’s funny! I laughed out loud a few times. This is definitely too rare a feat in prizewinners, so that was also very welcome.
There are some great characters in here. Ryan is clearly the focus, and is a brilliant rendering of a troubled teen, driven here to extreme behaviour by a mixture of genuine trauma (from his mother’s death, father’s abuse and other events we come to learn about) and typical teenage boredom. Maureen though for me is the star of the show, both the source of much of the book’s pitch-black humour, its fount of wisdom and the character - in her active engagement with Ireland and Catholicism’s flaws - that brings the novel closest to the kind of depth that elevates the best prizewinners.
Going back to Ryan, the depiction of teenage sexual fumblings, both successful and disastrous (and all points in between) is pretty impressively handled. I’m someone that flinches in anticipation of an upcoming cringe-fest every time sex is graphically rendered in these kind of books - here though it feels refreshingly honest and true.
Despite some of the flaws I note below, it is a book that leaves you wanting more. Largely through those characters that you want to see more of, its ending did leave me rather tempted to pick up its sequels and find out what happens next to its heroes and antiheroes.
What I didn’t like
There’s nothing really bad to report here, but overall a few things nagged at me a bit while reading.
The main thing I think was a bit of a lack of depth through most of it. While it deals with serious subject matter throughout, its lightness of tone and relentless momentum meant that it often felt like we were dealing with slightly cartoonish knockabout larks rather than real characters and issues. At times the addition of throwaway violence and suchlike brought to mind someone like Christopher Brookmyre, whose books I’ve really enjoyed in the past but I doubt would merit serious Prize consideration. There is more depth in here, of course, but it feels somewhat fleeting when it appears.
It’s super-energetic, to the point where its bouncing around between characters becomes a little exhausting. Each chapter (of which there are many) begins in media res, with a few moments of disconcerting wondering of which character you’ve jumped to - a nice trick used sparingly, but a bit tiresome when repeated throughout.
Much as I enjoyed spending time with these characters, it did feel like a novel that could have benefitted from a bit more judicious editing. In particularly, there were long sections of dialogue in places that felt more geared up to teeing up that potential lucrative TV deal than providing satisfactory prose storytelling.
Honorable exceptions noted above, but some of the characters didn’t grab me as much and while it was all ultimately part of a connecting web, I found some sections more tedious than others as a result.
Food & drink pairings
All the narcotics
A nice cup of tea?
Fun facts
The judging panel was an interesting mix, to say the least. Chaired by Alan Sugar's former Apprentice sidekick Margaret Mountford, for some reason, alongside Elif Shafak the panel included two journos in Naga Munchetty and Laurie Penny and one rather wonderful singer (and also writer) in the shape of Everything But The Girl's Tracey Thorn.
However surprising it may seem, Mountford claims there was ‘110% agreement’ on the winner. So there you go.
Vanquished Foes
Cynthia Bond (Ruby)
Anne Enright (The Green Road)
Elizabeth McKenzie (The Portable Veblen)
Hannah Mary Rothschild (The Improbability of Love)
Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life)
The 2016 Booker went to Paul Beatty’s The Sellout. The thing that shocks me most looking at this list is that this is the book that beat A Little Life. Obviously the latter is a hugely divisive work but… still. Yanagihara’s book also featured on the 2015 Booker shortlist, in the only major overlap here (though The Green Road was on the 2015 Booker longlist.)
Context
In 2016:
Donald Trump is elected 45th President of the US, defeating Hillary Clinton in a turbulent campaign beset by controversy
United Kingdom narrowly votes to leave the European Union in an advisory referendum called by Conservative PM David Cameron
Theresa May succeeds David Cameron as British PM following his resignation post Brexit referendum
Murder of British Labour MP Jo Cox in leadup to Brexit referendum
Zika virus outbreak in Brazil
Seemingly neverending series of major celebrity deaths in 2016 includes David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Mohammed Ali and Harper Lee
Terrorist truck attack in Nice, France during Bastille Day celebrations kills 86
Terrorist attacks in Brussels kill 35 people in March
Shootings at Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida kill 49.
Barack Obama is first sitting US president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928
Panama Papers release of millions of documents detailing offshore holdings of the rich and powerful
Faction of Turkish Armed Forces stages an unsuccessful coup, following by a series of purges by the government
Impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
Russian ambassador to Turkey assassinated by an off-duty Turkish police officer at an art exhibition in Ankara
Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil
Release of AR mobile game Pokémon Go breaks numerous records
Naomi Alderman, The Power
Ali Smith, Autumn
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
La La Land
Moonlight
David Bowie, Blackstar
Kanye West, The Life of Pablo
Drake, Views
Frank Ocean, Blonde
Solange, A Seat at the Table
Life Lessons
Don’t do drugs / booze / violence, mmkay?
The Catholic Church once again has rather a lot to answer for.
Score
7.5
It’s a good read, but a curiously lightweight--feeling winner as a whole.
I gave 2016’s Booker Prize winner The Sellout a slightly stingy 8.
Ranking to date:
How to be both (2015) - Ali Smith - 9.5
Property (2003) - Valerie Martin - 9.5
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (2014) - Eimear McBride - 9.5
The Idea of Perfection (2001) - Kate Grenville - 9
Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - 9
The Lacuna (2010) - Barbara Kingsolver - 9
When I Lived in Modern Times (2000) - Linda Grant - 9
Larry’s Party (1998) - Carol Shields - 8.5
Bel Canto (2002) - Ann Patchett - 8.5
Small Island (2004) - Andrea Levy - 8.5
A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999) - Suzanne Berne - 8.5
May We Be Forgiven (2013) - A. M. Homes - 8
The Tiger’s Wife (2011) - Téa Obreht - 8
On Beauty (2006) - Zadie Smith - 8
A Spell of Winter (1996) - Helen Dunmore - 8
The Road Home (2008) - Rose Tremain - 7.5
The Glorious Heresies (2016) - Lisa McInerney - 7.5
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005) - Lionel Shriver - 7.5
The Song of Achilles (2012) - Madeline Miller - 7
Home (2009) - Marilynne Robinson - 7
Fugitive Pieces (1997) - Anne Michaels - 6.5
Next up
The next Women’s Prize winner will be Naomi Alderman’s The Power, from 2017. I have to confess I picked this one up nearer to the time and didn’t finish it, so let’s see how I get on this time…
