Trevor Byrne

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

At first I was tempted to dismiss the 2009 character dramedy Ghosts & Lightning, the latest by hip Irish writing professor Trevor Byrne, because of it being almost identical in both theme and tone to so many other youngish Commonwealth authors like Roddy Doyle, Nick Hornby and Irvine Welsh; it is yet another look at charming yet troubled blue-collar underemployed males in a former part of the British Empire (Dublin in this case), the women who love them, and the trouble they are always getting into, told through phonetically sounded-out dialogue from that actual region. But I'll be damned if I didn't end up loving it anyway; because despite the above being true, Byrne at least does an impeccable job at it, turning in a story that is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, in a style that is both exotic to American ears yet easy to understand and follow. I don't really have much to say about it that hasn't been said a thousand times already about other such books; but if you're looking for yet another one in this vein to enjoy, it'd be hard to go wrong with this leisurely paced deep character study.

Out of 10: 8.9… (mehr)