- Paperback: 307 pages
- Publisher: Blackstaff Press Ltd; New edition edition (April 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0856407208
- ISBN-13: 978-0856407208
- Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 16.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,784,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
With her glamorous acting career in London on the slippery slope, Clare Murphy decides to return home to Belfast to lick her wounds. Unable to find acting jobs, she agrees to help a local drama group led by the rather gorgeous Lorcan O'Carroll. Father Lorcan O'Carroll that is. To her amazement, her attraction to the priest seems to be not only strongly sexual but disturbingly mutual. In panic, Clare has a fling with a younger - a much younger - actor. But she soon discovers that love is not a thing to be handled lightly...'a well-plotted novel that sustains the story until the end...McCartney has a strong observational style that's pacy and light...a strong debut' Irish Times 'Within a few pages it becomes clear McCartney is a serious writer, with a considerable grasp on the craft of fiction, reeling her reader in slowly, but surely.. a beguiling love story.' Belfast Telegraph Annie McCartney explores some mighty themes in this novel and offers no glib solutions, making this new author a very intriguing and promising prospect indeed.' Irish Post
About the Author
ANNIE McCARTNEY grew up and lives in Belfast. She has acted since the age of ten in local theatre, and has also appeared frequently in BBC, ITV and Channel 4 productions. During the eighties, she spent five years in the USA working on radio as a rock'n'roll DJ. She returned to Belfast for good in 1987, and for the past four years has turned her attention to writing. A number of her short stories and plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and her first play to be broadcast on RTE won the P.J. O'Connor Award.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked up this book on holiday from a number of novels my girlfriend had brought, hoping to get a few easy laughs from one of her usual, soppy romantic novels.
However, the joke was soon on me as I found myself gripped and eager to find out how the story was resolved! It's not a new plotline, by any stretch of the imagination: vulnerable woman falls for attractive Catholic priest while involved in a tricky relationship with a mentally unbalanced younger man. But it's what McCartney does with the story, her excellent characterisation (especially with the working class Belfast characters), and her brilliant dialogue that really pushes this book into a different league. I managed to finish it in a couple of sittings, and for a book that wouldn't normally be my cup of tea that's quite an achievement.
Despite an ending that was a bit too rushed for my liking, this is a good read, ideal for the beach, the poolside, or if you're stuck on a miserable rainy day looking for well-written escapism.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Clare Murphy, an actress recovering from a broken love affair in London returns to Belfast to live with her widowed father and nurse her wounds. Her life becomes complicated, when urged by her father she pays a visit to the local drama group and falls for the priest-her fathers worst nightmare.I found this book a real page turner. I particularly liked the character of the father. This was the strongest piece of writing for me in this book, when Tommy appeared the writing was captivating. I also enjoyed her little glimpses into the acting world, particularly the world of Amateur dramatics which struck a chord with me. She managed that well. The sub plot with Robert seemed to me stronger than the Clare/Lorcan story and I enjoyed it more possibly this would have made a stronger story, but I liked the fact that the book was set in Belfast, and yet was not heavily flavoured with politics, and it managed to give us strong insights into the social mores of Northern Ireland-no different from anywhere else. The scene towards the end of the book when Clare's older? sister Brid goes to a party in a ritzy area of Belfast is beautifully observed-I felt the author came into her own here. I would recommend it as a good holiday read.
Format:Paperback
The story looked interesting - a lapsed Catholic falls in love with a priest but instead sleeps with a boy she used to babysit. But the back of the cover pretty much tells all there is to tell.
Clare Murphy left Belfast during the 80s to go to London to pursue her dream of acting. It's now 1999 and she's just broken up with her boyfriend (who she'd been with for 10-years). She comes back to West Belfast and lives with her father Tommy to give herself some space and time to heal.
Bored, she reluctantly goes to a local drama group, led by Father Lorcan. Sexual tension builds between them. Out of frustration, she has a passionate affair with Robert, who is the nineteen-year-old son of friends her age.
It reads slow at first, but tension does finally build towards the end of the book as the relationship between Father Lorcan, Robert and Clare becomes a warped love triangle.
An established playwright, McCartney's strongest point is her dialogue. For each character, she's created unique and convincing dialogue. Unfortunately, most of the novel is a lot of telling instead of showing. If she'd relied more on dialouge and action and less on commentary narrative, it could have been a great novel.
McCartney seems to be trying to make a point with the "Desire Lines" concept (which she defines early on), but at the end of the novel it's unclear exactly what it is.
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