- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (27 Feb 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340822163
- ISBN-13: 978-0340822166
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.8 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 699,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'A genuine literary talent, with a poet's gift for apposite, wry observation, dialogue and character . . . a masterful, ironic book of loss and bitter optimism, money and poverty, the impossible divide between city and country' (Guardian )
'[An] elegiac tale of loss and dispossession . . . Wall is too astringent a storyteller to fob his readers off with a feel-good ending. But he is also sufficiently poetic in his use of language to infuse the struggles of his hero with deep human feeling.' (Sunday Telegraph )
'A raw and uncompromising but tender portrait of Ireland in the here and now . . . In THIS IS THE COUNTRY he has redefined a female icon, one you might have thought you knew - Mother Ireland. She is not pretty but she is utterly authentic.' (Irish Independent )
'A terrific novel . . . THIS IS THE COUNTRY stands out because it stares directly at the dark side of contemporary Ireland without looking away, or even blinking. In the parlance of the Irish, it's a mint piece of work. It deserves a place on the shelf alongside William Trevor and Edna O'Brien.' (David Means )
'[An] elegiac tale of loss and dispossession . . . Wall is too astringent a storyteller to fob his readers off with a feel-good ending. But he is also sufficiently poetic in his use of language to infuse the struggles of his hero with deep human feeling.' (Sunday Telegraph )
'A raw and uncompromising but tender portrait of Ireland in the here and now . . . In THIS IS THE COUNTRY he has redefined a female icon, one you might have thought you knew - Mother Ireland. She is not pretty but she is utterly authentic.' (Irish Independent )
'A compelling picture of a land of lost souls.'
(Times Literary Supplement )'A terrific novel . . . THIS IS THE COUNTRY stands out because it stares directly at the dark side of contemporary Ireland without looking away, or even blinking. In the parlance of the Irish, it's a mint piece of work. It deserves a place on the shelf alongside William Trevor and Edna O'Brien.' (David Means )
Guardian
'A genuine literary talent, with a poet's gift for apposite, wry observation, dialogue and character'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful,
By A Customer
This review is from: This is the Country (Hardcover)
I found this book difficult at first. the narrative unfolds in a chaotic almost hallucinatory way for the first third or so, although this reflects the narrator's not very stable state of mind. But as he begins to "get his head together" the story line becomes clearer. By then I was completely hooked anyway. The voice is totally convincing and true to life. I believed in him almost from the beginning. What happens to him is terrible but true, and the writer makes it all somehow bearable with the beauty of his language. Wall has plenty to say too about how society organises itself around money and not people. There are very few books around that pack this much punch.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reality catches up with fiction,
By A Customer
This review is from: This is the Country (Hardcover)
Imagine that you are in intelligent child but the only use you can put it to is crime. Being an entrepeneur means stealing and reselling cars. You have a foolish idea that love can save you. It happens every day. But This Is The Country isn't bleak because of Wall's elegant language. No matter how bad things get the poetry pulls you through. This book shows us how life is lived at the margins, in the housing estates that we drive around on our way to work, or the places we see from motorways and trains. The story is told by the unnamed hero in a fluid, slangy yet eloquent prose that manages to suggest more than it says. It begins in a seamy city housing project and ends in a seaside town. Wall manages to suggest that there's not much difference between the two, except that the people in control are different. In the city its the dealers, in the country it's the people "who own the view". In either case the marginalised don't count. It's one of the first books I've read in a long time that doesn't pull punches about the politics. Even though the plot seems a little overheated at times (hence one star short of the five), it seems that reality is catching up with it every day with gangland killings here in Dublin where the book is set. And by the way, it's also very funny.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brave book with a political sting to it,
By Jamie (Wicklow, Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: This is the Country (Hardcover)
This is The Country has some really fine writing without any hint of self-indulgence and a good political sting. It has the feel of a real attack on the politics of the new Ireland, what one of the characters calls "an auctioneer's republic". It's a brave book from a writer with a good track record. I love the way he throws things at you - like the fact that every crook in the world drives a Merc. This Is The Country is full of quirky humour. Don't be fooled into thinking any of it is casual - including the poem at the start. The only accidents in this book happen to bystanders.
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