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While no one will ever say that this novel by Patrick McCabe is anything but dark, he has a much broader canvas than usual here, delving into the life of an entire community located on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. An odd novel in some ways, McCabe chooses not to focus on a single main character, instead giving portraits of many people from the community as they deal with changes in society from 1958, when Laika the Russian space dog captured the imaginations of the townsfolk, through the turbulent 1970s, and up to the present.
A mysterious narrator and the feeling of menace dominate the book. A number of characters find their bodies taken over momentarily by an outside force which impels them to say and do things that they would never do on their own. The spirit appears to be The Fetch, a kind of devil who, along with Nobodaddy (from William Blake), has played a role in community folklore and history whenever evil has occurred. Powerful and always ready to take down residents who appear to be happy in their lives, the spirit is well known to the residents of the community, but they tend to see and know him only in their own lives, not realizing that he has similar effects on others.
A happily married couple in a "mixed marriage" leads happy lives for a certain period of time, doing good deeds and caring for a handicapped son. Then life changes. A devoted classics teacher is mysteriously overcome during class and kisses a young boy on the mouth, something that he has never before even dreamed of doing. A possibly innocent man who is thought to have reported a local IRA member to the RUC is tormented by the community. The Easter pageant, called "Tenebrae," meaning "darkness," has a result so terrible that the author does not even tell the reader what it is till the end of the book. Both Protestants and Catholics alike are faced with troubles, including deaths, whenever the evil spirit is moved to act.
McCabe raises many questions about the nature of good and evil here, but the amount of free will that his characters have is an open question, as long as The Fetch or Nobodaddy is around. McCabe also asks whether blaming a spirit may simply reveal a person's ignorance about the people s/he thinks s/he knows, whether it may be related to a lack of self-awareness, and whether other community influences, such as the church and traditional community values have outlived the times. The conflict between Irish tradition and modern sensibilities has rarely been explored in such energetic fashion. Those who are expecting a novel in which a single main character must fight the evil forces of the unknown will be surprised, and possibly disappointed in this one, which is free-wheeling in its construction, bouncing around in its focus and apparent message. I found it lively, darkly fun to read, and ultimately thought-provoking. Mary Whipple
The Butcher Boy
Breakfast on Pluto
The Dead School
Call Me the Breeze
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Women's Prize for Fiction '21
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Top review from United Kingdom
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"The Stray Sod Country...[is about] being intimidated, confused--by the very thing that once made you feel secure."
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2011