I have never read a novel by Catherine O'Flynn prior to this but I really ended up loving the story of Dermot and Eamonn Lynch. It ultimately left me with a lot of thoughts concerning what is home to most people and ex-pats living abroad.

Dermot, after the death of his wife decides to visit his son Eamonn and his girlfriend Laura in Lomaverde, Spain. Eamonn and Laura are ex-pats from England and decide to buy a home in Spain and really start to live their life in the fun and the sun. However, away from their native homeland Eamonn and Laura's relationship quickly deteriorates. When Dermot arrives Eamonn has been in an almost coma-like state and finally starts to wake up again when his father visits.

I ended up rating this novel so highly because I thought that Ms. O'Flynn manages this tale of ex-pats (Dermot and Eamonn) who both went to live in a new country and found that it is not as welcoming as they initially thought it would be.

The novel switches perspectives from Eamonn and Dermot and you can quickly see that Eamonn tends to be more negative towards just about everything including himself.

Seeing Dermot's perspective as an ex-pat from Ireland moving to England and being treated differently and at times with hostility due to IRA bombings and other acts was a nice way to showcase the differences between the two men. Although both men are decades apart both of them had to deal with embarking to some place new that did not greet them with open arms at first. It was great to see how they both reacted to being away from home with Dermot rising to the occasion and Eamonn sinking.

Usually I am not a fan of flashback scenes since I think more often than not it breaks up the flow of the novel. However, Catherine O'Flynn manages to expertly weave in past experiences of Dermot and Eamonn into their present day to explain how father and son grew apart throughout the years. Often when Ms. O'Flynn flashes back it is to show a crucial moment to explain the present day circumstances of both Dermot and Eamonn.

After I finished this novel it made me think to myself about how many of my close friends have moved away from the United States to settle in other countries and though they are initially thrilled with the prospect of a new adventure I think just like Eamonn that enthusiasm can quickly fizzle out. I liked Dermot's perspective interwoven in since I started to wonder to myself why his circumstances were different (he ultimately feels as if England is his homeland not Ireland) and decided that maybe it was because Dermot was from a different generation that no matter what made the best of things and did not tend to wallow for long.

I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program. ( )

Still feeling the impact of his wife’s death, retired bus driver Dermot Lynch makes the rash decision to leave his home in Birmingham, England and drop in on his son, Eamonn, in Spain. Lomaverde, the village Eamonn and his suddenly absent girlfriend, Laura, chose as their home is a ramshackle ghost town of half-finished skeletons, inhabited only by a patchwork of odd immigrants. While Dermot wakes each morning hoping to spark the father-son relationship he and Eamonn never had, his son is more concerned with winning back Laura and tying up the fraying ends of his own life.

Though Dermot and Eamonn make up the center of O’Flynn’s story, Mr. Lynch’s Holiday is layered with themes far beyond the disconnected father and son. In subtle flashbacks and side plots, the novel weaves in questions about immigration that each of the characters approach differently depending on their backgrounds. O’Flynn highlights some of the inconsistencies in the ways outsiders are approached throughout the world, without preaching or losing track of the novel’s core.

Catherine O’Flynn has crafted a novel rich with connections and nostalgia, written with a breadth of life experience and filled with endearing characters. For those seeking an entertaining but fulfilling read, Mr. Lynch’s Holiday is a trip well worth taking.
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Catherine O’Flynn is such a class act, I would read anything she put out there, so it was great to find this one in the book shop. The trouble was, I didn’t like it half as much as the previous two. I made an assumption that the humour that characterised her first two novels would continue in this one, but I didn’t laugh once from start to finish. Here the category would be “poignant” (and there’s something about that word that makes me cringe but there’s no alternative in this case).

With its father-son dynamic this is parked right in the middle of Tony Parsons territory, but has a literary feel. The narrative is spare, brief sections set in the characters’ past sprinkled here and there, just enough information for the reader to join the dots. For me, the best bits were the ones set when Eamonn was a child, though I also thought the bit with the charity shop with its apathetic manager was spot-on. But always lurking at the margins were the two “no-nonsense couples”, expats living in the ‘urbanisation’ in Spain where the story is set, trumpeted in the blurb as though they were going to be an integral part of the narrative. Here surely would be the opportunity for the author’s trademark humour and characterisation, and wouldn’t we all like to have a laugh at the expense of obnoxious Brits abroad. Whoever wrote the synopsis knew how to reassure the fan-base, but ultimately misled them – those couples were kept on the shortest of reins, and no matter how hard they knocked on the door of the plot, they weren’t allowed in.

What we did get was a lot of brooding from Eamonn, a man of little charm – for me the mystery wasn’t so much why his girlfriend had left him, more what she ever saw in him in the first place – and coverage of his father Dermot getting along with everyone. Dermot was such a salt-of-the-earth type, so free of foibles that conflict was excluded.

Oddly enough it doesn’t make any difference in the long run. I still think she is a class act; I would still read anything she put out there. This one just wasn’t my type. ( )

An eloquent and moving tale of a father and son rediscovering each other, juxtaposed with a black comedy about the lives of expats in a semi-abandoned half-built Spanish resort, and stories of various forms of emigrant experience. I enjoyed this a lot - full of surprising observations, well observed characters and amusing details. ( )

interesting portrait of spain. is eamonn autistic? ( )