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Prophet Song
A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.
How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.
How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?
Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.
259 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 24, 2023
About the author
Paul Lynch
5 books796 followersPaul Lynch is the internationally-acclaimed, prize-winning author of five novels: PROPHET SONG, BEYOND THE SEA, GRACE, THE BLACK SNOW and RED SKY IN MORNING, and the winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018, among other prizes.
His debut novel RED SKY IN MORNING was published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 2013. It was a finalist for France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize) and was nominated for the Prix du Premier Roman (First Novel Prize). In the US, it was an Amazon.com Book of the Month and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, where Lynch was hailed as “a lapidary young master”. It was a book of the year in The Irish Times, The Toronto Star, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Business Post.
THE BLACK SNOW (2014) was an Amazon.com Book of the Month. In France it won the French booksellers’ prize Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and the inaugural Prix des Lecteurs Privat. It was nominated for the Prix Femina and the Prix du Roman Fnac (Fnac Novel Prize). It was hailed as “masterful” by The Sunday Times, “fierce and stunning” by The Toronto Star and featured on NPR’s All Things Considered where Alan Cheuse said that Lynch’s writing was found “somewhere between that of Nobel poet Seamus Heaney and Cormac McCarthy”.
GRACE was published in 2017 to massive international acclaim. The Washington Post called the book, “a moving work of lyrical and at times hallucinatory beauty… that reads like a hybrid of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road'”. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and the William Saroyan International Prize. In France it was shortlisted for the Prix Jean Monnet for European Literature, among other prizes. It was a book of the year in the Guardian, the Irish Independent, Kirkus and Esquire, a Staff Pick at The Paris Review and an Editors’ Choice in the New York Times Book Review.
BEYOND THE SEA was published in September 2019 to wide critical acclaim in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US. The Wall Street Journal called the book "mesmerising"; The Guardian called the book “frightening but beautiful”, while The Sunday Times said it had “echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding”. It was chosen as a book of the year in the Irish Independent by Sebastian Barry who called the book "masterly". In 2021, it was published to wide acclaim in France where it won the 2022 Prix Gens de Mers.
PROHET SONG was published to ravishing praise in August 2023 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. John Boyne in The Sunday Independent called Prophet Song "entirely original". The Observer called the book "a crucial book for our current times... brilliant, haunting". The TLS called it "thunderously powerful". The Guardian called it "an urgent, important read". The Literary Review called the book "a masterly novel".
Paul Lynch was born in Limerick in 1977, grew up in Co Donegal, and lives in Dublin. He was previously the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from 2007 to 2011, and wrote regularly for The Sunday Times on cinema. He is a full-time novelist.
His debut novel RED SKY IN MORNING was published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 2013. It was a finalist for France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize) and was nominated for the Prix du Premier Roman (First Novel Prize). In the US, it was an Amazon.com Book of the Month and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, where Lynch was hailed as “a lapidary young master”. It was a book of the year in The Irish Times, The Toronto Star, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Business Post.
THE BLACK SNOW (2014) was an Amazon.com Book of the Month. In France it won the French booksellers’ prize Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and the inaugural Prix des Lecteurs Privat. It was nominated for the Prix Femina and the Prix du Roman Fnac (Fnac Novel Prize). It was hailed as “masterful” by The Sunday Times, “fierce and stunning” by The Toronto Star and featured on NPR’s All Things Considered where Alan Cheuse said that Lynch’s writing was found “somewhere between that of Nobel poet Seamus Heaney and Cormac McCarthy”.
GRACE was published in 2017 to massive international acclaim. The Washington Post called the book, “a moving work of lyrical and at times hallucinatory beauty… that reads like a hybrid of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road'”. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and the William Saroyan International Prize. In France it was shortlisted for the Prix Jean Monnet for European Literature, among other prizes. It was a book of the year in the Guardian, the Irish Independent, Kirkus and Esquire, a Staff Pick at The Paris Review and an Editors’ Choice in the New York Times Book Review.
BEYOND THE SEA was published in September 2019 to wide critical acclaim in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US. The Wall Street Journal called the book "mesmerising"; The Guardian called the book “frightening but beautiful”, while The Sunday Times said it had “echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding”. It was chosen as a book of the year in the Irish Independent by Sebastian Barry who called the book "masterly". In 2021, it was published to wide acclaim in France where it won the 2022 Prix Gens de Mers.
PROHET SONG was published to ravishing praise in August 2023 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. John Boyne in The Sunday Independent called Prophet Song "entirely original". The Observer called the book "a crucial book for our current times... brilliant, haunting". The TLS called it "thunderously powerful". The Guardian called it "an urgent, important read". The Literary Review called the book "a masterly novel".
Paul Lynch was born in Limerick in 1977, grew up in Co Donegal, and lives in Dublin. He was previously the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from 2007 to 2011, and wrote regularly for The Sunday Times on cinema. He is a full-time novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,709 reviews
August 30, 2023
At first, I thought it would be better to wait a while before I write anything about Prophet Song (2023) by Paul Lynch, just to calm down a little and catch my breath, but then I realized that my ability to build coherent sentences about this reading experience might diminish over time. I devoured this novel in two days. It trapped my attention from the first sentence and ensnared me at once.
Prepare to have your emotions wrapped around Paul Lynch’s finger and the strings will be pulled tighter and tighter with every page. The thing I found most impressive about this novel is its atmosphere. The tension keeps growing gradually and the feeling of menace is more and more suffocating.
The word exhilarating in the blurb baffled me as I found Prophet Song one of the darkest and most depressing books I have ever read. It depicts the rise of totalitarianism resulting in civil war, seen through the eyes of a family with four children. The novel is set in Ireland at an unspecified time but judging from the technology the characters are using it is contemporary. Bertolt Brecht's motto about the dark times was a perfect choice: the novel protagonist, Eilish, is akin to Mother Courage, dealing with unimaginable traumas. She does her best to keep her family together against all odds. By the way, Mother Courage's son is called Eilif which sounds so similar to Eilish. Both Brecht and Lynch's portrayals of motherhood in the time of moral apocalypse are heart-wrenching.
The relief coming from the fact that Prophet Song is a dystopian novel doesn't last long as there is nothing unrealistic about the plot: the nightmarish events could have happened anytime, anywhere. Some passages hit unsettlingly close to home: The government has taken control of the judiciary by putting their own people in, that’s the nub of the problem, once you get your own people in you can do whatever you like. Sounds exactly like Poland at the moment.
Maybe one year and a half ago I would have found Paul Lynch's vision of totalitarianism overdrawn but the war in Ukraine proves that it's not. I couldn't stop thinking of Ukrainian children while reading passages like this: She whispers to him though there are no words for a child this age, no explanation for what has been done and yet what the child will never recall from memory will always be known by him and he will carry it as poison in the blood.
Some reviewers complain about the oddity of Paul Lynch's style which is quite unusual indeed. For me, it was definitely this novel's forte. It blends detailed realistic descriptions with dreams and snippets of prose poetry.
Prophet Song crushed me almost physically. I owe it a sleepless night. Maybe the concentration of bleakness and darkness in this novel is exaggerated. Sometimes it felt overwhelming, almost insufferable. On the other hand, this book is a clear warning and warnings are seldom whispered or painted with watercolours.
It doesn’t take a prophet to foresee that Paul Lynch’s novel will make it to the Booker shortlist and may not stop there.
Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child, c. 1951.
Prepare to have your emotions wrapped around Paul Lynch’s finger and the strings will be pulled tighter and tighter with every page. The thing I found most impressive about this novel is its atmosphere. The tension keeps growing gradually and the feeling of menace is more and more suffocating.
The word exhilarating in the blurb baffled me as I found Prophet Song one of the darkest and most depressing books I have ever read. It depicts the rise of totalitarianism resulting in civil war, seen through the eyes of a family with four children. The novel is set in Ireland at an unspecified time but judging from the technology the characters are using it is contemporary. Bertolt Brecht's motto about the dark times was a perfect choice: the novel protagonist, Eilish, is akin to Mother Courage, dealing with unimaginable traumas. She does her best to keep her family together against all odds. By the way, Mother Courage's son is called Eilif which sounds so similar to Eilish. Both Brecht and Lynch's portrayals of motherhood in the time of moral apocalypse are heart-wrenching.
The relief coming from the fact that Prophet Song is a dystopian novel doesn't last long as there is nothing unrealistic about the plot: the nightmarish events could have happened anytime, anywhere. Some passages hit unsettlingly close to home: The government has taken control of the judiciary by putting their own people in, that’s the nub of the problem, once you get your own people in you can do whatever you like. Sounds exactly like Poland at the moment.
Maybe one year and a half ago I would have found Paul Lynch's vision of totalitarianism overdrawn but the war in Ukraine proves that it's not. I couldn't stop thinking of Ukrainian children while reading passages like this: She whispers to him though there are no words for a child this age, no explanation for what has been done and yet what the child will never recall from memory will always be known by him and he will carry it as poison in the blood.
Some reviewers complain about the oddity of Paul Lynch's style which is quite unusual indeed. For me, it was definitely this novel's forte. It blends detailed realistic descriptions with dreams and snippets of prose poetry.
Prophet Song crushed me almost physically. I owe it a sleepless night. Maybe the concentration of bleakness and darkness in this novel is exaggerated. Sometimes it felt overwhelming, almost insufferable. On the other hand, this book is a clear warning and warnings are seldom whispered or painted with watercolours.
It doesn’t take a prophet to foresee that Paul Lynch’s novel will make it to the Booker shortlist and may not stop there.
Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child, c. 1951.
September 13, 2023
This is the Way my Booker Ends: Not with a Bang but a Whimper
----------------------------
I'm honestly confused, flabbergasted even, by all the five star reviews. I promise I went into this with open eyes and open heart; I wanted to end on a high note after all poor reading this list has brought into my life. I feel like I read a completely different book. Or maybe this is the first dystopian some have read, or they don't know about any other book that deals with a totalitarian government, or is the news not being watched?
I've seen people call this highly emotional and that it really makes you think how it could happen to "us" (a liberal democracy). You're realizing this in 2023?
Maybe I was doomed as soon as I saw Eilish not believing that the government can listen to your phone calls, there are laws don't you know! I guess she never read or heard of Edward Snowden in this reality (when does this book take place? who knows. recent past, recent future, it doesn't really matter. It barely matters that it's Ireland) This might just be the American in me and in Ireland people still believe that the government would never go against their citizens. Let's just say I found her naïveté irksome.
Other reviewers mention the writing being lyrical and poetic. Maybe the giant blocks of text (Melchor this is not) kept me from noticing it, but they didn't hide the constant use of dark, darkness, and darkening (this becomes comical) or the odd word choices peppered throughout. It's almost as if the author noticed the writing was flat and a bit dead and decided to jazz things up. Someone whips our their member, someone is suddened, a character sleeves their coat on or they walk into colding loom.
I kept reading, hoping for the exhilarating plot I was promised only to be slapped in the face with a side character speech rehashing the central conceit of the novel. After 300 pages!! Paul, do you not trust I'll understand that it's hard to know when to leave, how to realize that it's too late? Even when you have mentioned this exact thing multiple times in the novel?
The blurb asks how far a mother will go to save her family. Not very far it seems. She sticks around hoping for things to turn and makes it to the corner store for milk and cigarettes. It also asks what or who she is willing to leave behind. No one, until they're super dead. This woman doesn't get moving until the end of the book.
If this novel of 'radical empathy' opens people's eyes and hearts to the migrant struggle then great. I'm honestly happy. But I'm also dejected that it's a generic novel about an Irish woman that had to do it.
I just know this will make it to the short list (it's topical?!) but I honestly hope it does not win.
----------------------------
I'm honestly confused, flabbergasted even, by all the five star reviews. I promise I went into this with open eyes and open heart; I wanted to end on a high note after all poor reading this list has brought into my life. I feel like I read a completely different book. Or maybe this is the first dystopian some have read, or they don't know about any other book that deals with a totalitarian government, or is the news not being watched?
I've seen people call this highly emotional and that it really makes you think how it could happen to "us" (a liberal democracy). You're realizing this in 2023?
Maybe I was doomed as soon as I saw Eilish not believing that the government can listen to your phone calls, there are laws don't you know! I guess she never read or heard of Edward Snowden in this reality (when does this book take place? who knows. recent past, recent future, it doesn't really matter. It barely matters that it's Ireland) This might just be the American in me and in Ireland people still believe that the government would never go against their citizens. Let's just say I found her naïveté irksome.
Other reviewers mention the writing being lyrical and poetic. Maybe the giant blocks of text (Melchor this is not) kept me from noticing it, but they didn't hide the constant use of dark, darkness, and darkening (this becomes comical) or the odd word choices peppered throughout. It's almost as if the author noticed the writing was flat and a bit dead and decided to jazz things up. Someone whips our their member, someone is suddened, a character sleeves their coat on or they walk into colding loom.
I kept reading, hoping for the exhilarating plot I was promised only to be slapped in the face with a side character speech rehashing the central conceit of the novel. After 300 pages!! Paul, do you not trust I'll understand that it's hard to know when to leave, how to realize that it's too late? Even when you have mentioned this exact thing multiple times in the novel?
The blurb asks how far a mother will go to save her family. Not very far it seems. She sticks around hoping for things to turn and makes it to the corner store for milk and cigarettes. It also asks what or who she is willing to leave behind. No one, until they're super dead. This woman doesn't get moving until the end of the book.
If this novel of 'radical empathy' opens people's eyes and hearts to the migrant struggle then great. I'm honestly happy. But I'm also dejected that it's a generic novel about an Irish woman that had to do it.
I just know this will make it to the short list (it's topical?!) but I honestly hope it does not win.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
December 9, 2023Update 26.11: Now Winner of the Booker Prize 2023
I usually like Booker winners so I might have been wrong about this one. I guess I will have to try again at some point. As the author more or les stated, it is a book about Syrian refugees who are transformed in Irish people an placed in a dystopian alternative present. The idea still does not grab me. I’ll ask myself again in a about a year.
Abandoned at around 10%. Book 6/6 from the shortlist.
I have to start with a disclaimer. After browsing the blurb of this novel, I had no interest to read it. I’ve recently read a couple of books about real totalitarian regimes, including a non-fiction about life in North Korea. I did not want more, not even about an imaginary regime. However, since I've at least tried all of the other shortlistees, I though that it won't hurt to give this one a try. It is true I did not try too hard, but the novel managed to annoy me early on. Ok, starting with the main idea. The novel was sold as something original. Hmm, I've never seen a Western European country who turned extremist..oh wait, I have. Also, as an Eastern European, I constantly live with the fear that things might return to less liberal times so I do not need a reminder. So, this is why I was not keen on reading the novel in the first place.
Unfortunately, the writing, which was much praised, kind of annoyed me. Mind you, I already did not feel like reading the book so... confirmation bias? However, what made me give up, was the main character's surprised reaction when she discovered the phone was tapped. She could not believe a government could do that. Right...Maybe, the novel does not only present an alternative present but also an alternative past where Snowden never existed.
I usually like Booker winners so I might have been wrong about this one. I guess I will have to try again at some point. As the author more or les stated, it is a book about Syrian refugees who are transformed in Irish people an placed in a dystopian alternative present. The idea still does not grab me. I’ll ask myself again in a about a year.
Abandoned at around 10%. Book 6/6 from the shortlist.
I have to start with a disclaimer. After browsing the blurb of this novel, I had no interest to read it. I’ve recently read a couple of books about real totalitarian regimes, including a non-fiction about life in North Korea. I did not want more, not even about an imaginary regime. However, since I've at least tried all of the other shortlistees, I though that it won't hurt to give this one a try. It is true I did not try too hard, but the novel managed to annoy me early on. Ok, starting with the main idea. The novel was sold as something original. Hmm, I've never seen a Western European country who turned extremist..oh wait, I have. Also, as an Eastern European, I constantly live with the fear that things might return to less liberal times so I do not need a reminder. So, this is why I was not keen on reading the novel in the first place.
Unfortunately, the writing, which was much praised, kind of annoyed me. Mind you, I already did not feel like reading the book so... confirmation bias? However, what made me give up, was the main character's surprised reaction when she discovered the phone was tapped. She could not believe a government could do that. Right...Maybe, the novel does not only present an alternative present but also an alternative past where Snowden never existed.
September 13, 2023
This was terrible. And you know what, I will not use paragraphs during this review just to demonstrate how fucking stupid it is not to be using paragraphs. Especially in a 300 page book about a fictional authoritarian regime. First of all, I knew from the moment I opened the book and saw Paul Lynch looking like someone cosplaying Kylo Ren that this would be special. I just hoped it would be the good kind of special, the fun kind of special, the self aware kind of special. It turned out to be please someone steal this book from me in the metro so that I have an excuse not to finish it kind of special. Speaking of Kylo Ren, I don’t know what 2000’s emo rock band was Paul Lynch listening to while writing this but there are sentences that go harder at making you cringe than any YA book about dragons that fuck could ever hope to even come close to (“Graduate…or die!” included). Characters randomly spit out these random quotes that could easily be lyrics from a Nickelback song from 2005 and we are somehow supposed to believe it to sound natural because LOOK HOW TERRIBLE THE SITUATION IS…ISN’T IT JUST TERRIBLE?? YOU WOULD ALSO TALK LIKE A HOT TOPIC EMPLOYEE IF THIS HAPPENED TO YOU!! I don’t know how someone decides to write about horrific fictional events that have actually happened (and are still happening) to real people in the real world and just change nothing, not alter the situation at all and just slap a big fat THIS IS FICTION Y’ALL sticker over it and place it in your own country. Like if I want to read a moving portrayal of authoritarian regime where people suffer, political prisoners are being executed and thousands flee the country I will go and read a book based in Czechoslovakia in the 50’s. If I want to read a fun take on tyranny I’ll go and read fucking Hunger Games. Why in the hell did I have to read a sob story about something that never happened but did actually happen and wait is actually still happening JUST NOT IN IRELAND. And I’m not even getting into how dull and uninspired the story itself is. The mother advertised as a “scientist” is just living her life of definitely not being a scientist (but I suppose researching microbiology would be too much of a task) and then shit happens and more shit happens and all of a sudden you question your sanity because you’re only half way through and somehow it feels like you lost years of your life reading about nothing and the privilege just glows from the pages as the book tries to get more and more emotion from you. I’d be actually surprised if you’ve made it this far into this review but apparently at least 300 people have made it through 300 pages of this stupid format so I guess you can make the reader suffer through anything as long as you label it an artistic choice. In conclusion, another white man trying to become George Orwell and the literary world eating it up.
November 26, 2023
Deserved Winner of the Booker Prize 2023
This is a must read and would be a worthy Booker winner.
The central premise, that Ireland has elected a neo-Fascist nationalist government, union leaders and other enemies of the regime start disappearing, and the country rapidly descends into civil war and poverty, takes a little swallowing, but (as in The Handmaid's Tale) everything that Lynch describes has happened somewhere in the world in modern times, and given the upsurge in populist right wing politics in many western states in recent years it seems a timely and potent warning. The final section also seems a perfect antidote to the "stop the boats" rabble-rousing rhetoric so beloved of the current British government.
The heart of the story is a very human and brilliantly realised tale of an ordinary Dublin woman trying to protect her family in impossible circumstances. At the start of the book, her husband, a trade union leader, is arrested and soon disappears (echoes of Pinochet's Chile). Her own job soon becomes impossible, and her attempts to provide for and guide her four children and a father with dementia are constantly frustrated.
This is a must read and would be a worthy Booker winner.
The central premise, that Ireland has elected a neo-Fascist nationalist government, union leaders and other enemies of the regime start disappearing, and the country rapidly descends into civil war and poverty, takes a little swallowing, but (as in The Handmaid's Tale) everything that Lynch describes has happened somewhere in the world in modern times, and given the upsurge in populist right wing politics in many western states in recent years it seems a timely and potent warning. The final section also seems a perfect antidote to the "stop the boats" rabble-rousing rhetoric so beloved of the current British government.
The heart of the story is a very human and brilliantly realised tale of an ordinary Dublin woman trying to protect her family in impossible circumstances. At the start of the book, her husband, a trade union leader, is arrested and soon disappears (echoes of Pinochet's Chile). Her own job soon becomes impossible, and her attempts to provide for and guide her four children and a father with dementia are constantly frustrated.
November 27, 2023
If Paul Lynch’s “Prophet Song” were a horror novel, it wouldn’t feel nearly as terrifying. But his story about the modern-day ascent of fascism is so contaminated with plausibility that it’s impossible not to feel poisoned by swelling panic. I woke up three mornings in a row from nightmares Lynch had sown in the soil of my jittery brain.
“Prophet Song,” which won Britain’s Booker Prize on Sunday, describes how the fibers of political decay get caught in the lungs: the wracking cough of tyranny precedes the illness, the horrible death. But rather than survey the whole body of governmental putrefaction, Lynch focuses on the travails of one woman struggling to protect her family in Dublin.
Eilish Stack is a respected microbiologist, a mother and the wife of a union leader. After a long day of work, she craves only a spot of peace and renewal. But if you remember the first line of “1984” — “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” — you’ll hear the opening of “Prophet Song” as a sepulchral echo: “The night has come and she has not heard the knocking.”
That knocking in the nighttime, the implacable salutation of the KGB and security agents the world over, is the first in an uninterrupted series of perversions of. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
“Prophet Song,” which won Britain’s Booker Prize on Sunday, describes how the fibers of political decay get caught in the lungs: the wracking cough of tyranny precedes the illness, the horrible death. But rather than survey the whole body of governmental putrefaction, Lynch focuses on the travails of one woman struggling to protect her family in Dublin.
Eilish Stack is a respected microbiologist, a mother and the wife of a union leader. After a long day of work, she craves only a spot of peace and renewal. But if you remember the first line of “1984” — “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” — you’ll hear the opening of “Prophet Song” as a sepulchral echo: “The night has come and she has not heard the knocking.”
That knocking in the nighttime, the implacable salutation of the KGB and security agents the world over, is the first in an uninterrupted series of perversions of. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
September 3, 2023
Listen, guys, it’s not like I didn’t believe the scenario presented here. And it’s not like I don’t like dystopian novels either.
What I didn’t like was the writing style. Wait, let me show you how it all starts:
The night has come and she has not heard the knocking, standing at the window looking out onto the garden. How the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees. It gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark in whisper. Tired now, the day almost behind her and the children settled in the living room, this feeling of rest for a moment by the glass.
See what I mean? Does this not sound a bit like pretentious drivel? If she’s standing and looking, and the dark gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark, does this mean that the author (narrator) was there writing everything down as the events unfolded, or was this the only way he could find to create a sense of closeness and urgency?
Either way, I found it jarring all the way through.
Also, for me, this “closeness” and “immediacy” allied to the poetic but slightly forced and overwritten way in which this was told, instead of creating vivid imagery only served to blur every single scene and character, and I ended up not being able to picture any of it or feel for any of the characters.
On a side note, I’d like to mention that I don’t think children in 2023 talk the way they do in this novel.
I also feel like some “bad” decisions were taken by the characters only to keep the wheels in motion and get to the point the author wanted to go. I also spotted a few plot holes and inconsistencies, but nothing I couldn’t close my eyes off to.
All in all this was an okay read to me - nothing too bad, but also, unfortunately, not amazing either.
Stuff like this, and I mean people trying to take over the world by all means, has been happening since the beginning of times, is still happening today and will keep on happening for as long as there’s people on this planet. Some might say it’s only human nature. Others might call it natural selection. I, for instance, call it selfishness.
What I didn’t like was the writing style. Wait, let me show you how it all starts:
The night has come and she has not heard the knocking, standing at the window looking out onto the garden. How the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees. It gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark in whisper. Tired now, the day almost behind her and the children settled in the living room, this feeling of rest for a moment by the glass.
See what I mean? Does this not sound a bit like pretentious drivel? If she’s standing and looking, and the dark gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark but accept the dark, does this mean that the author (narrator) was there writing everything down as the events unfolded, or was this the only way he could find to create a sense of closeness and urgency?
Either way, I found it jarring all the way through.
Also, for me, this “closeness” and “immediacy” allied to the poetic but slightly forced and overwritten way in which this was told, instead of creating vivid imagery only served to blur every single scene and character, and I ended up not being able to picture any of it or feel for any of the characters.
On a side note, I’d like to mention that I don’t think children in 2023 talk the way they do in this novel.
I also feel like some “bad” decisions were taken by the characters only to keep the wheels in motion and get to the point the author wanted to go. I also spotted a few plot holes and inconsistencies, but nothing I couldn’t close my eyes off to.
All in all this was an okay read to me - nothing too bad, but also, unfortunately, not amazing either.
Stuff like this, and I mean people trying to take over the world by all means, has been happening since the beginning of times, is still happening today and will keep on happening for as long as there’s people on this planet. Some might say it’s only human nature. Others might call it natural selection. I, for instance, call it selfishness.
November 27, 2023
Winner Booker Prize 2023
" History is a silent record of people who didn't know when to leave."
Prophet Song kept me up reading late into the night. It is an emotionally draining novel with Orwellian themes and scenes that propel the reader forward with the intensity of a Hitchcock film.
In a dystopian future, Ireland's far-right National Alliance Party (NAP) comes to power. To maintain order, they create a secret police with supplemental powers that strip citizens of their fundamental rights. The story centers on the impact of the new order on a middle-class Dublin family, the Stacks; Eilish, a microbiologist; Larry, an official in the Teacher's Union of Ireland, their four children; and Eilish's aging father, who is struggling with dementia.
The nightmare begins when secret police attack a peaceful teacher's rally for higher wages. Larry and other union officials are arrested and disappear. Legal due process starts to erode, and the NAP replaces people in jobs nationwide with party hacks, causing Eilish to lose her job. Lynch chronicles Eilish's struggles to keep her children and aging father safe as the nation descends into a violent civil war, and they become refugees.
At first, I found Lynch's writing style difficult to follow. There are no paragraphs, and he doesn't use conventional indicators for dialogue. Scenes proceed without interruption until a gap appears, indicating a new section's start. However, once I grew accustomed to his style, I found his writing had almost a cinematic flow that drew me deeper and deeper into the nightmare.
Prophet Song is a powerful novel as it crystalizes the trauma that so many people worldwide are experiencing. In an interview, Lynch stated that two competing sentiments motivated him to write this novel. First, he is troubled by the lack of empathy for refugees, which he feels is prevalent in the West. Lynch also wanted to explore how much agency individuals possess in times of societal collapse. He succeeds on both fronts. Prophet Song is a mesmerizing, provocative read. I highly recommend it.
" History is a silent record of people who didn't know when to leave."
Prophet Song kept me up reading late into the night. It is an emotionally draining novel with Orwellian themes and scenes that propel the reader forward with the intensity of a Hitchcock film.
In a dystopian future, Ireland's far-right National Alliance Party (NAP) comes to power. To maintain order, they create a secret police with supplemental powers that strip citizens of their fundamental rights. The story centers on the impact of the new order on a middle-class Dublin family, the Stacks; Eilish, a microbiologist; Larry, an official in the Teacher's Union of Ireland, their four children; and Eilish's aging father, who is struggling with dementia.
The nightmare begins when secret police attack a peaceful teacher's rally for higher wages. Larry and other union officials are arrested and disappear. Legal due process starts to erode, and the NAP replaces people in jobs nationwide with party hacks, causing Eilish to lose her job. Lynch chronicles Eilish's struggles to keep her children and aging father safe as the nation descends into a violent civil war, and they become refugees.
At first, I found Lynch's writing style difficult to follow. There are no paragraphs, and he doesn't use conventional indicators for dialogue. Scenes proceed without interruption until a gap appears, indicating a new section's start. However, once I grew accustomed to his style, I found his writing had almost a cinematic flow that drew me deeper and deeper into the nightmare.
Prophet Song is a powerful novel as it crystalizes the trauma that so many people worldwide are experiencing. In an interview, Lynch stated that two competing sentiments motivated him to write this novel. First, he is troubled by the lack of empathy for refugees, which he feels is prevalent in the West. Lynch also wanted to explore how much agency individuals possess in times of societal collapse. He succeeds on both fronts. Prophet Song is a mesmerizing, provocative read. I highly recommend it.
November 30, 2023
50% though this booker prize winner and I just can’t waste any more reading time on this one, as it’s becoming such a chore to pick up.
There is certainly an important element to the story for the times that are in it. The fact that the account is told without paragraph breaks made the book feel relentless to me and I just wasn’t enjoying the read. It’s a slow burn and I really didn’t connect with the characters and therefore had little interest in slogging to the end.
Booker prize winner and this has numerous five star reviews on Goodreads. So it’s obviously made many reader’s favourite list and worth checking out if you are a fan of dystopian novels. I have a love hate relationship with Booker Prize nominees and winners, so am not surprised that this didn't work for me.
There is certainly an important element to the story for the times that are in it. The fact that the account is told without paragraph breaks made the book feel relentless to me and I just wasn’t enjoying the read. It’s a slow burn and I really didn’t connect with the characters and therefore had little interest in slogging to the end.
Booker prize winner and this has numerous five star reviews on Goodreads. So it’s obviously made many reader’s favourite list and worth checking out if you are a fan of dystopian novels. I have a love hate relationship with Booker Prize nominees and winners, so am not surprised that this didn't work for me.
November 26, 2023
Now Winner of the Booker Prize 2023
in an overall rather disappointing year
Take current public debates centering on the rise of right-wing authoritarianism through elections in Europe, project the worst case into the future and, voilà, this is the result. It's certainly a worthwhile political dystopia, but surprising, innovative or unusual it is not, it's more like a mixture of 1984 and It Can't Happen Here, but make it Irish.
Our protagonist is microbiologist Eilish Stack whose husband Larry, a trade unionist, is abducted by the secret police of the new authoritarian Ireland, leaving Eilish to care for the four children and her father who is suffering from dementia. The family, perceived as traitors as Larry was organizing workers and was thus opposing authority, comes under increasing duress, topics like the loss of objective reality and truth are discussed (after all, Eilish is a scientist), and the aging father works like an oracle, constantly speaking from the depths of his slipping mind but knowing that Eilish should never underestimate the ruthlessness of people and thus the system they have built. The children show different reactions to their loss of freedom, and have to face different consequences.
To me, the most interesting aspect was how Eilish struggles to be just in this impossible situation: She wants to stand up to the system and demand her husband back - but will that kill him, if he isn't already dead? Also, is she a bad mother if she fights political injustice, as she puts her children in danger? Should she flee and maybe save her children, but leave her severely ill father alone, a man who is already threatened by the state?
The language and style of this novel was much praised, alas, I cannot find the specific beauty in these run-on sentences, these deserts of text (as we say in German when the pages are crammed with letters). I see that there's a punchy rhythm going on, a bleakness that fits the narrative, but it didn't really reach me.
So while "Prophet Song" certainly has some things going on for it, it does seem a little conventional for me.
You can now listen to our Booker Special (in German) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/allgemei...
(More Booker title reviews on our Steady-Page)
in an overall rather disappointing year
Take current public debates centering on the rise of right-wing authoritarianism through elections in Europe, project the worst case into the future and, voilà, this is the result. It's certainly a worthwhile political dystopia, but surprising, innovative or unusual it is not, it's more like a mixture of 1984 and It Can't Happen Here, but make it Irish.
Our protagonist is microbiologist Eilish Stack whose husband Larry, a trade unionist, is abducted by the secret police of the new authoritarian Ireland, leaving Eilish to care for the four children and her father who is suffering from dementia. The family, perceived as traitors as Larry was organizing workers and was thus opposing authority, comes under increasing duress, topics like the loss of objective reality and truth are discussed (after all, Eilish is a scientist), and the aging father works like an oracle, constantly speaking from the depths of his slipping mind but knowing that Eilish should never underestimate the ruthlessness of people and thus the system they have built. The children show different reactions to their loss of freedom, and have to face different consequences.
To me, the most interesting aspect was how Eilish struggles to be just in this impossible situation: She wants to stand up to the system and demand her husband back - but will that kill him, if he isn't already dead? Also, is she a bad mother if she fights political injustice, as she puts her children in danger? Should she flee and maybe save her children, but leave her severely ill father alone, a man who is already threatened by the state?
The language and style of this novel was much praised, alas, I cannot find the specific beauty in these run-on sentences, these deserts of text (as we say in German when the pages are crammed with letters). I see that there's a punchy rhythm going on, a bleakness that fits the narrative, but it didn't really reach me.
So while "Prophet Song" certainly has some things going on for it, it does seem a little conventional for me.
You can now listen to our Booker Special (in German) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/allgemei...
(More Booker title reviews on our Steady-Page)
September 10, 2023
I’ll be shocked if this isn’t on the Booker shortlist. I think it might just win the whole damn thing. By far, the bleakest and most intense read on the list. The most horrifying journey. And there’s a pivotal moment that caused me to break down and cry. Damn.
When I first picked up this book I assumed it was about the Troubles, but then I slowly realized it was a modern-day dystopian, which imagines Ireland becoming a Fascist state. And of course, things become terrifying at an accelerated speed. Bad things start happen, really bad things keep happening.
But as a reader, you should always be aware that the type of atrocities that occur in the book are already happening elsewhere in the world. So, as much as this content may seem unimaginable, “the end of the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event.”
Written in claustrophobic prose that manages to place you in a “no-way out” situation. It all feels so oppressive as it should. What a read!!
When I first picked up this book I assumed it was about the Troubles, but then I slowly realized it was a modern-day dystopian, which imagines Ireland becoming a Fascist state. And of course, things become terrifying at an accelerated speed. Bad things start happen, really bad things keep happening.
But as a reader, you should always be aware that the type of atrocities that occur in the book are already happening elsewhere in the world. So, as much as this content may seem unimaginable, “the end of the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event.”
Written in claustrophobic prose that manages to place you in a “no-way out” situation. It all feels so oppressive as it should. What a read!!
November 26, 2023
Update : This is the winner. No comment.
Now shortlisted for Booker Prize 2023
I am intrigued that we are starting to write dystopian novels about the past, but I don't think the substance is there when the past is fictional.
Now shortlisted for Booker Prize 2023
I am intrigued that we are starting to write dystopian novels about the past, but I don't think the substance is there when the past is fictional.
November 26, 2023
[Winner of the 2023 Booker Prize]
Following a woman, Eilish, who is a scientist and mother of four in an Ireland that could be, Paul Lynch’s stunning novel shows just how quickly a country, and the many lives it contains, can change.
One night two men knock on Eilish’s door inquiring about her husband, a teacher’s Union leader accused of sedition. The men come from a recently instituted secret police in Ireland, part of the radical party taking over the government and the way of life as she knows it. From there the story unfurls and rushes headlong to a conclusion that is both inevitable and heart-wrenching.
Lynch’s prose is engrossing and yet claustrophobic. He writes in large blocks of text with very few full stops. The dialogue is without quotation marks and woven into the prose itself, though it’s rarely difficult to follow. This lends itself to a poetic and powerful writing style, conveying the utter dread present in Eilish’s observations and thinking as the world around her changes.
I was incredibly moved by this story. It feels timely and yet the story itself, the writing and characters, feel timeless. It reminds me of something like The Handmaid’s Tale that almost lives outside of time and space, and yet is incredibly visceral. Its dystopian fiction with a literary bend. I loved it.
Following a woman, Eilish, who is a scientist and mother of four in an Ireland that could be, Paul Lynch’s stunning novel shows just how quickly a country, and the many lives it contains, can change.
One night two men knock on Eilish’s door inquiring about her husband, a teacher’s Union leader accused of sedition. The men come from a recently instituted secret police in Ireland, part of the radical party taking over the government and the way of life as she knows it. From there the story unfurls and rushes headlong to a conclusion that is both inevitable and heart-wrenching.
Lynch’s prose is engrossing and yet claustrophobic. He writes in large blocks of text with very few full stops. The dialogue is without quotation marks and woven into the prose itself, though it’s rarely difficult to follow. This lends itself to a poetic and powerful writing style, conveying the utter dread present in Eilish’s observations and thinking as the world around her changes.
I was incredibly moved by this story. It feels timely and yet the story itself, the writing and characters, feel timeless. It reminds me of something like The Handmaid’s Tale that almost lives outside of time and space, and yet is incredibly visceral. Its dystopian fiction with a literary bend. I loved it.
May 31, 2024
Should I applaud?
Lynch writes about a fictional Ireland being overtaken by a totalitarian regime with people losing their rights and their freedom and their lives. The only thing original in the story is that it is set in Ireland, so a Northern European white culture, otherwise people all over the world are either living this story right now or else have lived it in the past. Furthermore, a Northern European people did live through this kind of story about 90 years ago, I'm speaking of Nazi Germany here.
So should I applaud this book on it's originality, well no.
Should I applaud it for showing that this can happen to a Northern European white person, well it happened to the Germans (I'm including German Jews, German Gypsies, German homosexuals here as well), so no.
Should I applaud it for showing that people will be effected by this story because it shows that it can happen to 'us' when it has been happening all over the world to lots of people who are of differently coloured skin, different language, different culture, different religion. Well, no, I will not applaud to that, because that would mean that I care more what happens to 'us' than what happens to 'others'.
Should I applaud the book for its use of language. for the writing. Lynch writes a fog of dark words, which creates a great sense of foreboding. At the same time, I really cannot say that I appreciated the writing because I had to make myself read. So, there is no applause here as well.
And I cannot leave without offering just a small correction to Eilish when she says the sea is life. This is not a 100% true fact, ask the hundreds who have died on the Mediterranean shores whilst seeking refuge, or the hundreds who have died crossing the English Channel, this is just to mention the deaths I know of. There are others, I'm sure.
An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher via Netgalley
2023 Booker winner
Lynch writes about a fictional Ireland being overtaken by a totalitarian regime with people losing their rights and their freedom and their lives. The only thing original in the story is that it is set in Ireland, so a Northern European white culture, otherwise people all over the world are either living this story right now or else have lived it in the past. Furthermore, a Northern European people did live through this kind of story about 90 years ago, I'm speaking of Nazi Germany here.
So should I applaud this book on it's originality, well no.
Should I applaud it for showing that this can happen to a Northern European white person, well it happened to the Germans (I'm including German Jews, German Gypsies, German homosexuals here as well), so no.
Should I applaud it for showing that people will be effected by this story because it shows that it can happen to 'us' when it has been happening all over the world to lots of people who are of differently coloured skin, different language, different culture, different religion. Well, no, I will not applaud to that, because that would mean that I care more what happens to 'us' than what happens to 'others'.
Should I applaud the book for its use of language. for the writing. Lynch writes a fog of dark words, which creates a great sense of foreboding. At the same time, I really cannot say that I appreciated the writing because I had to make myself read. So, there is no applause here as well.
And I cannot leave without offering just a small correction to Eilish when she says the sea is life. This is not a 100% true fact, ask the hundreds who have died on the Mediterranean shores whilst seeking refuge, or the hundreds who have died crossing the English Channel, this is just to mention the deaths I know of. There are others, I'm sure.
An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher via Netgalley
2023 Booker winner
January 27, 2024
This book gets a lot of love. And that's fine. We can't all like the same things, but this really is an unoriginal, trite, forced, and nonsensical novel. It's basically 200+ pages of attempting to sell empathy to refugees by positing the thought, 'what if Ireland became Syria' and people had to flee. What if we - the Western folks - were forced to make our way across dangerous borders pushed by people smugglers?
Do you care now about these people? Because it might be you one day. A fact rammed home by the ending, which is taking a hammer to crack a nut.
The world building is lazy. Ireland couldn't become Syria because too many Irish people (or people with Irish roots) living outside Ireland. Especially in the USA. Too many votes up for grabs. Plus Ireland - currently - has a border with Britain on the island of Ireland. A border that I'm pretty sure has proved porous as hell forever. A border that forms the perfect place to launch an international peacekeeping force from. A no fly zone, which would be easy because I don't believe the Irish military has any offensive air capability.
And it is written in a way that flattens out all the emotion. It has that tedious modern tendency for no paragraph breaks and no separation of speech from the main text. We're told that this is a 'harrowing' story. And it would be if it was written in a way that didn't give it the emotional heft of a balloon.
Now if you love it. Great. But there are better, less patronising books on this subject from other authors. And honestly, if you need a book like this to teach you empathy or to illustrate the terror of being a refugee then you've not been paying much attention in the last...well...forever.
I'd also point out that there was an advert run by Save The Children in the UK in about 2005 that basically does this story from the point of view of a child in England -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-I... - It's more powerful, more effective and less patronising than anything in this book. Watch this instead.
Do you care now about these people? Because it might be you one day. A fact rammed home by the ending, which is taking a hammer to crack a nut.
The world building is lazy. Ireland couldn't become Syria because too many Irish people (or people with Irish roots) living outside Ireland. Especially in the USA. Too many votes up for grabs. Plus Ireland - currently - has a border with Britain on the island of Ireland. A border that I'm pretty sure has proved porous as hell forever. A border that forms the perfect place to launch an international peacekeeping force from. A no fly zone, which would be easy because I don't believe the Irish military has any offensive air capability.
And it is written in a way that flattens out all the emotion. It has that tedious modern tendency for no paragraph breaks and no separation of speech from the main text. We're told that this is a 'harrowing' story. And it would be if it was written in a way that didn't give it the emotional heft of a balloon.
Now if you love it. Great. But there are better, less patronising books on this subject from other authors. And honestly, if you need a book like this to teach you empathy or to illustrate the terror of being a refugee then you've not been paying much attention in the last...well...forever.
I'd also point out that there was an advert run by Save The Children in the UK in about 2005 that basically does this story from the point of view of a child in England -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-I... - It's more powerful, more effective and less patronising than anything in this book. Watch this instead.
October 3, 2023
This story begins, more or less, with an election, a neo-Fascist government is elected, and Ireland is in upheaval. People begin to disappear. One of those is a trade union leader, a husband who is arrested, and simply ‘disappears.’
This story is mostly revealed through Elish Stack’s thoughts, whose world - along with many others - is falling apart after her husband’s ‘disappearance’, and soon after that her teenage son will also disappear. Without her husband and son, she is stretched thin having to be the sole provider and caretaker for her other three children, along with a father with dementia who needs looking after, as well.
The country is soon falling apart, as well, and the families that surround her hide inside their homes. It becomes difficult to determine whose side others are on, and so people become wary, and their distance grows from one another.
This was a heartbreaking read, but also, unfortunately, believable. When one person can have a book automatically banned in a state, when the chorus of those who chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’ is still remembered for not bending to the desires of others, how difficult can it be to believe?
Pub Date: 12 Dec 2023
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly Press
December 29, 2023
2023 winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction
4★
“Let me understand you correctly, he says, you’re asking me to prove that my behaviour is not seditious? Yes, that is correct, Mr Stack. But how can I prove what I am doing is not seditious when I’m merely just doing my job as a trade unionist, exercising my right under the constitution? That is up to you, Mr Stack, unless we decide this warrants further investigation, in which case it will no longer be up to you and we will decide.”
Dystopian Dublin, which is not Belfast and The Troubles, this is worse, it’s insidious, it’s relentless, it’s all too believable, and Lynch just keeps pouring out event after event, thought after thought, sometimes in beautiful, inspired language that I didn’t want to interrupt, but sometimes with far-too-clever phrases that I thought perhaps he had collected and saved for use in a novel.
“She drives to the supermarket and coins free a trolley
. . .
a boy standing in the driveway of a house across the street watches the evacuation while rounding an orange in his hand.”
The long convoluted sentences, some pages long with no quotation marks or paragraph breaks demand constant, close attention. Turning other parts of speech into verbs, while descriptive, tends to interrupt the flow and pace of what is an intense, exhausting story.
The nature of his writing leaves the reader gasping for breath. The section I quoted is a small part of the scene where Larry Stack, the father of the family and a supporter of those protesting against the government, is answering to two visiting Garda, from the Garda National Services Bureau. He’s being told, basically, that he can’t win, and it’s not long before he is arrested.
"How quickly posters have appeared on the advertising boards along the bus routes, pages handwritten or typed up on a computer with the photos of men and women who have disappeared, the people arrested, detained by the regime, one moment you are asleep in your bed and wake to see the GNSB standing in your room, they ask you to put on some clothes, help you find your shoes."
After Larry is picked up, Eilish is left with four children. Their eldest is Mark, who is only a couple of weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday and has already been notified that he must register, but he is determined to leave home and join the rebels.
Fifteen-year-old Molly hangs a white ribbon from the tree in their yard every week that her father is gone. Twelve-year-old Bailey is a lively boy, who begins acting up as Eilish is becoming more stressed and highly strung and protective. Bossy, pushy, becoming frantic.
On top of that, baby Ben is teething. One day, Molly announces:
“I’m going out, she says. Out where? I’m going into town. Eilish regards her for a moment, the white denim jacket, the white scarf coiled around her neck. If you’re going into town, she says, you can take them off right now. Molly looks down at her body with mock surprise. Take what off right now? You know what I’m talking about. How do I know what you’re talking about, how do I know what anybody is talking about or even thinking of for that matter if nobody says anything, if nothing is ever said in this house?”
Eilish’s sister and family live safely in Canada, while her father lives in another part of the city alone with his dog and his increasingly failing memory. Checkpoints sprout on street corners, men with firearms patrol, curfews are put in place, shortages make shopping difficult, and Eilish’s sister keeps pressuring her to leave. But the government won’t issue baby Ben a passport.
As I was reading this in December 2023, the news has been filled with the obliteration of Gaza, which made the strikes and attacks in this even more frightening. But it isn’t about me or how I felt.
“… it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time,…
. . .
and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore. . . ”
Lynch began writing this four years ago, and he thought it might end his career. I can see why he feared that and also why it didn’t, and I can also see why the Booker committee selected it. On the other hand, I can also understand why many readers have left it unfinished or given it a very low rating. To say it's divisive is an understatement.
None of the characters got under my skin or stirred me, but the way they represent everything that is so outrageously wrong with justice in the world today, certainly affected me - the fracturing of the family unit, the division between friends.
This may be dystopian fiction about Dublin, but it’s just the way the world has been working for a long time for so many people in African and South American countries, Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia.
As Lynch says, their news “comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news...” Don't ignore the news.
Thanks to #NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a copy of #ProphetSong for review.
4★
“Let me understand you correctly, he says, you’re asking me to prove that my behaviour is not seditious? Yes, that is correct, Mr Stack. But how can I prove what I am doing is not seditious when I’m merely just doing my job as a trade unionist, exercising my right under the constitution? That is up to you, Mr Stack, unless we decide this warrants further investigation, in which case it will no longer be up to you and we will decide.”
Dystopian Dublin, which is not Belfast and The Troubles, this is worse, it’s insidious, it’s relentless, it’s all too believable, and Lynch just keeps pouring out event after event, thought after thought, sometimes in beautiful, inspired language that I didn’t want to interrupt, but sometimes with far-too-clever phrases that I thought perhaps he had collected and saved for use in a novel.
“She drives to the supermarket and coins free a trolley
. . .
a boy standing in the driveway of a house across the street watches the evacuation while rounding an orange in his hand.”
The long convoluted sentences, some pages long with no quotation marks or paragraph breaks demand constant, close attention. Turning other parts of speech into verbs, while descriptive, tends to interrupt the flow and pace of what is an intense, exhausting story.
The nature of his writing leaves the reader gasping for breath. The section I quoted is a small part of the scene where Larry Stack, the father of the family and a supporter of those protesting against the government, is answering to two visiting Garda, from the Garda National Services Bureau. He’s being told, basically, that he can’t win, and it’s not long before he is arrested.
"How quickly posters have appeared on the advertising boards along the bus routes, pages handwritten or typed up on a computer with the photos of men and women who have disappeared, the people arrested, detained by the regime, one moment you are asleep in your bed and wake to see the GNSB standing in your room, they ask you to put on some clothes, help you find your shoes."
After Larry is picked up, Eilish is left with four children. Their eldest is Mark, who is only a couple of weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday and has already been notified that he must register, but he is determined to leave home and join the rebels.
Fifteen-year-old Molly hangs a white ribbon from the tree in their yard every week that her father is gone. Twelve-year-old Bailey is a lively boy, who begins acting up as Eilish is becoming more stressed and highly strung and protective. Bossy, pushy, becoming frantic.
On top of that, baby Ben is teething. One day, Molly announces:
“I’m going out, she says. Out where? I’m going into town. Eilish regards her for a moment, the white denim jacket, the white scarf coiled around her neck. If you’re going into town, she says, you can take them off right now. Molly looks down at her body with mock surprise. Take what off right now? You know what I’m talking about. How do I know what you’re talking about, how do I know what anybody is talking about or even thinking of for that matter if nobody says anything, if nothing is ever said in this house?”
Eilish’s sister and family live safely in Canada, while her father lives in another part of the city alone with his dog and his increasingly failing memory. Checkpoints sprout on street corners, men with firearms patrol, curfews are put in place, shortages make shopping difficult, and Eilish’s sister keeps pressuring her to leave. But the government won’t issue baby Ben a passport.
As I was reading this in December 2023, the news has been filled with the obliteration of Gaza, which made the strikes and attacks in this even more frightening. But it isn’t about me or how I felt.
“… it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time,…
. . .
and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore. . . ”
Lynch began writing this four years ago, and he thought it might end his career. I can see why he feared that and also why it didn’t, and I can also see why the Booker committee selected it. On the other hand, I can also understand why many readers have left it unfinished or given it a very low rating. To say it's divisive is an understatement.
None of the characters got under my skin or stirred me, but the way they represent everything that is so outrageously wrong with justice in the world today, certainly affected me - the fracturing of the family unit, the division between friends.
This may be dystopian fiction about Dublin, but it’s just the way the world has been working for a long time for so many people in African and South American countries, Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia.
As Lynch says, their news “comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news...” Don't ignore the news.
Thanks to #NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a copy of #ProphetSong for review.
September 26, 2023
Absolutely terrible. With being shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 'Prophet Song' has received praise after praise and I have to profoundly disagree. I found it ignorant, selfish, patronising and self-entitled, to name a few of the sentiments I got when reading the text.
Conceptually, it lacks originality. The story follows a mother of 4 in Ireland, facing the fact that her husband has been captured and that her country is turning into a totalitarian state. This is by no means new in literature - '1984' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' are some successful examples of the same storyline. And what made them such hits is the creativity aspect. '1984' looked in depth at the usage of language, at how it molds ways of thinking and its importance in conveying information and accuracy. 'The Handmaid's Tale' approached the subject of intolerance towards minorities exceptionally, with a focus on women, exposing the levels of political power and how they pray on those who are different. The biblical themes are also evergreen as we can see in 2023.
Standing on the shoulders of these giants, 'Prophet Song' doesn't stand a chance. It doesn't bring anything new to this topic. For those who are well-informed about the state of China or North Korea at present, the rise of Nazism or of the Soviet Union, it reads patronising. We have a main character who is shocked that the government would listen to her phone conversations! How dare they?! Even in the US, known for its individualistic policies, these rights have been demonstrated to be blurry at best.
I had hoped that the note of originality would be brought by the location. But apart from the usage of the word 'mam' for 'mum', a few mentions of streets, one of sausages and one of lamb, this didn't read particularly Irish. Meaning that again it gets lost in the totalitarian dystopia realm.
And don't get me started on writing style... the whole book is in these very long paragraphs. And by long I mean ranging from 2 to 5 pages. There are no indications of dialogue, new ideas being introduced within these paragraphs, nothing. And I'm reading it and wondering why, except for the shock value. It makes the information difficult to parse, it adds a lot of heaviness to the dialogue because characters are constantly addressing each other by name to show who's talking (something you wouldn't do in real life, especially if it's a one-to-one chat), so it's both to the disadvantage of the reader and the immersion into the narrative. I am also concerned what this says about Paul Lynch's care for diversity, I understand that people with attention deficit are negatively impacted by this choice especially, because for them parsing paragraphs one by one is essential for following an idea and retaining the gist of it.
I am deeply disappointed to see this on the Booker shortlist.
Conceptually, it lacks originality. The story follows a mother of 4 in Ireland, facing the fact that her husband has been captured and that her country is turning into a totalitarian state. This is by no means new in literature - '1984' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' are some successful examples of the same storyline. And what made them such hits is the creativity aspect. '1984' looked in depth at the usage of language, at how it molds ways of thinking and its importance in conveying information and accuracy. 'The Handmaid's Tale' approached the subject of intolerance towards minorities exceptionally, with a focus on women, exposing the levels of political power and how they pray on those who are different. The biblical themes are also evergreen as we can see in 2023.
Standing on the shoulders of these giants, 'Prophet Song' doesn't stand a chance. It doesn't bring anything new to this topic. For those who are well-informed about the state of China or North Korea at present, the rise of Nazism or of the Soviet Union, it reads patronising. We have a main character who is shocked that the government would listen to her phone conversations! How dare they?! Even in the US, known for its individualistic policies, these rights have been demonstrated to be blurry at best.
I had hoped that the note of originality would be brought by the location. But apart from the usage of the word 'mam' for 'mum', a few mentions of streets, one of sausages and one of lamb, this didn't read particularly Irish. Meaning that again it gets lost in the totalitarian dystopia realm.
And don't get me started on writing style... the whole book is in these very long paragraphs. And by long I mean ranging from 2 to 5 pages. There are no indications of dialogue, new ideas being introduced within these paragraphs, nothing. And I'm reading it and wondering why, except for the shock value. It makes the information difficult to parse, it adds a lot of heaviness to the dialogue because characters are constantly addressing each other by name to show who's talking (something you wouldn't do in real life, especially if it's a one-to-one chat), so it's both to the disadvantage of the reader and the immersion into the narrative. I am also concerned what this says about Paul Lynch's care for diversity, I understand that people with attention deficit are negatively impacted by this choice especially, because for them parsing paragraphs one by one is essential for following an idea and retaining the gist of it.
I am deeply disappointed to see this on the Booker shortlist.
January 11, 2024
Some books require patience to write about; however, 'Prophet Song' certainly does not fall into that category. The space and details created by Mr. Lynch are such that the reader is compelled to discuss the book immediately upon finishing it, or else risk losing the intricacies. Before saying anything else, I must caution eager readers awaiting to purchase and read this book to prepare themselves. Prepare yourself to confront the other side of this world, a dark and haunting realm that devours and destroys the souls of humans bit by bit, akin to a moray eel.
I immersed myself in 'Prophet Song' over the course of four days. The atmosphere of the book is very dark and oppressive, yet the reader cannot put it down. Once you begin reading the book, you become a member of Mr. Lynch's world, forced to live in this world. The tension of the story builds not instantly but gradually. In my opinion, this is one of the strengths of the author. If it were to reach its climax too quickly, the reader might discard the book due to the lack of mental stamina to continue. Mr. Lynch possesses a creative pen and skill. In this book, he writes in a manner reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 'The Autumn of the Patriarch.' Therefore, it is essential to note that there are no short sentences or paragraphs for pauses in the story; the narrative unfolds in very long sentences, sometimes spanning several pages. Although I admit that this narrative style may be bothersome for some readers.
I currently reside in England but hail from a country where the meaning of totalitarianism, war, self-destruction, populist behaviors, and poverty is well-known. Perhaps, for a significant portion of European readers, the story that Mr. Lynch narrates might seem ludicrous, but I have a suggestion for them: read Umberto Eco's 'Fascism' to understand his concerns, the concern of how he, the people of Europe, might go to sleep one night in Europe and wake up having lost everything they had the day before. In Mr. Lynch's story, the same concern as in Eco's work comes to life.
Close your eyes and imagine: you live in the heart of Europe. A place where democracy and human rights laws have given you the gift of peaceful living. One day, you wake up and see that the far-right extremists, whose beliefs have been suppressed for years, have risen, and a civil war has begun. With the onset of this war, worse than any other kind, poverty quickly grows, ruining people's lives. People die or disappear.
The story is set in Ireland, but the time period hasn't been clear yet. The main character, Eilish, is a microbiologist married to Larry, a teacher and union leader. They live with their four children and Eilish's elderly father with dementia. Everything begins on a seemingly calm night when two members of the 'GNSB' (a recently formed secret police by far-right extremists in Ireland) knock on the door and question her about Larry. I stop here without delving further into the plot to avoid spoilers. The protagonist of the story strives to preserve her family under extraordinary circumstances she never anticipated. She must make tough decisions and take significant actions, but do not forget, she is in a war, and in war, events do not unfold as people expect them to.
I, as a refugee, believe this book serves as a great wake-up call for those who indulge in sweet dreams. Those who have no understanding of the sorrows of war, bloodshed, totalitarianism, populism, asylum, and displacement. Wait, my intention is not to blame them. They are not at fault. As Albert Camus puts it, 'Nobody can understand the nights in prison until he has spent one night there.' That's why I consider this book to be a wake-up call. Hopefully, people around the world will awaken and comprehend what war truly means. So that when they hear the sound of war in some corner of the world, they won't sit silent and passive in their place. because, as Dr. Ferdinand Céline said, 'Nothing is worse than war.'
'Prophet Song' deserves the Booker Prize in 2023. I give this book a five-star recommendation and urge all my fellow book lovers to read it.
I've produced a thorough and comprehensive video to present this book, and it's been uploaded on YouTube. While the video is in Persian, subtitles have been added, enabling you to watch it with online translation in your chosen language👇🏻
https://youtu.be/cnYvR22uhXU
نسخهی فارسی (فاقد محتوای افشا کننده):
مادام که شبی را در زندان نگذرانید، نمیتوانید شبهایش را تصور کنید.
-بیگانه-آلبر کامو
پیش از هر حرفی، عرض میکنم که ویدئویی برای معرفی این کتاب ساخته و در یوتوب منتشر کردهام که در صورت علاقه میتوانید از طریق لینک زیر به تماشای آن بنشینید:
https://youtu.be/cnYvR22uhXU
در روزهای گذشته، از اینکه نخستین فارسی زبانی هستم که برای برندهی جایزهی ادبی بوکر در سال ۲۰۲۳ نقد فارسی مینویسم خوشحال و مفتخر بودم. اکنون اعتراف میکنم نوشتن به فارسی برای من دشوارتر از انگلیسی است. روز گذشته برایش به انگلیسی ریویوی مفصلی نوشته بودم، پس منشأ این دشواری قطعا عدم اطلاع نیست، بلکه به کلمات فارسی بر میگردد. کلماتی که انتخاب و جادوی ترکیب آنها برای من دردآور است، هم برای من و هم برای آنان که درک میکنند.
در خیابانهایی قدم میزدم که چشم جهانیان به آن خیره بود. دهها هواپیما در هر ساعت به فرودگاه حمد مینشست. توریستها با رنگ پوستهای متفاوت از نژادهای گوناگون برای تماشای جام جهانی فوتبال از نقاط مختلف کرهی خاکی به دوحه آمده، و با خنده و فریاد شوق در خیابانها شلنگ میانداختند. ایرانیها نیز بخشی از این مسافرها بودند. زن و مرد نداشت، شناختن آنها برای من بسیار ساده بود. مگر میشود آدم هموطن! صبر کنید، من کلمهی «وطن» را به رسمیت نمیشناسم. پس اصلاح میکنم، «همزبانهای» خود را نشناسد؟
برای خود یک بازی ترتیب داده بودم، «بازی سگ شدن». بازی به این شکل بود که باید بو میکشیدم. چه را؟ ایرانیها را. بو میکشیدم که پیدایشان کنم تا از آنها فرار کنم. فرار کنم مبادا مامور باشند. زیاد بودند. ماموران حکومتی زیادی به همراه مسافران به دوحه سفر کرده بودند. با لباسهای عادی، حتی با لباسهایی که اگر وصف کنم، باورتان نمیشود اما آنها مامور بودند. برای چه آمده بودند؟ نمیدانم. کافیست سفرهای پهن شود تا مفتخورها پیدایشان شود!
روزها از ترس آدمها و شبها از سایهی خود فراری بودم. بلاتکلیفی ��مانم را بریده بود. من یک دونده بودم و تلاش میکردم با دویدن ذهن خود را آرام کنم اما مگر میشود درد را فراموش کرد؟منتظر بودم. منتظر ویبرهی تلفن همراه، منتظر رسیدن یک ایمیل و یا یک نامه. از کجا؟ از سازمانی بینالمللی که وظیفهاش پیگیری وضعیت پناهجویان بود. مشکل من بزرگ بود. راه برگشتی وجود نداشت. جایی که در آن بلاتکلیف زندگی میکردم حیاط خلوت حکومت مستقر در سرزمین مادریام بود. انتظار راه پس را میکشیدم. روزها فکر، شبها فکر، به عبارتی همیشه فکر و خیال.
کمتر از دو ساعت تا بازی ایران و امریکا باقی مانده بود که ایمیلی دریافت کردم. از من خواسته شده بود نام پنج کشور از میان هجده کشوری که لیست شده بود را به ترتیب الویت خودم ترجیحا با رعایت دانستن زبان کشور مقصد انتخاب و برای آنها ارسال کنم. زمانی برای فکر کردن نبود. پس در پاسخ ایمیل نوشتم : ۱-ایالات متحده امریکا ۲-کانادا ۳-انگلستان ۴-فرانسه ۵-نروژ
روزها و شبها پشت هم میگذشتند و بلاتکلیفی ادامه داشت. دیگراز دیدن قیافهی نحسشان در خیابانهای دوحه خسته شده بودم، و تنها خوشحالیام این بود که ایران خیلی سریع از مسابقات حذف شد و آدم بدها به کشور خود بازگشتند. تا آنکه شبی در جزیره مروارید نشسته بودم، پاهایم را داخل آب خلیج فارس تکان میدادم و با ماه گپ میزدم که گوشی لرزید. ایمیلی بود که میگفت فورا با رعایت نکات امنیتی پیوست ظرف ۲۴ ساعت به کنسولگری بریتانیا مراجعه کنم.
وقتی هواپیمای ایرباس قطرایرویز روی باند فرودگاه هیترو نشست، احساس عجیبی داشتم. من بودم و یک کوله پشتی و کشوری که نمیشناختمش. کشوری که الویت سوم من برای پناهندگی بود. نه آنکه دوستش نداشته باشم چون از کودکی عاشق تیم ملی فوتبال انگلستان و باشگاه منچستریونایتد بودم اما این کشور و مردمانش غریبه بودند. کشوری که حتی خلیج فارس را هم نداشت تا غروبها بروم و دست و پاهایم را در آن فرو کنم و از این سوی آب مادرم را در آن سوی آب صدا کنم.
به همراه ماموری که برای استقبال از من آمده بود به هتلی رفتیم و پذیرش شدم. سازمان مربوطه برای ده شب اتاقی برایم رزرو کرده بود. در هتل سه وعده غذای رایگان به همراه اینترنت به من دادند. هر چند خودم مقداری پول که با کار در دوحه پس انداز کرده بودم را به همراه داشتم، اما اینجا دیگر ایران یا قطر نبود. اینجا یکی از گرانترین پایتختهای جهان بود و مخارج بالا. پس از دو روز استراحت، مراجعات به ادارات مختلف آغاز شد. بررسی توسط کمیسیونهای اعصاب و روان، عقاید دینی و ... تا آنکه پس از گذشت نزدیک به چهار ماه، پس از انگشت نگاری و سایر ترتیبات قانونی، پاسپورت پناهندگی خود را با نامی جدید دریافت کردم. دیگر باید با نام و پاسپورتی جدید در دنیایی جدید که برایم غریبه بود، زندگی میکردم، اما از همان اول حس پرندهای آزاد را داشتم.
آزاد که هرگونه میخواهم فکر کنم، هر چه میخواهم بنویسم، هر چه میخواهم بخوانم، هر چه میخواهم بخورم، هرچه میخواهم بنوشم، هر چه میخواهم بکنم و با هر کس که میخواهم بخوابم، بدون آنکه نگران باشم مشت آهنین حکومت به سمتم آید. آزادی زیباست و همان چیزیست که بشر از روز خلقت به دنبال آن بوده است. حکومتها در طول تاریخ به بهانههای مختلف و وضع قوانین مطبوع خود این حق اولیه را از همنوعان خود سلب کرده و روحشان را کشتهاند. از یک انسان بیروح چه چیزی باقی میماند؟ پرندهای رها بودم که آزادانه میان مردمان انگلستان پرواز میکردم. به آنها لبخند میزدم و آنها با لبخند پاسخم را میدادند اما آیا من به واسطهی داشتن یک پاسپورت که به روی جلدش نوشته بود «قلمرو پادشاهی بریتانیای بزرگ و ایرلند شمالی» و بر خلاف پاسپورت بیارزش کشوری که از آن میآمدم میتوانستم به بیش از یکصد و پنجاه کشور جهان بدون ویزا سفر کنم، از نظر بومیها هموطن حساب میشدم؟ پاسخی برایش نداشتم اما نژادپرست نبودند و من را میان خود پذیرفتند. با من دوست شدند و به من کار، پول و خانه دادند. «زندهگی» من تمام شده بود و جایش را به «زندگی» داده بود، و اکنون که مدتی بیش از یکسال از آمدنم میگذرد از انگلستان بابت تکتک چیزهایی که با مهر به من بخشید قدردان و سپاسگذارم.
این قصهی پر غصهی زندگی من بود، اما آیا زندگی تمام پناهندهها به مانند من ختم به خیر میشود؟ یا مالشان به سرقت رفته و جانشان در دریاها خوراک ماهیها و در خشکی خوراک کرمهای خاکی میشود؟ اصلا زندگی من غصه دارد یا زندگی آنها؟ لبنانیها، سوریها، عراقیها، افغانستانیها(این مورد را لازم به توضیح میدانم که: منظورم پناهندگان قانونی افغانستان است، قویا معتقدم چند میلیون مهاجر غیرقانونی افغانستان که وارد ایران شدهاند، بدون پرداخت مالیات همانند زالو مشغول مکیدن اندک منابع کشور و سهم مردم فقیر ایران هستند و خود را به حکومت معرفی نمیکنند باید هر چه سریعتر از ایران اخراج شوند چون جان و مال مردم ایران را تهدید میکنند)، فلسطینیها و ... . من حرف و درد این پناهندهها را میفهمم، چون جنگ، خونریزی، دیکتاتوری، سانسور، خفقان، زندان، شکنجه و مرگ را میشناسم، اما آیا اروپاییها و امریکاییها حقیقتا میفهمند پناهنده کیست و چرا به بدترین اشکال ممکن جانش را به خطر مرگ میاندازد تا به
کشوری دیگر پناه ببرد؟
صرف نظر از بررسیهای ادبی، فکر میکنم کتاب آقای لینچ بسیار با ارزش است. با ارزش از آن جهت که میتواند تلنگر بزرگی باشد برای عدهی زیادی از مردمان اروپا و امریکا که در سایهی دولتهای دموکراتیک در کمال امنیت و آرامش به دور از تجربههای سیاه مردمان خاورمیانه زندگی میکنند و درد و رنج این مردمان برایشان صرفا یک خبر مفرح و اکشن در شبکههای خبری است. تازه اگر اهل تماشای خبر باشند و گرنه میلیونها نفر هستند که اگر نام ایران و کشورهای نامبرده را به آنها بگویید حتی نمیتوانند محل کشور را روی کرهی زمین با دست نشان دهند.
حدودا شش ماه قبل کتابی با عنوان «فاشیسم» از استاد فرهیخته و والامقام «اومبرتو اکو» خوانده بودم، که ایشان در این کتاب دغدغه داشت. دغدغهی خود و مردم اروپا را که نباید فکر کنند دیگر زمانه گذشته است و آنها از خطر فاشیسم در امان هستند. چرا؟ چون ممکن است شبی در آرامش بخوابند و روز بعد راست افراطی در کشورهایشان قدرت را قبضه کرده و در یک چشم بر هم زدن، تمام حقوق بشری که سالها زیر سایهاش با امنیت و آرامش زیستهاند را به سادگی پامال کنند.
حقیر این کتاب را به تعبیری پرداختی قوی به دغدغهی آقای اکو میدانم. داستان کتاب از آنجایی آغاز میشود که در شبی آرام در کشور ایرلند، دو مامور از پلیس مخفی که به تازگی توسط راست افراطی تشکیل شده است، زنگ خانهای را میزنند. ایلیش(شخصیت اصلی-قهرمان داستان) که مایکروبایولوژیست و همسر یک معلم و یکی از رهبران اتحادیهی کارگری است، درب خانه را وا میکند و با بازجویی ماموران که در مورد همسرش سوالاتی میپرسند روبرو میشود. نیت به اسپویل داستان ندارم و از روی وقایع میپرم اما جنگ داخلی در کشوری دموکراتیک درگرفته است و آدمها در آن یا غیب یا کشته میشوند. ایلیش به عنوان یک زن میخواهد خانوادهاش که شامل چهار فرزند و یک پدر که مبتلا به بیماری زوال عقل است را حفظ کند، اما راهش چیست؟ آیا باید بماند و هر روز با خطر کشته یا دستگیر شدن فرزندانش کنار بیاید یا از کشور بگریزد؟ اگر بخواهد بماند چگونه در این فقری که به سرعت به موجب جنگ داخلی ریشه دوانده زندگی را بچرخاند و اگر بخواهد از کشور برود چگونه میتواند فرار کند؟
فرض میگیریم که بتواند فرار کند، مگر دل کندن آسان است؟ دل کندن از خانه، آدمهایی که یک عمر در کنارشان میزیست، خانواده و ... فرض میکنیم که با این موضوع نیز کنار آید، مگر رفتن به این سادگیهاست؟ خیر، بلکه عزم سفر به معنای آغاز دشواریهاست.
در آخر میخواهم کمی از فرم روایت و سبک قلم آقای لینچ صحبت کنم. من کلاه خود را برای آقای لینچ از سر برداشته و ایستاده تشویقش میکنم. معتقدم ایشان در شکل روایت داستان با تبحر جا پای بزرگانی همچون عالیجنابان مارکز و فاکنر گذاشته است. اگر بخواهم صادق باشم، با شناختی که از روحیهی کتابخوانهای فارسی زبان و انگلیسیزبان دارم، به خاطر شکل و فرم روایت داستان، این کتاب مورد دلخواه شاید نیمی از آنها نباشد. جملاتی بسیار بلند که طولشان به صفحهها میرسد و ساختاری بدون پاراگراف و نقاط توقف، قطعا مورد پسند آنها نیست، اما معتقدم گاهی لازم است. لازم است چون اگر به آن شکل روایت نشود، قدرت تفهیم خود را از دست میدهد. میشود یک انشا به قلم یک بچهی مدرسهای که چیزی برای ارائه ندارد. سال گذشته چنین شکل از یک روایت را در «خزان خودکامه» از گابریل گارسیا مارکز، یکی از نویسندگان محبوبم خوانده بودم که خواندنش اگر نگویم دشوار باید اعتراف کنم خسته کننده بود. آقای لینچ در این کتاب سطح تنش را کم کم بالا میبرد و خواننده را با وجود دنیایی سیاه و رعبآور که برای اهل کتاب یادآور دنیای جورج ارول است، پای کتاب نگاه میدارد. نویسندهی جوان به خوبی میداند خواننده در چه زمانی و در کجا ممکن است از خواندن خسته شود، درست در همان نقطه دست از روایت اصل داستان میکشد و به جزئیات میپردازد تا ذهن و روح خواننده را کمی آرام کند، و این نمایانگر چیزی نیست جز قدرت قلم نویسنده و تسلط کامل او بر داستانش و صدالبته شناخت او از جامعهی کتابخوان.
به عنوان حرف آخ��، از دید من آواز پیامبر لیاقت جایزهی بوکر، ستایشها و تحسین بزرگان ادبیات را داشت. بنابراین ضمن آنکه پنج ستاره برایش درج و آنرا در لیست کتابهای محبوبم طبقه بندی کردم، خواندن این کتاب با ارزش را با ذکر یک نکته به تمام دوستهای کتابخوانم پیشنهاد میکنم:
آقای لینچ همانند آقای جویس یک ایرلندی است، اما در کتابش از پیچیدگیهای ادبی قلم آقای جویس و همچنین کلمات و اصطلاحاتی که دود از سر خواننده بلند میکند خبری نیست. سن و جوانی آقای لینچ را فراموش نکنید، او فقط چهل و شش سال دارد و زبان که به مانند یک رود روان است، در گذر زمان آسانتر شده است. بنابراین فکر نکنید خواندن آواز پیامبر به مانند خواندن «یولیسیز» سخت و جانکاه خواهد بود، اگر مهارت مطالعهی رمانهای امروزی به زبان انگلیسی را دارید، برای مطالعهی این کتاب مشکلی نخواهید داشت.
دوازدهم آذرماه یکهزار و چهارصد و دو
بروزرسانی(افزودن ریویوی فارسی) در تاریخ سیزدهم آذرماه یکهزار و چهارصد و دو
بروزرسانی دوم (افزودن لینک یوتوب) در تاریخ بیست و یکم دی ماه یک هزار و چهارصد و دو
I immersed myself in 'Prophet Song' over the course of four days. The atmosphere of the book is very dark and oppressive, yet the reader cannot put it down. Once you begin reading the book, you become a member of Mr. Lynch's world, forced to live in this world. The tension of the story builds not instantly but gradually. In my opinion, this is one of the strengths of the author. If it were to reach its climax too quickly, the reader might discard the book due to the lack of mental stamina to continue. Mr. Lynch possesses a creative pen and skill. In this book, he writes in a manner reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 'The Autumn of the Patriarch.' Therefore, it is essential to note that there are no short sentences or paragraphs for pauses in the story; the narrative unfolds in very long sentences, sometimes spanning several pages. Although I admit that this narrative style may be bothersome for some readers.
I currently reside in England but hail from a country where the meaning of totalitarianism, war, self-destruction, populist behaviors, and poverty is well-known. Perhaps, for a significant portion of European readers, the story that Mr. Lynch narrates might seem ludicrous, but I have a suggestion for them: read Umberto Eco's 'Fascism' to understand his concerns, the concern of how he, the people of Europe, might go to sleep one night in Europe and wake up having lost everything they had the day before. In Mr. Lynch's story, the same concern as in Eco's work comes to life.
Close your eyes and imagine: you live in the heart of Europe. A place where democracy and human rights laws have given you the gift of peaceful living. One day, you wake up and see that the far-right extremists, whose beliefs have been suppressed for years, have risen, and a civil war has begun. With the onset of this war, worse than any other kind, poverty quickly grows, ruining people's lives. People die or disappear.
The story is set in Ireland, but the time period hasn't been clear yet. The main character, Eilish, is a microbiologist married to Larry, a teacher and union leader. They live with their four children and Eilish's elderly father with dementia. Everything begins on a seemingly calm night when two members of the 'GNSB' (a recently formed secret police by far-right extremists in Ireland) knock on the door and question her about Larry. I stop here without delving further into the plot to avoid spoilers. The protagonist of the story strives to preserve her family under extraordinary circumstances she never anticipated. She must make tough decisions and take significant actions, but do not forget, she is in a war, and in war, events do not unfold as people expect them to.
I, as a refugee, believe this book serves as a great wake-up call for those who indulge in sweet dreams. Those who have no understanding of the sorrows of war, bloodshed, totalitarianism, populism, asylum, and displacement. Wait, my intention is not to blame them. They are not at fault. As Albert Camus puts it, 'Nobody can understand the nights in prison until he has spent one night there.' That's why I consider this book to be a wake-up call. Hopefully, people around the world will awaken and comprehend what war truly means. So that when they hear the sound of war in some corner of the world, they won't sit silent and passive in their place. because, as Dr. Ferdinand Céline said, 'Nothing is worse than war.'
'Prophet Song' deserves the Booker Prize in 2023. I give this book a five-star recommendation and urge all my fellow book lovers to read it.
I've produced a thorough and comprehensive video to present this book, and it's been uploaded on YouTube. While the video is in Persian, subtitles have been added, enabling you to watch it with online translation in your chosen language👇🏻
https://youtu.be/cnYvR22uhXU
نسخهی فارسی (فاقد محتوای افشا کننده):
مادام که شبی را در زندان نگذرانید، نمیتوانید شبهایش را تصور کنید.
-بیگانه-آلبر کامو
پیش از هر حرفی، عرض میکنم که ویدئویی برای معرفی این کتاب ساخته و در یوتوب منتشر کردهام که در صورت علاقه میتوانید از طریق لینک زیر به تماشای آن بنشینید:
https://youtu.be/cnYvR22uhXU
در روزهای گذشته، از اینکه نخستین فارسی زبانی هستم که برای برندهی جایزهی ادبی بوکر در سال ۲۰۲۳ نقد فارسی مینویسم خوشحال و مفتخر بودم. اکنون اعتراف میکنم نوشتن به فارسی برای من دشوارتر از انگلیسی است. روز گذشته برایش به انگلیسی ریویوی مفصلی نوشته بودم، پس منشأ این دشواری قطعا عدم اطلاع نیست، بلکه به کلمات فارسی بر میگردد. کلماتی که انتخاب و جادوی ترکیب آنها برای من دردآور است، هم برای من و هم برای آنان که درک میکنند.
در خیابانهایی قدم میزدم که چشم جهانیان به آن خیره بود. دهها هواپیما در هر ساعت به فرودگاه حمد مینشست. توریستها با رنگ پوستهای متفاوت از نژادهای گوناگون برای تماشای جام جهانی فوتبال از نقاط مختلف کرهی خاکی به دوحه آمده، و با خنده و فریاد شوق در خیابانها شلنگ میانداختند. ایرانیها نیز بخشی از این مسافرها بودند. زن و مرد نداشت، شناختن آنها برای من بسیار ساده بود. مگر میشود آدم هموطن! صبر کنید، من کلمهی «وطن» را به رسمیت نمیشناسم. پس اصلاح میکنم، «همزبانهای» خود را نشناسد؟
برای خود یک بازی ترتیب داده بودم، «بازی سگ شدن». بازی به این شکل بود که باید بو میکشیدم. چه را؟ ایرانیها را. بو میکشیدم که پیدایشان کنم تا از آنها فرار کنم. فرار کنم مبادا مامور باشند. زیاد بودند. ماموران حکومتی زیادی به همراه مسافران به دوحه سفر کرده بودند. با لباسهای عادی، حتی با لباسهایی که اگر وصف کنم، باورتان نمیشود اما آنها مامور بودند. برای چه آمده بودند؟ نمیدانم. کافیست سفرهای پهن شود تا مفتخورها پیدایشان شود!
روزها از ترس آدمها و شبها از سایهی خود فراری بودم. بلاتکلیفی ��مانم را بریده بود. من یک دونده بودم و تلاش میکردم با دویدن ذهن خود را آرام کنم اما مگر میشود درد را فراموش کرد؟منتظر بودم. منتظر ویبرهی تلفن همراه، منتظر رسیدن یک ایمیل و یا یک نامه. از کجا؟ از سازمانی بینالمللی که وظیفهاش پیگیری وضعیت پناهجویان بود. مشکل من بزرگ بود. راه برگشتی وجود نداشت. جایی که در آن بلاتکلیف زندگی میکردم حیاط خلوت حکومت مستقر در سرزمین مادریام بود. انتظار راه پس را میکشیدم. روزها فکر، شبها فکر، به عبارتی همیشه فکر و خیال.
کمتر از دو ساعت تا بازی ایران و امریکا باقی مانده بود که ایمیلی دریافت کردم. از من خواسته شده بود نام پنج کشور از میان هجده کشوری که لیست شده بود را به ترتیب الویت خودم ترجیحا با رعایت دانستن زبان کشور مقصد انتخاب و برای آنها ارسال کنم. زمانی برای فکر کردن نبود. پس در پاسخ ایمیل نوشتم : ۱-ایالات متحده امریکا ۲-کانادا ۳-انگلستان ۴-فرانسه ۵-نروژ
روزها و شبها پشت هم میگذشتند و بلاتکلیفی ادامه داشت. دیگراز دیدن قیافهی نحسشان در خیابانهای دوحه خسته شده بودم، و تنها خوشحالیام این بود که ایران خیلی سریع از مسابقات حذف شد و آدم بدها به کشور خود بازگشتند. تا آنکه شبی در جزیره مروارید نشسته بودم، پاهایم را داخل آب خلیج فارس تکان میدادم و با ماه گپ میزدم که گوشی لرزید. ایمیلی بود که میگفت فورا با رعایت نکات امنیتی پیوست ظرف ۲۴ ساعت به کنسولگری بریتانیا مراجعه کنم.
وقتی هواپیمای ایرباس قطرایرویز روی باند فرودگاه هیترو نشست، احساس عجیبی داشتم. من بودم و یک کوله پشتی و کشوری که نمیشناختمش. کشوری که الویت سوم من برای پناهندگی بود. نه آنکه دوستش نداشته باشم چون از کودکی عاشق تیم ملی فوتبال انگلستان و باشگاه منچستریونایتد بودم اما این کشور و مردمانش غریبه بودند. کشوری که حتی خلیج فارس را هم نداشت تا غروبها بروم و دست و پاهایم را در آن فرو کنم و از این سوی آب مادرم را در آن سوی آب صدا کنم.
به همراه ماموری که برای استقبال از من آمده بود به هتلی رفتیم و پذیرش شدم. سازمان مربوطه برای ده شب اتاقی برایم رزرو کرده بود. در هتل سه وعده غذای رایگان به همراه اینترنت به من دادند. هر چند خودم مقداری پول که با کار در دوحه پس انداز کرده بودم را به همراه داشتم، اما اینجا دیگر ایران یا قطر نبود. اینجا یکی از گرانترین پایتختهای جهان بود و مخارج بالا. پس از دو روز استراحت، مراجعات به ادارات مختلف آغاز شد. بررسی توسط کمیسیونهای اعصاب و روان، عقاید دینی و ... تا آنکه پس از گذشت نزدیک به چهار ماه، پس از انگشت نگاری و سایر ترتیبات قانونی، پاسپورت پناهندگی خود را با نامی جدید دریافت کردم. دیگر باید با نام و پاسپورتی جدید در دنیایی جدید که برایم غریبه بود، زندگی میکردم، اما از همان اول حس پرندهای آزاد را داشتم.
آزاد که هرگونه میخواهم فکر کنم، هر چه میخواهم بنویسم، هر چه میخواهم بخوانم، هر چه میخواهم بخورم، هرچه میخواهم بنوشم، هر چه میخواهم بکنم و با هر کس که میخواهم بخوابم، بدون آنکه نگران باشم مشت آهنین حکومت به سمتم آید. آزادی زیباست و همان چیزیست که بشر از روز خلقت به دنبال آن بوده است. حکومتها در طول تاریخ به بهانههای مختلف و وضع قوانین مطبوع خود این حق اولیه را از همنوعان خود سلب کرده و روحشان را کشتهاند. از یک انسان بیروح چه چیزی باقی میماند؟ پرندهای رها بودم که آزادانه میان مردمان انگلستان پرواز میکردم. به آنها لبخند میزدم و آنها با لبخند پاسخم را میدادند اما آیا من به واسطهی داشتن یک پاسپورت که به روی جلدش نوشته بود «قلمرو پادشاهی بریتانیای بزرگ و ایرلند شمالی» و بر خلاف پاسپورت بیارزش کشوری که از آن میآمدم میتوانستم به بیش از یکصد و پنجاه کشور جهان بدون ویزا سفر کنم، از نظر بومیها هموطن حساب میشدم؟ پاسخی برایش نداشتم اما نژادپرست نبودند و من را میان خود پذیرفتند. با من دوست شدند و به من کار، پول و خانه دادند. «زندهگی» من تمام شده بود و جایش را به «زندگی» داده بود، و اکنون که مدتی بیش از یکسال از آمدنم میگذرد از انگلستان بابت تکتک چیزهایی که با مهر به من بخشید قدردان و سپاسگذارم.
این قصهی پر غصهی زندگی من بود، اما آیا زندگی تمام پناهندهها به مانند من ختم به خیر میشود؟ یا مالشان به سرقت رفته و جانشان در دریاها خوراک ماهیها و در خشکی خوراک کرمهای خاکی میشود؟ اصلا زندگی من غصه دارد یا زندگی آنها؟ لبنانیها، سوریها، عراقیها، افغانستانیها(این مورد را لازم به توضیح میدانم که: منظورم پناهندگان قانونی افغانستان است، قویا معتقدم چند میلیون مهاجر غیرقانونی افغانستان که وارد ایران شدهاند، بدون پرداخت مالیات همانند زالو مشغول مکیدن اندک منابع کشور و سهم مردم فقیر ایران هستند و خود را به حکومت معرفی نمیکنند باید هر چه سریعتر از ایران اخراج شوند چون جان و مال مردم ایران را تهدید میکنند)، فلسطینیها و ... . من حرف و درد این پناهندهها را میفهمم، چون جنگ، خونریزی، دیکتاتوری، سانسور، خفقان، زندان، شکنجه و مرگ را میشناسم، اما آیا اروپاییها و امریکاییها حقیقتا میفهمند پناهنده کیست و چرا به بدترین اشکال ممکن جانش را به خطر مرگ میاندازد تا به
کشوری دیگر پناه ببرد؟
صرف نظر از بررسیهای ادبی، فکر میکنم کتاب آقای لینچ بسیار با ارزش است. با ارزش از آن جهت که میتواند تلنگر بزرگی باشد برای عدهی زیادی از مردمان اروپا و امریکا که در سایهی دولتهای دموکراتیک در کمال امنیت و آرامش به دور از تجربههای سیاه مردمان خاورمیانه زندگی میکنند و درد و رنج این مردمان برایشان صرفا یک خبر مفرح و اکشن در شبکههای خبری است. تازه اگر اهل تماشای خبر باشند و گرنه میلیونها نفر هستند که اگر نام ایران و کشورهای نامبرده را به آنها بگویید حتی نمیتوانند محل کشور را روی کرهی زمین با دست نشان دهند.
حدودا شش ماه قبل کتابی با عنوان «فاشیسم» از استاد فرهیخته و والامقام «اومبرتو اکو» خوانده بودم، که ایشان در این کتاب دغدغه داشت. دغدغهی خود و مردم اروپا را که نباید فکر کنند دیگر زمانه گذشته است و آنها از خطر فاشیسم در امان هستند. چرا؟ چون ممکن است شبی در آرامش بخوابند و روز بعد راست افراطی در کشورهایشان قدرت را قبضه کرده و در یک چشم بر هم زدن، تمام حقوق بشری که سالها زیر سایهاش با امنیت و آرامش زیستهاند را به سادگی پامال کنند.
حقیر این کتاب را به تعبیری پرداختی قوی به دغدغهی آقای اکو میدانم. داستان کتاب از آنجایی آغاز میشود که در شبی آرام در کشور ایرلند، دو مامور از پلیس مخفی که به تازگی توسط راست افراطی تشکیل شده است، زنگ خانهای را میزنند. ایلیش(شخصیت اصلی-قهرمان داستان) که مایکروبایولوژیست و همسر یک معلم و یکی از رهبران اتحادیهی کارگری است، درب خانه را وا میکند و با بازجویی ماموران که در مورد همسرش سوالاتی میپرسند روبرو میشود. نیت به اسپویل داستان ندارم و از روی وقایع میپرم اما جنگ داخلی در کشوری دموکراتیک درگرفته است و آدمها در آن یا غیب یا کشته میشوند. ایلیش به عنوان یک زن میخواهد خانوادهاش که شامل چهار فرزند و یک پدر که مبتلا به بیماری زوال عقل است را حفظ کند، اما راهش چیست؟ آیا باید بماند و هر روز با خطر کشته یا دستگیر شدن فرزندانش کنار بیاید یا از کشور بگریزد؟ اگر بخواهد بماند چگونه در این فقری که به سرعت به موجب جنگ داخلی ریشه دوانده زندگی را بچرخاند و اگر بخواهد از کشور برود چگونه میتواند فرار کند؟
فرض میگیریم که بتواند فرار کند، مگر دل کندن آسان است؟ دل کندن از خانه، آدمهایی که یک عمر در کنارشان میزیست، خانواده و ... فرض میکنیم که با این موضوع نیز کنار آید، مگر رفتن به این سادگیهاست؟ خیر، بلکه عزم سفر به معنای آغاز دشواریهاست.
در آخر میخواهم کمی از فرم روایت و سبک قلم آقای لینچ صحبت کنم. من کلاه خود را برای آقای لینچ از سر برداشته و ایستاده تشویقش میکنم. معتقدم ایشان در شکل روایت داستان با تبحر جا پای بزرگانی همچون عالیجنابان مارکز و فاکنر گذاشته است. اگر بخواهم صادق باشم، با شناختی که از روحیهی کتابخوانهای فارسی زبان و انگلیسیزبان دارم، به خاطر شکل و فرم روایت داستان، این کتاب مورد دلخواه شاید نیمی از آنها نباشد. جملاتی بسیار بلند که طولشان به صفحهها میرسد و ساختاری بدون پاراگراف و نقاط توقف، قطعا مورد پسند آنها نیست، اما معتقدم گاهی لازم است. لازم است چون اگر به آن شکل روایت نشود، قدرت تفهیم خود را از دست میدهد. میشود یک انشا به قلم یک بچهی مدرسهای که چیزی برای ارائه ندارد. سال گذشته چنین شکل از یک روایت را در «خزان خودکامه» از گابریل گارسیا مارکز، یکی از نویسندگان محبوبم خوانده بودم که خواندنش اگر نگویم دشوار باید اعتراف کنم خسته کننده بود. آقای لینچ در این کتاب سطح تنش را کم کم بالا میبرد و خواننده را با وجود دنیایی سیاه و رعبآور که برای اهل کتاب یادآور دنیای جورج ارول است، پای کتاب نگاه میدارد. نویسندهی جوان به خوبی میداند خواننده در چه زمانی و در کجا ممکن است از خواندن خسته شود، درست در همان نقطه دست از روایت اصل داستان میکشد و به جزئیات میپردازد تا ذهن و روح خواننده را کمی آرام کند، و این نمایانگر چیزی نیست جز قدرت قلم نویسنده و تسلط کامل او بر داستانش و صدالبته شناخت او از جامعهی کتابخوان.
به عنوان حرف آخ��، از دید من آواز پیامبر لیاقت جایزهی بوکر، ستایشها و تحسین بزرگان ادبیات را داشت. بنابراین ضمن آنکه پنج ستاره برایش درج و آنرا در لیست کتابهای محبوبم طبقه بندی کردم، خواندن این کتاب با ارزش را با ذکر یک نکته به تمام دوستهای کتابخوانم پیشنهاد میکنم:
آقای لینچ همانند آقای جویس یک ایرلندی است، اما در کتابش از پیچیدگیهای ادبی قلم آقای جویس و همچنین کلمات و اصطلاحاتی که دود از سر خواننده بلند میکند خبری نیست. سن و جوانی آقای لینچ را فراموش نکنید، او فقط چهل و شش سال دارد و زبان که به مانند یک رود روان است، در گذر زمان آسانتر شده است. بنابراین فکر نکنید خواندن آواز پیامبر به مانند خواندن «یولیسیز» سخت و جانکاه خواهد بود، اگر مهارت مطالعهی رمانهای امروزی به زبان انگلیسی را دارید، برای مطالعهی این کتاب مشکلی نخواهید داشت.
دوازدهم آذرماه یکهزار و چهارصد و دو
بروزرسانی(افزودن ریویوی فارسی) در تاریخ سیزدهم آذرماه یکهزار و چهارصد و دو
بروزرسانی دوم (افزودن لینک یوتوب) در تاریخ بیست و یکم دی ماه یک هزار و چهارصد و دو
March 17, 2024
The most powerful, moving and urgent novel of 2023, Prophet Song is a novel I will never, ever forget, and would be a deserving winner of The Booker Prize.
Ireland is in the grip of a government that has lurched to the right, cracking down on protest and breaking trade unions. When Eilish's husband, a trade unionist, is disappeared, it starts a chain reaction that slowly and cruelly chips away first her rights, the her freedoms, and later everything else. All the while, Eilish tries to keep her four children safe, and plot some kind of future for her fractured family.
Lynch's masterpiece begins as a Kafkaesque nightmare that soon spirals to ever more desperate depths.
On the one hand, this is a dystopian tale worthy of comparison with Saramago's Blindness, McCarthy's The Road and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. But, by the end, it becomes a novel that should awake those in these isles and beyond to the fact that the only difference between you and those people you see on the news, those suffering in brutal situations in far-flung places, is luck.
Ireland is in the grip of a government that has lurched to the right, cracking down on protest and breaking trade unions. When Eilish's husband, a trade unionist, is disappeared, it starts a chain reaction that slowly and cruelly chips away first her rights, the her freedoms, and later everything else. All the while, Eilish tries to keep her four children safe, and plot some kind of future for her fractured family.
Lynch's masterpiece begins as a Kafkaesque nightmare that soon spirals to ever more desperate depths.
On the one hand, this is a dystopian tale worthy of comparison with Saramago's Blindness, McCarthy's The Road and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. But, by the end, it becomes a novel that should awake those in these isles and beyond to the fact that the only difference between you and those people you see on the news, those suffering in brutal situations in far-flung places, is luck.
November 26, 2023
Winner of the 2023 Booker Prize
We are both scientists, Eilish, we belong to a tradition but tradition is nothing more than what everyone can agree on–the scientists, the teachers, the institutions, if you change ownership of the institutions then you can change ownership of the facts, you can alter the structure of belief, what is agreed upon, that is what they are doing, Eilish, it is really quite simple, the NAP is trying to change what you and I call reality, they want to muddy it like water, if you say one thing is another thing and you say it enough times, then it must be so, and if you keep saying it over and over people accept it as true–this is an old idea, of course, it really is nothing new, but you’re watching it happen in your own time and not in a book.
A poetic and powerfully humane novel and, alongside Study for Obedience, would be a worthy Booker Prize winner.
She looks to the sky watching the rain as it falls through space and there is nothing to see in the ruined yard but the world insisting on itself, the cement’s sedate crumbling giving way to the rising sap beneath, and when the yard is past there will remain the world’s insistence, the world insisting it is not a dream and yet to the looker there is no escaping the dream and the price of life that is suffering, and she sees her children delivered into a world of devotion and love and sees them damned to a world of terror, wishing for such a world to end, wishing for the world its destruction, and she looks at her infant son, this child who remains an innocent and she sees how she has fallen afoul of herself and grows aghast, seeing that out of terror comes pity and out of pity comes love and out of love the world can be redeemed again, and she can see that the world does not end, that it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time, the coming of the sword, the world devoured by fire, the sun gone down into the earth at noon and the world cast in darkness, the fury of some god incarnate in the mouth of the prophet raging at the wickedness that will be cast out of sight, and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore, Ben’s laughter behind her and she turns and sees Molly tickling him on her lap and she watches her son and sees in his eyes a radiant intensity that speaks of the world before the fall, and she is on her knees crying, taking hold of Molly’s hand.
We are both scientists, Eilish, we belong to a tradition but tradition is nothing more than what everyone can agree on–the scientists, the teachers, the institutions, if you change ownership of the institutions then you can change ownership of the facts, you can alter the structure of belief, what is agreed upon, that is what they are doing, Eilish, it is really quite simple, the NAP is trying to change what you and I call reality, they want to muddy it like water, if you say one thing is another thing and you say it enough times, then it must be so, and if you keep saying it over and over people accept it as true–this is an old idea, of course, it really is nothing new, but you’re watching it happen in your own time and not in a book.
A poetic and powerfully humane novel and, alongside Study for Obedience, would be a worthy Booker Prize winner.
She looks to the sky watching the rain as it falls through space and there is nothing to see in the ruined yard but the world insisting on itself, the cement’s sedate crumbling giving way to the rising sap beneath, and when the yard is past there will remain the world’s insistence, the world insisting it is not a dream and yet to the looker there is no escaping the dream and the price of life that is suffering, and she sees her children delivered into a world of devotion and love and sees them damned to a world of terror, wishing for such a world to end, wishing for the world its destruction, and she looks at her infant son, this child who remains an innocent and she sees how she has fallen afoul of herself and grows aghast, seeing that out of terror comes pity and out of pity comes love and out of love the world can be redeemed again, and she can see that the world does not end, that it is vanity to think the world will end during your lifetime in some sudden event, that what ends is your life and only your life, that what is sung by the prophets is but the same song sung across time, the coming of the sword, the world devoured by fire, the sun gone down into the earth at noon and the world cast in darkness, the fury of some god incarnate in the mouth of the prophet raging at the wickedness that will be cast out of sight, and the prophet sings not of the end of the world but of what has been done and what will be done and what is being done to some but not others, that the world is always ending over and over again in one place but not another and that the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news, an echo of events that has passed into folklore, Ben’s laughter behind her and she turns and sees Molly tickling him on her lap and she watches her son and sees in his eyes a radiant intensity that speaks of the world before the fall, and she is on her knees crying, taking hold of Molly’s hand.
November 27, 2023
3.5
I've thought long and hard about this book. I really wanted to like it because friends had all given it 5 stars and raved about it.
However I just couldn't engage with it at all. To begin with I never really understood what the original emergency was that led to the authorities turning tyrannical. Was there a war? A national crisis? Someone just got greedy?
The second problem for me was Eilis. She behaved like no mother I know. She put her husband's disappearance ahead of her children's wellbeing and continued to do so almost until the end. I found it totally unbelievable. Then there's the way she deals with the increasing military presence and curfew. She seems to consider that emergency supplies consist of chocolate and cigarettes.
Other things that bothered me was the substitution of "party types" into a very specific scientific role. Don't get me wrong I am fully aware that Ireland is crammed with extremely highly educated people but to find another scientist (or a lot of them) within such a short space of time felt unrealistic.
The only parts that felt realistic was Eilis' reaction to her father's increasing confusion and the way she deals with Bailey.
I recently read a book by a real refugee traveling from Africa and what he went through was much more harrowing. It felt like Paul Lynch wanted to go so far but no further - the scenes with Molly at the border come to mind.
The actual style I found a little irritating - was it a poem or prose?
I feel bad about not liking the book but it was simply unrelenting misery - even the weather was bad every day. Perhaps I'd built the book up too much in my mind? Perhaps I expected too much from a fictional account.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance review copy ahead of the paperback release.
I've thought long and hard about this book. I really wanted to like it because friends had all given it 5 stars and raved about it.
However I just couldn't engage with it at all. To begin with I never really understood what the original emergency was that led to the authorities turning tyrannical. Was there a war? A national crisis? Someone just got greedy?
The second problem for me was Eilis. She behaved like no mother I know. She put her husband's disappearance ahead of her children's wellbeing and continued to do so almost until the end. I found it totally unbelievable. Then there's the way she deals with the increasing military presence and curfew. She seems to consider that emergency supplies consist of chocolate and cigarettes.
Other things that bothered me was the substitution of "party types" into a very specific scientific role. Don't get me wrong I am fully aware that Ireland is crammed with extremely highly educated people but to find another scientist (or a lot of them) within such a short space of time felt unrealistic.
The only parts that felt realistic was Eilis' reaction to her father's increasing confusion and the way she deals with Bailey.
I recently read a book by a real refugee traveling from Africa and what he went through was much more harrowing. It felt like Paul Lynch wanted to go so far but no further - the scenes with Molly at the border come to mind.
The actual style I found a little irritating - was it a poem or prose?
I feel bad about not liking the book but it was simply unrelenting misery - even the weather was bad every day. Perhaps I'd built the book up too much in my mind? Perhaps I expected too much from a fictional account.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance review copy ahead of the paperback release.
November 27, 2023
WINNER OF THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE
4.5, rounded slightly down. I could not stop reading this over two days, and its shockingly nightmarish images of violence and torture lingered in my mind and disturbed my sleep. This was immersive kitchen-sink realism, but also chillingly, horrifyingly, and relentlessly tense.
Lynch elicits empathy for survivors of state terror and civil war by transplanting the horrors of Syria and Yemen to a quiet upper-middle-class street in contemporary Dublin, where the casualties and survivors are people like us. All of the exposition occurs in passing conversations between characters, but the outlines are clear: a democratically elected far-right ethnonationalist regime has abolished civil rights, disappeared dissident elements, and massacred peaceful demonstrators, silencing civil society and infiltrating schools and workplaces. An organized resistance movement mounts a stalled offensive against the regime, turning the divided city into an active warzone, pounded with airstrikes and patrolled by paramilitaries.
Eilish Stack, a 40ish microbiologist working in biotech, is raising four children with her trade unionist husband Larry, and taking care of her increasingly demented father. Aware of the increasingly perilous political situation but tied down by family obligations, she misses multiple opportunities to flee with her family while they still had a chance. As her husband is disappeared after a protest march and her teenaged son leaves to join the resistance, Eilish goes to increasingly heroic and horrific lengths to hold her family together through escalating horrors and unimaginable trauma.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. The US publication date is December 22, 2023.
4.5, rounded slightly down. I could not stop reading this over two days, and its shockingly nightmarish images of violence and torture lingered in my mind and disturbed my sleep. This was immersive kitchen-sink realism, but also chillingly, horrifyingly, and relentlessly tense.
Lynch elicits empathy for survivors of state terror and civil war by transplanting the horrors of Syria and Yemen to a quiet upper-middle-class street in contemporary Dublin, where the casualties and survivors are people like us. All of the exposition occurs in passing conversations between characters, but the outlines are clear: a democratically elected far-right ethnonationalist regime has abolished civil rights, disappeared dissident elements, and massacred peaceful demonstrators, silencing civil society and infiltrating schools and workplaces. An organized resistance movement mounts a stalled offensive against the regime, turning the divided city into an active warzone, pounded with airstrikes and patrolled by paramilitaries.
Eilish Stack, a 40ish microbiologist working in biotech, is raising four children with her trade unionist husband Larry, and taking care of her increasingly demented father. Aware of the increasingly perilous political situation but tied down by family obligations, she misses multiple opportunities to flee with her family while they still had a chance. As her husband is disappeared after a protest march and her teenaged son leaves to join the resistance, Eilish goes to increasingly heroic and horrific lengths to hold her family together through escalating horrors and unimaginable trauma.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. The US publication date is December 22, 2023.
September 10, 2023
Well-written but unremittingly distressing. Lynch tells the story of the desolation and trauma that results when a democracy morphs into a totalitarian state. If you are seeking solace you will need to look elsewhere.
March 31, 2024
Finally read last years Booker Prize winner …… I have thoughts …most of them circled around how good George Orwells 1984 is.
I just didn't get on with this style of writing at all but I accept for other readers it was a worthy read. I found it to be a kind of authoritarianism misery-fest with a frustratingly pretentious word usage, and lack of paragraph breaks. I shall sleeve-on my coat of grumpiness and end my review here.
I just didn't get on with this style of writing at all but I accept for other readers it was a worthy read. I found it to be a kind of authoritarianism misery-fest with a frustratingly pretentious word usage, and lack of paragraph breaks. I shall sleeve-on my coat of grumpiness and end my review here.
November 26, 2023
I am going to agree with the other reviewers (in the minority) who really did not like this book. I think this book is a failure, even though it has moments that are compellingly written. It begins, really, with the assumption that this level of catastrophe (a dystopian world, where a fascist government suddenly appears in Ireland) is yours to write about--that you are capable. It's like the book lacks a basic level of humility in front of a century of horrors and exchanges that humility for clichés: "ruined eyes," pain, darkness, etc, etc, bla and bla. But what if these kinds of things aren't like this. What if you meet someone (a refugee, a Holocaust survivor) and you look in their eyes, and you cannot, in fact, read the entirety of their experiences in one glance? What if this kind of thing is basically untranslatable and inexplicable? Not to mention that Ireland does have a history of horrors, recent ones even, and instead of addressing those, this book just thought-experiments its way through a generic account of totalitarianism. Sometimes I get the feeling the author just watched Youtube videos of hospitals during wars or "What's it like during a bombing raid." Or even just binged "A Handmaid's Tale" and thought it would make for a good literary homage. I also agree with the other critiques of the ending. It would not be my choice for the Booker, not even the shortlist.
Update: I am immensely annoyed and disappointed in the panel of judges that rewarded this book with the Booker. Even just listening to his speech--that he read a book when he was 15 that made him cry and he's been chasing that "hit" every since--proves my point.
Update: I am immensely annoyed and disappointed in the panel of judges that rewarded this book with the Booker. Even just listening to his speech--that he read a book when he was 15 that made him cry and he's been chasing that "hit" every since--proves my point.
October 9, 2023
Fucking hell.
If this is not the next Booker prize winner, I’m not sure the judges actually read the books they are supposed to.
If this is not the next Booker prize winner, I’m not sure the judges actually read the books they are supposed to.
September 21, 2023
Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize. Now shortlisted!!!
A peaceful march and strike by members of the Teacher’s Union is the catalyst for Ireland to descend into a state of totalitarianism run by a ruthless right-wing government. To put a stop to the teachers, the National Alliance Party invoke the “Emergency Powers Act”, throwing the constitution out the window, gifting their newly formed secret police almost unlimited power.
The horror of Ireland’s descent is personalized by the Stack family. It starts when two members of the new Irish Secret Police, the Garda National Service Bureau, arrive in the night looking for the protagonist’s husband. Larry is the deputy general secretary of the Teacher’s Union of Ireland. When he is interviewed, he is told that allegations have been made about him. Allegations that he is behaving like “someone inciting hatred against the state, someone sowing discord and unrest”. In other words, his behaviour is seditious.
The march goes ahead but is brutally suppressed by the police. Horses, tear gas, and batons are used to batter the marchers into submission. Her husband, along with many marchers, is never seen again.
As I said before, the Stack family are used to show what happens to the citizens of Ireland as their rights are slowly taken away. Civil war breaks out and the government bomb their own cities. Society and the economy break down. Electricity disappears. Water no longer runs when a tap is turned.
What makes this novel so alarming, so fearful, is that it is set in Ireland and that it is so believable. The deeper you get into the story, the more believable it becomes. The next time you watch a peaceful constitutionally protected march for whatever cause, this novel will whisper in your ear “what if?”.
Living in a cozy peaceful democracy, this book is a slap in the face. A warning shot, and a reminder of just how lucky living in such a state is. Also, a reminder of how easily with the right (or wrong) people in power, this state can be taken away. It is a reminder that conditions like this are a horrible reality for much of the world’s population today.
“the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news”
A brilliant, and important novel which reminds us never to say
A peaceful march and strike by members of the Teacher’s Union is the catalyst for Ireland to descend into a state of totalitarianism run by a ruthless right-wing government. To put a stop to the teachers, the National Alliance Party invoke the “Emergency Powers Act”, throwing the constitution out the window, gifting their newly formed secret police almost unlimited power.
The horror of Ireland’s descent is personalized by the Stack family. It starts when two members of the new Irish Secret Police, the Garda National Service Bureau, arrive in the night looking for the protagonist’s husband. Larry is the deputy general secretary of the Teacher’s Union of Ireland. When he is interviewed, he is told that allegations have been made about him. Allegations that he is behaving like “someone inciting hatred against the state, someone sowing discord and unrest”. In other words, his behaviour is seditious.
The march goes ahead but is brutally suppressed by the police. Horses, tear gas, and batons are used to batter the marchers into submission. Her husband, along with many marchers, is never seen again.
As I said before, the Stack family are used to show what happens to the citizens of Ireland as their rights are slowly taken away. Civil war breaks out and the government bomb their own cities. Society and the economy break down. Electricity disappears. Water no longer runs when a tap is turned.
What makes this novel so alarming, so fearful, is that it is set in Ireland and that it is so believable. The deeper you get into the story, the more believable it becomes. The next time you watch a peaceful constitutionally protected march for whatever cause, this novel will whisper in your ear “what if?”.
Living in a cozy peaceful democracy, this book is a slap in the face. A warning shot, and a reminder of just how lucky living in such a state is. Also, a reminder of how easily with the right (or wrong) people in power, this state can be taken away. It is a reminder that conditions like this are a horrible reality for much of the world’s population today.
“the end of the world is always a local event, it comes to your country and visits your town and knocks on the door of your house and becomes to others but some distant warning, a brief report on the news”
A brilliant, and important novel which reminds us never to say
“it can’t happen here”.
May 18, 2024
"Sve je moguće", premisa je na kojoj počiva "Prophet Song". Moderni distopijski roman smešten je u Irsku bliske budućnosti, gde novoizabrana partija donosi zakone koji ograničavaju ljudska prava, guraju državu u totalitarizam i dovode do izbeglištva.
U intervjuima pre i posle dobijanja Bukerove nagrade, Pol Linč navodi da u izbeglicama iz Sirije i porastu desnice u Evropi nalazi inspiraciju za svoje delo. Dodaje da nikada ne znamo koliko smo blizu diktature i kolapsa. Pretpostavljam da autor zna o čemu piše, ali me zanima šta je izazvalo izbegličku krizu u Siriji- dolazak desnice na vlast ili pak implementacija novih vrednosti vojnim putem? Relacija Dablin-Damask u ovom izmaštanom "nikada ne znaš" kontekstu, slabo pije vode. Ovde suštinski imamo motivaciju lokalnog karaktera, zahvatanje vode iz skoro presušenog bunara post-bregzitovske histerije, a za potrebe marketinga i nagrađivanja dodat je jedan globalniji ukras.
Kroz celu strukturu nedostaje atmosfera (world building). Distopija, kao i sva žanrovska književnost, zavisi od nalaženja čitalačkog pulsa i stvaranja osećaja uronjenosti u taj zamišljeni svet. "Prophet Song" je predvidljivo kalemljenje jednog užasnog događaja na naredni, bez presudne pozadinske note koja je, primera radi, sjajno postignuta u Makartijevom "Putu", Orvelovoj "1984" i Rotovoj "Zaveri protiv Amerike".
Pol Linč navodi da dijalog u formi citata vidi kao lenjost kao i da odsustvo pasusa u "Prophet Song" ima za nameru da dočara okolnosti glavne junakinje. Gospođa Ejliš nema prostora za manevar, stoga nema mesta ni za beli prostor između pasusa. Kao čitalac, moram priznati, ljubitelj sam interpunkcije i dijaloga izvedenih kroz iste, u konkretnom slučaju odsustvo pasusa rezultira da se od šume drvo ne vidi, te vizuelna celina teksta ne doprinosi identifikaciji sa junakinjom koliko opštoj nepreglednosti.
Da nije dobilo "Bukera", ovo delo bi prošlo ispod radara, ali su se kockice poklopile. U kontekstu trenutne geopolitičke situacije više je nagrađeno ono što je na koricama obećano pre nego ono što među njima nudi. Možda će, u perspektivi, na kinematografskom planu biti uspešnije. Neka druga forma za nekog drugog Linča.
U intervjuima pre i posle dobijanja Bukerove nagrade, Pol Linč navodi da u izbeglicama iz Sirije i porastu desnice u Evropi nalazi inspiraciju za svoje delo. Dodaje da nikada ne znamo koliko smo blizu diktature i kolapsa. Pretpostavljam da autor zna o čemu piše, ali me zanima šta je izazvalo izbegličku krizu u Siriji- dolazak desnice na vlast ili pak implementacija novih vrednosti vojnim putem? Relacija Dablin-Damask u ovom izmaštanom "nikada ne znaš" kontekstu, slabo pije vode. Ovde suštinski imamo motivaciju lokalnog karaktera, zahvatanje vode iz skoro presušenog bunara post-bregzitovske histerije, a za potrebe marketinga i nagrađivanja dodat je jedan globalniji ukras.
Kroz celu strukturu nedostaje atmosfera (world building). Distopija, kao i sva žanrovska književnost, zavisi od nalaženja čitalačkog pulsa i stvaranja osećaja uronjenosti u taj zamišljeni svet. "Prophet Song" je predvidljivo kalemljenje jednog užasnog događaja na naredni, bez presudne pozadinske note koja je, primera radi, sjajno postignuta u Makartijevom "Putu", Orvelovoj "1984" i Rotovoj "Zaveri protiv Amerike".
Pol Linč navodi da dijalog u formi citata vidi kao lenjost kao i da odsustvo pasusa u "Prophet Song" ima za nameru da dočara okolnosti glavne junakinje. Gospođa Ejliš nema prostora za manevar, stoga nema mesta ni za beli prostor između pasusa. Kao čitalac, moram priznati, ljubitelj sam interpunkcije i dijaloga izvedenih kroz iste, u konkretnom slučaju odsustvo pasusa rezultira da se od šume drvo ne vidi, te vizuelna celina teksta ne doprinosi identifikaciji sa junakinjom koliko opštoj nepreglednosti.
Da nije dobilo "Bukera", ovo delo bi prošlo ispod radara, ali su se kockice poklopile. U kontekstu trenutne geopolitičke situacije više je nagrađeno ono što je na koricama obećano pre nego ono što među njima nudi. Možda će, u perspektivi, na kinematografskom planu biti uspešnije. Neka druga forma za nekog drugog Linča.
November 26, 2023
Prophet Song - Paul Lynch
الرواية الفائزة بجائزة البوكر هذا العام، وأنا سعيدة لفوزها لأنها تستحق... وأرشحها للجميع طبعًا، هذا عمل يقرأ ويرشح.
كُتب هذا التحديث في الـ 27 من نوفمبر 2023
...
رواية ديستوبية تدور أحداثها في المستقبل القريب في ايرلندا، بلد يتحول شيئًا فشيئًا لدولة بوليسية ديكتاتورية تراقب كل شاردة وواردة يقدم عليها المواطنون، وتعتقلهم وتخفيهم قسريًا لأتفه الأسباب.
الوطن في صورة عائلة واحدة، نرافق الأم العالمة التي تفقد تباعًا زوجها الذي يعتقله جهاز الشرطة السرية ويُخفى قسريًا وابنها لاحقًا، وخياراتها للحفاظ على بقية أفراد العائلة؛ ابنة مراهقة وطفلين آخرين ووالدها المصاب بالزهايمر.
مكتوبة برهافة قلب أم وهواجسها، نرى تقلبات الأيام، وتقلبات الأشخاص، الجيران والأصدقاء والتمرد على الحكومة الغاشمة وتحلل البلد ودخوله في أتون حرب أهلية طاحنة وما يفعله كل هذا بالبشر، والخيارات المحدودة أمام الأفراد في هذه الحالة، ماذا يفعل المرء أمام هذه الأهوال؟ ماذا يفعل وهو يخسر أفراد عائلته واحدًا تلو الآخر؟ ماذا يختار العائلة أم الوطن؟ وماذا يأخذ معه وهو يترك الوطن هاربًا وماذا يخلف وراءه؟
رواية مخيفة ومؤثرة، وحتى إن لم تفز بجائزة البوكر هذا العام - وأرجو من كل قلبي أن تفوز، فإنها ستغدو رواية كلاسيكية تقرأها الأجيال القادمة، تمامًا مثل 1984 لأورويل.
الرواية الفائزة بجائزة البوكر هذا العام، وأنا سعيدة لفوزها لأنها تستحق... وأرشحها للجميع طبعًا، هذا عمل يقرأ ويرشح.
كُتب هذا التحديث في الـ 27 من نوفمبر 2023
...
رواية ديستوبية تدور أحداثها في المستقبل القريب في ايرلندا، بلد يتحول شيئًا فشيئًا لدولة بوليسية ديكتاتورية تراقب كل شاردة وواردة يقدم عليها المواطنون، وتعتقلهم وتخفيهم قسريًا لأتفه الأسباب.
الوطن في صورة عائلة واحدة، نرافق الأم العالمة التي تفقد تباعًا زوجها الذي يعتقله جهاز الشرطة السرية ويُخفى قسريًا وابنها لاحقًا، وخياراتها للحفاظ على بقية أفراد العائلة؛ ابنة مراهقة وطفلين آخرين ووالدها المصاب بالزهايمر.
مكتوبة برهافة قلب أم وهواجسها، نرى تقلبات الأيام، وتقلبات الأشخاص، الجيران والأصدقاء والتمرد على الحكومة الغاشمة وتحلل البلد ودخوله في أتون حرب أهلية طاحنة وما يفعله كل هذا بالبشر، والخيارات المحدودة أمام الأفراد في هذه الحالة، ماذا يفعل المرء أمام هذه الأهوال؟ ماذا يفعل وهو يخسر أفراد عائلته واحدًا تلو الآخر؟ ماذا يختار العائلة أم الوطن؟ وماذا يأخذ معه وهو يترك الوطن هاربًا وماذا يخلف وراءه؟
رواية مخيفة ومؤثرة، وحتى إن لم تفز بجائزة البوكر هذا العام - وأرجو من كل قلبي أن تفوز، فإنها ستغدو رواية كلاسيكية تقرأها الأجيال القادمة، تمامًا مثل 1984 لأورويل.
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