Proudly Reptilian
Nicole Flattery: Kevin Barry, 12 September 2019
Night Boat to Tangier
by Kevin Barry.
Canongate, 224 pp., £14.99, June 2019,978 1 78211 617 2 Show More
by Kevin Barry.
Canongate, 224 pp., £14.99, June 2019,
“... It’s a stereotypical Irish scene. A beleaguered man is tending to a failing and unhappy farm. There’s trouble in the poultry shed. If this were a film, there would be close-ups of a sweat-ridden brow, a taut, unending blue sky, the rugged earth. What wrenches you out of this fantasy is the first line of dialogue, delivered matter-of-factly by the farmer, John, to his wife: ‘Mary? I’ll ask you again ... ”