- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin (2 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1844881857
- ISBN-13: 978-1844881857
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Not Untrue and Not Unkind
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Superb (The Times )
A page-turning novel ... gripping (Daily Mail )
Graceful (Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A simply brilliant debut by an author of great poise and power
(Tim Butcher, Author Of Blood River )
A page-turning novel ... gripping (Daily Mail )
Graceful (Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
'A fine, darkly authoritative novel' - Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND 'Fantastic writing, great subject; a voice that is both passionate and cold. The most exciting first novel I have read in many years' - Anne Enright, Man Booker Prize winning author of THE GATHERING
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderfully authentic novel set in the morally muddled world of foreign correspondents covering Africa. Not sure this man O'Loughlin has written a book before but he surely must again. Not Untrue and Not Unkind takes us from the spume-flecked breakwaters protecting the port of Dublin to the chaos of African conflict on a journey of private discovery. It is much more than a journalists' tale, touching on the ambition, vanity, guilt and anger that drives us all.
A chance discovery in the drawer of dead newspaper colleague, the sort of man who never travels beyond the office but whose fearsome reputation terrifies reporters around the globe, of a private file reopens old wounds. It takes us back to the start of a reporter's career when the job was all about principle and ideals. But as Owen Simmons flies into his first African story - the post-Rwandan mess in the eastern Congo - he is forced to make compromises.
This is a book written with great authority - not least because O'Loughlin worked Africa in the 1990s as a reporter. We learn what snacks foreign correspondents subsist on in the developing world (cheese and onion Pringles, no less) and how satellite phones have brought stark immediacy where reporters once had time to cogitate and compose.
But it is also written with beauty and poise that does justice not just to the African landscape where it is set but to anyone who has ever dreamt of making a difference.
Buy this book. You won't be disappointed.
A chance discovery in the drawer of dead newspaper colleague, the sort of man who never travels beyond the office but whose fearsome reputation terrifies reporters around the globe, of a private file reopens old wounds. It takes us back to the start of a reporter's career when the job was all about principle and ideals. But as Owen Simmons flies into his first African story - the post-Rwandan mess in the eastern Congo - he is forced to make compromises.
This is a book written with great authority - not least because O'Loughlin worked Africa in the 1990s as a reporter. We learn what snacks foreign correspondents subsist on in the developing world (cheese and onion Pringles, no less) and how satellite phones have brought stark immediacy where reporters once had time to cogitate and compose.
But it is also written with beauty and poise that does justice not just to the African landscape where it is set but to anyone who has ever dreamt of making a difference.
Buy this book. You won't be disappointed.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm not sure I'd have read this had it not been for the Booker longlisting, as I found the jacket drab and the title didn't grab me (it turns out to be a quote from a Philip Larkin poem). But I found this a quite astonishing first novel - as accomplished a book as you'd expect from any of the writers with whom he shares the Booker Prize longlist. Since I finished it I can't stop thinking of Owen Simmons, and the team of cynical, war-weary foreign correspondents with whom he chases conflict in late 1990s Africa. The book is dark and furious; there's no redemptive happy ending, no heroics (at least, when people act like heroes, it's usually from distinctly unheroic motives), and the African conflict is an integral part of the narrative, and not just the backdrop for the lives of glamorous Europeans. It's as complex and messy as the country it describes, shot through with mordant humour, and written in the most beautiful prose. Not an easy read, but a rewarding one that will stay with you for a long time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I just finished reading this book and I must say that I savored every page. I first learned of it through the Booker prize longlist. The author has captured human nature in an extraordinary way - it is piercing, and unvarnished and honest. The writing is powerful, strong and unique. A number of quotes in the book just stick with me. Here's one of those quotes - where the main character Owen finds himself in a awkward conversation with a co-worker of his and makes this observation: "There would be nothing I could do about it, I knew that in advance. But only in chess do people resign when they know things are hopeless. In life we use up all our pieces first."
There is an incredible atmosphere in the book - and a gritty realism that just pulls you in. I heartily recommend this book, and I look forward to Ed O'Loughlin's next one.
If you like this book, you may also enjoy Arturo Perez-Reverte's Painter of Battles.The Painter Of Battles It is about a world-weary war correspondent haunted by his experiences.
There is an incredible atmosphere in the book - and a gritty realism that just pulls you in. I heartily recommend this book, and I look forward to Ed O'Loughlin's next one.
If you like this book, you may also enjoy Arturo Perez-Reverte's Painter of Battles.The Painter Of Battles It is about a world-weary war correspondent haunted by his experiences.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
reminiscences of wars in africa
A war correpondent - the author has been one - relives past experiences in Africa and reflects on them from his current desk job as a journalist in Ireland. Read more
Published 13 months ago by William Jordan
Well written and well informed
Ed O'Loughlin is able to write with authority as he was a journalist in Africa. This makes for a very interesting read as you are learning about being a journalist as well as the... Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Pen pal
A well written and paced novel about war correspondents
A well balanced and well paced novel with believable characters and interesting settings. The story switches between the present - which sees narrator Owen working an unfulfilling... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by BookWorm
Excellent debut novel
Ed O'Loughlin introduces the reader to the community of foreign journalism in a frank, often bleak narrative with a heavy dose of cynicism. Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2009 by Flembo
I loved this book and highly recommend it
I really loved this book and would recommend it - it is darkly atmospheric, not a happy, cheery read but a very rewarding one. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2009 by Susan E.
A Book I Can't Make My Mind Up About
`Not Untrue and Not Unkind' is Ed O'Loughlin's debut novel and to be long listed is a huge feat and I think from some of the writing and the subject matter of the book that Ed... Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2009 by Simon Savidge Reads
Beautifully written, haunting novel
This is a wonderful novel, beautifully written and it more than deserves its Booker nomination. It is the story of a journalist who is compelled by an unexpected death to confront... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2009 by Rose M.
Well written, but it didn't grab my attention
Not Untrue and Not Unkind follows a group of foreign correspondents covering breaking news stories in Africa. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2009 by Jackie
Fiction meets memoir
With a few honourable exceptions, journalists have found it hard to traverse from the world of fact to that of fiction. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2009 by D. M. Ashby
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