Us: Amazon.co.uk: Martin Malone: Books

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

2.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars A dysfunctional rural family - and what it takes to survive., 16 Feb 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Us (Paperback)

Some of the topics covered in this book make for uneasy reading: incest, child abuse, pregnancy and suicide. The first person narrated chapters alternate between different members of the family, giving a nicely rounded view to their perspectives, although spoiling any sense of flow or rhythm. A shoal of red herrings sit at the novel's centre, which is much the fault of the characters inability to communicate with each other, as stressed by the varying p-o-v's. A deceptively simple debut novel, it will be interesting to see where the author goes next; maybe investigating his military roots?

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3.0 out of 5 stars ...has potential, 3 Aug 2000

By A Customer

To the wind-whipped plains of the Curragh, then, for a curious and sombre yarn about a loopily dysfunctional family, their lurking murky secrets and their multifarious and tangled allegiances. A soldier, Malone has come relatively late to fiction and it seems to have done him no harm. His short stories have been acclaimed for their quiet, wry observation and it's a trick he manages to sustain for much of this debut novel. Us is by no means a masterpiece but it certainly suggests that Malone has the potential and restraint to achieve some accomplished work from here on in.

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4.0 out of 5 stars An unusual family, 3 Aug 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Us (Paperback)

the story of an unusual family, told from its individual members, from teenage twins, well-meaning Morris and quick witted Victor to Milly, the mother horrified by what her family has become. With its themes of incest, suicide and general dysfunction, at times Us resembles a less-sickening version of Ian Banks The Wasp Factory - there's a similarity of tone, that mixture of ture nastiness and black humour. But this is ultimately a distinctly Irish book - and a very good one too.