Dermot McEvoy

This novel tells the story of Michael Collins' post-1916 actions through the fictional creation of a teenage "right-hand-man" that bears witness to the Irish Revolution in Dublin. Eoin Kavanagh is a great creation to tell this essential and exciting story in a very engaging way. Eoin's work and proximity of Collins allows the reader intimate access to the story, and McEvoy does a great job telling this story.

However, I was confused by some of McEvoy's artistic decisions (to the point I mentioned them to a friend as a source of frustration in an otherwise enjoyable book). The story is framed by Eoin's death as a very old man, and his grandson and granddaughter-in-law going through his possessions and finding his diary. The diary provides the first-person narrative which is the majority of the book. However, the interludes of Johnny 3 and his wife are clunky and distractingly sexual. In almost every chapter that includes them, they devolve into sexual contact, which seems extremely out of place and against the tone of the book itself. For example, as the couple take a break and walk around St. Stephens Green and note how historical the area is, Johnny 3 gets an erection and presses it against his wife in an embrace. Just out of nowhere. In the middle of the Michael Collins' story. The other distracting feature is the abandonment of the first-person narrative to an unexplained third-person perspective in separate chapters. I found this distracting while reading the book, but it is explained literally in the last page of the novel.

Despite these faults, if you have an interest in the ins and out of how Michael Collins outsmarted the Empire, I recommend this book. The faults are easily ignored, and the main story is well told.… (meer)