Eureka Street - A Novel of Ireland Like No Other

The next Buy.com item is  Evangeline and Selected Tales and Poems.  The previous item was  Euphoria Items list Buy.com website

All ProductsApparelBabyBeautyBooksClassical MusicDVDDigital MusicElectronicsGourmet FoodHealth & Personal CareJewelryKitchen & HousewaresMagazinesMiscellaneousMusicMusic TracksMusical InstrumentsOffice ProductsOutdoor LivingPC HardwarePet SuppliesPhotoRestaurantsSoftwareSporting GoodsTools & HardwareToysVHSVideo (DVD & VHS)Video GamesWirelessWireless Accessories    by: Robert Mcliam Wilson See Larger Image List Price: $13.95 Price: $3.97 You Save: $9.98 (72%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $0.79 Third Party New Price: $3.97 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914 EAN: 9780345427137 ISBN: 0345427130 Label: Ballantine Books Manufacturer: Ballantine Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 416 Publication Date: February 22, 1999 Publisher: Ballantine Books Release Date: February 22, 1999 Sales Rank: 391828 Studio: Ballantine Books Related Items: Ripley Bogle (Ballantine Reader's Circle) The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) Resurrection No Mate for the Magpie Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996 see more Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Romantic Ireland is definitely dead and gone. With the exhilarating Eureka Street, Robert McLiam Wilson cheerfully and obscenely sends it to its grave. Jake Jackson, his thoughtful anti-hero, finds Belfast's tragedies are built on comedy: Catholics and Protestants so intent on declaring their differences "resembled no one now as much as they resembled each other…. That was what I liked about Belfast hatred. It was a lumbering hatred that could survive completely on the memories of things that never existed in the first place." He spends a certain amount of time worrying about seeming too Catholic and an equal amount worrying about not seeming sufficiently Catholic. Sometimes, after several drinks, Jake forgets that he's not a Protestant. Each position is as dangerous, and absurd, as the other. His best friend is less torn up. Chuckie Lurgan is a chubby Methodist whose only accomplishments so far have been shaking Reagan's hand, appearing in the same photo as the Pope, and having "an intense and troubling relationship with mail-order catalogues." But Chuckie suddenly surprises Jake with his first entrepreneurial scheme. Though he's placed an ad for an enormous sex toy in Northern Ireland's "only mucky paper," he hasn't any intention of ever fulfilling an order. Instead, he follows legal protocol and sends each disappointed customer a refund check, in the proper amount, stamped GIANT DILDO REFUND. The gamble is that most people will be too embarrassed to cash them. "Chuckie smiled the smile of the just-published poet." And soon he has more than 40,000 pounds in the bank and a lust for big money. He also has a rich, new girlfriend: "He hoped his dreams wouldn't suffer from all this reality." Jake is more preoccupied with the day-to-day. His construction site job gives him ample opportunity to consider his romantic failures and the ever-present symbols of war. There's also a new graffito that has sprouted among the various deadly acronyms. IRA, UVF, and UDA make no more sense than OTG, but at least everyone knows what they stand for. OTG becomes a puzzle to all of Belfast--is it, the authorities wonder, a new terrorist group? (Jake also notes several other phrases, FTP, FTQ, and FTNP--the "T" stands for the and "P" and "Q" for Pope and Queen. The "N" is for Next.) Despite his love for Belfast, Jake loses heart with its zealots and fanatics and, halfway through, Eureka Street threatens to slide into windy bathos. It's only a momentary lapse amid energetic, colloquial poetry and comic realism. Book Description: In a city blasted by years of force and fury, but momentarily stilled by a cease-fire, two unlikely friends search for that most human of needs: love. But of course, a night of lust will do. Jake Jackson and Chuckie Lurgan--one Catholic, one Protestant--navigate their sectarian city and their nonsectarian friendship with wit and style. Chuckie, an unemployed dreamer, stumbles into bliss with a beautiful American who lives in Belfast. Jake, a repo man with the soul of a poet, can only manage a hilarious war of insults with a spitfire Republican whose Irish name, properly pronounced, sounds like someone choking. Brilliant, exuberant, and bitingly funny, Eureka Street introduces us to one of the finest young writers to emerge from Ireland in years. Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - brilliant but slightly bogged down At the outset, I was enthralled by the character of Jake. His first-person-narrative is engaging, humorous, perceptive, and acutely witty. Throughout the book Jake's surprising awareness and recognizable psychology never cease to beguile me, and I almost wish that Wilson had written a novel of Jake and not a novel of Ireland. However, even the narration of the ridiculous life of Chuckie is entertaining enough to keep me reading. Wilson's incisive depiction of Belfast is informative and heartfelt, ... Read More Rating: - If you've not been there, go. Wilson's description of Belfast is, in itself, one of the most beautiful pieces of regional description you'll ever find. Now, take that and put in stories of the silliness and sadness that humans do in the name of whatever's handy and you can't help but be engrossed. If you know Belfast, you'll be at home. If you don't, maybe this'll be the book that gets you off your duff. Rating: - Good, not great, worth a quick read... I love the setting and the way that Wilson indulges his obvious love for Belfast as place. I also enjoyed the perspective that his characters support- the supposition that war and strife are bad is a difficult one to say yet again but his zealous and very human spin on this theory nearly pulls it off. But most of all this book has so much high octane wit (at least in its first half) that it makes a mere sparring partner out of the heavy subject matter. Quite a trick, that- to make palatable such stomach ... Read More Rating: - Understated Look at Belfast Wilson's "Eureka Street" is a look at Belfast that is not redily available in the U.S. The character's are not. They are people with definative characteristics. The interwoven tale using different narration techniques lets the story unfold and does not overload the reader with unending minutia that is, unfortunately, all too common in fiction today. A great book that would be five stars, but I'm waiting for his next book, which I'm sure will not dissapoint. Rating: - Would have been five stars if not for the big words......... Robert McLiam Wilson attended Cambridge so I should cut the obvious intellectual some slack; however, I can't get past his usage of enormous words every few pages in this book. The book, overall, is hilarious, well-crafted, witty, and extremely entertaining. It is introspective and thought-arousing. The theme is based on a peculiar friendship set in extremely peculiar times in northen Ireland. The two men in the friendship - one a Catholic, one a Protestant - find themselves looking out at the ... Read More see more Browse for similar items by category: Literature & Fiction - Subjects - Books - Contemporary Literature & Fiction - Subjects - Books - Literary Paperback Trade Refinements - Books - Binding (binding)

Choose from over 600,000 books on all topics including Art, Audiobooks, Biographies, Business, Children's, Computer, Cooking, Entertainment, Family, Fiction, History, Home, Garden, Horror, Suspense, Mystery, Nonfiction, Reference, Religion, Romance, Sci-Fi, Science, Self-Help, Health, Sports, Travel, Young Adult and more.

Also browse through magazines, toys, music, music downloads, dvd's, games, sports, bags and so much more in every category. Also check out software, electronics, computers, networking products, digital cameras, cell phones and accessories.

Home Page  More Buy.com info 

Eureka Street - A Novel of Ireland Like No Other Information