Should I applaud?

Lynch writes about a fictional Ireland being overtaken by a totalitarian regime with people losing their rights and their freedom and their lives. The only thing original in the story is that it is set in Ireland, so a Northern European white culture, otherwise people all over the world are either living this story right now or else have lived it in the past. Furthermore, a Northern European people did live through this kind of story about 90 years ago, I'm speaking of Nazi Germany here.

So should I applaud this book on it's originality, well no.

Should I applaud it for showing that this can happen to a Northern European white person, well it happened to the Germans (I'm including German Jews, German Gypsies, German homosexuals here as well), so no.

Should I applaud it for showing that people will be effected by this story because it shows that it can happen to 'us' when it has been happening all over the world to lots of people who are of differently coloured skin, different language, different culture, different religion. Well, no, I will not applaud to that, because that would mean that I care more what happens to 'us' than what happens to 'others'.

Should I applaud the book for its use of language. for the writing. Lynch writes a fog of dark words, which creates a great sense of foreboding. At the same time, I really cannot say that I appreciated the writing because I had to make myself read. So, there is no applause here as well.

And I cannot leave without just offering a small correction to Eilish when she says the sea is life. This is not a 100% true fact, ask the hundreds who have died on the Mediterranean shores whilst seeking refuge, or the hundreds who have died crossing the English Channel, this is just to mention the deaths I know of. There are others, I'm sure.





2023 Booker Long list

𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘢 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘚𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘢, 𝘜𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘙𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘢. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

𝘕𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘮𝘢𝘳’𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘙𝘰𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘺𝘢. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘵. 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘢, 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘣𝘴

Many such zillion stories are available on Internet at mere click but what would it be like to be Bara, Noorkin, Alia

Eilish was one of them. She saw those horrors unraveling itself bit by bit. The grotesque wheel head of totalitarianism moulded her life beyond repair, cracking it, breaking it

Eilish loses her husband & children to the dystopian regimen. Managing her life & young ones, she builds this Mirage around herself hoping that someday it will all be same again
"History is a silent record of people who could not leave, it is a record of those who did not have a choice"

A protagonist so humane so relatable, with her heart at right place. Her relationship with her ailing father was the highlight of the plot for me

Prophet song rattles you, with its helplessness, delusions, false hopes

Author's writing is powerful enough to convey the trauma & grief. Structured drafting with no paragraph breaks makes you feel anxious, claustrophobic, just the way the characters feel

Read it as no other read would be more important than this one

Dark, depressing, dystopian and BRILLIANT. Set in an Ireland governed by an extrdme right wing government that provokes a civil war. The events are centered around one family with the mother (Eilish) struggling to save herself, her four children, and a father with Alzheimers. The atrocities of the civil war, her ordeal yattempting to emigrate to safety, the tragedies and humiliations she endures seem incomprehensible, but are endured on a regularly occurring basis all over the world. My first thought was “that could not happen HERE in the western world” but I felt that was exactly the message Lynch wanted to convey- it can happen HERE (Russia and Ukraine). It is dark, terrifying and nightmare inducing (particularly the scene in the morgue)-I imagine Cormac McCarthy could have been the author.
The writing style is unusual and it has to be read carefully to catch the “pearls” (too many to enumerate).
The novel has engendered lots of discussion and is long listed for a BOOKER- for this reader a BOOKER winner and one of my “reads of the year”.

Finally a Booker longlist nominee which I can absolutely see on the shortlist! This year’s longlist has been underwhelming so far - lots of perfectly fine books, but short on mind-blowing ones. Prophet Song is here to change that experience for me.

Something’s happening in Ireland: slow and creeping changes to their way of life, declaration of emergency, and an unsettling lurch to something more extreme. But it’s doable until it accelerates, and Eilish’s husband Larry disappears, scooped up by the regime for his work in the teachers’s union. A swift move to control and war follows, and Eilish is trapped in figuring out what to do, to save her children and father, and not give up on Larry.

This is brilliant. This is a nice alternative to the usual dystopia, targeting labour and expanding from there. The story is told in a rush of consciousness reflecting Eilish’s thoughts, and the hectic, disjointed sentences really builds the tension. The story is less focused on how the regime came to power, but this works, since we’re so focused on Eilish just trying to get through each day. The fear and anguish Lynch conveys in the final parts is so well-done, it took my breath away on multiple levels. Loved loved loved it.

Prophet Song is a pretty tough read: sections can run to several pages without indentations, breaks, or dialogue markers; the language is odd — with the most horrible events written about surreally, poetically and any old word acting as a verb (people “sleeve” their coats and “sudden” the room); and again, this concerns some really horrible events that are tough to read about. It takes time to get into a groove with Paul Lynch’s writing, but the effort is worth it: I suppose that confusing times call for confusing language (and I did like the language), but while I admire what the author was aiming for with this project meant to build “radical empathy”, this is one of those books that I was intensely interested in while reading, but which doesn’t totally hold up the longer I think about it. I’m rounding up to four stars for the in-the-moment experience, but this is a qualified four stars.