Himself

Product Information

Read “ Dirty Little Fishes,” Jess Kidd’s award–winning short story. Compare it with your experience of Himself. Are there commonalities in theme, character, or language? Do you notice how the author might have adapted her writing style to suit the short story form?

Himself review: He sees dead people in Mayo – The Irish Times Himself review: He sees dead people in Mayo – The Irish Times

At this time of the day the few shops are shuttered and closed, and the signs swing with an after-hours lilt and pitch, and the sun-warmed shop front letters bloom and fade. Up and down the high street, from Adair’s Pharmacy to Farr’s Outfitters, from the offices of Gibbons & McGrath Solicitors to the Post Office and General Store, all is quiet. Magical and delightful, was not at all ready to leave this small Irish town nor these wonderful characters. Mahoney, raised in an orphanage, come to Murdering to uncover the truth about the young mother he never knew. He creates quite a stir with his Byronic good looks, sets hearts a quivering, but not all because many in this place are holding secrets and one is a murderer. He meets some amazing characters, willing to help him with his quest: the old Mrs., Cauley, who was quite a stage sensation in her youth and still has vestiges of her bold character, Bridget Doosey, who has talents that are unseen, and the intrepid Shauna, a young women who falls hard to Mahoney. Poisoned scones, letter bombs, a hero who sees dead people and a 1970s Irish village desperate to maintain its pious facade: the ingredients for mystery and drama are all present early in Jess Kidd's debut novel. Citing as its inspirations Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood and JM Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, Himself sets itself up as a tale of violence and death in an insular, close-knit community where any of the inhabitants could be a suspect. He has a love affair that is pretty pointless to the plot, other than to show us yet again how studly he is... yawn. Darkly humorous, deviously textured and filled with a cast of quirky characters I won’t soon forget, this novel has an almost mythical quality and it is a helluva of a good read. Mulderring is a town simmering with fiercely kept secrets, quite a few miscreants and a chorus of ghosts that lurk at every corner and crevice.The driver nods to Mahony. “It’s as if a hundred summers have come at once to the town, when a mile along the coast the rain’s hopping up off the ground and there’s a wind that would freeze the tits off a hen. If you ask me,” says the driver, “it all spells a dose of trouble.” Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colors are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here the trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don't want to go. Why would they when all the roads that lead to Mulderrig are downhill so that leaving is uphill all the way?" Mahony is spellbound by it. As he is talking to her in her bedroom, there is a poignant scene with Mrs. Cauley’s old lover, Johnnie. With “Himself,” Jess Kidd bewitches the reader. I, for one, am glad I fell under his spell. I hope you will consider doing the same. The pipes sing about a land lost, about forgotten honor and wasted bravery. They sing of sedge-edged water and white skies, of the mountains and the sea, of those who are gone and those who never even were." This book was a complete delight. It's a literary mystery, small town social satire and dark comedy with beautiful language (read with a variety of captivating voices by Aiden Kelly, the narrator of the audiobook).

Himself | Book by Jess Kidd | Official Publisher Page | Simon

They almost reach the foot of the staircase when a voice rolls out into the hallway and along the faded carpet. It’s the sort of voice honed to turn corners, vault walls and open door handles.” Have you got the right man, Father? Sister Veronica wasn’t exactly head of me fan club now, was she? Why would she be leaving me anything? God rest her pure and caring soul.” Mahony causes a tremendous stir in the village, with his brooding good looks, unshaven appearance, easy charm and – less palatably to its residents – relentless pursuit of the truth of what happened to his mother. The official story is that Orla, the local good-time girl, who grew up in a filthy hovel at the edge of the forest, left Mulderrig one afternoon in May 1950, and abandoned her child to the “care” of nuns. Yet as the novel opens with Orla’s brutal murder in the forest all those years ago, as witnessed by her infant son, it is evident that most of the village is, if not in cahoots with her killer, at the very least unwilling to uncover the past. This, my fellow Goodreaders, is Neil Gaiman for adults; I adored it from its dark, intriguing beginning to its heart-racing finale. There’s a hideous dog-murder, which felt like a gratuitous assault. It was a lazy way of showing us the psychopathy of one of the characters, by having them brutally kill a lovely and loyal-to-the-end animal.It’s as if a hundred summers have come at once to the town, when a mile along the coast the rain’s hopping up off the ground and there’s a wind that would freeze the tits of a hen. If you ask me it all spells a dose of trouble.” Born in the year 1973 in West London, Jess Kidd had to leave her studies while she was studying for her A levels education. After completing an access course, Jess Kidd joined St. Mary’s University, where she attained a degree in English. However, she had to drop once again from school when she discovered that she was pregnant. Jess Kidd had no other option other than to look after her child while working in a number of office jobs and social care as well. This, in turn, meant that it was going to take her long to complete her degree through the Open University. In the year 2009, Kidd was able to secure a bursary for her Masters at the well-established St. Mary’s University.

HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews

Mahony increases his smile to show his teeth in an expression of considerable natural charm altogether capable of beguiling the hardest bastard of humankind. “Well, the last thing I need is work. I’m taking a break from the city.”I laughed out loud more than once. The relationship between Mahoney and Mrs. Cauley (“Mrs. Marple with balls”) was sweet. And I also loved Bridget. The characters, the writing, Mahony wiped his eyes and glanced around the bar; the drinkers were sculling through their own thoughts and the barman had gone to change a barrel. He was safe.

Himself by Jess Kidd | Goodreads Himself by Jess Kidd | Goodreads

What do you think we should take away from Orla’s story? Had Orla been a man (i.e., Mahony’s father), how might the story have played out differently? This is such a charming, magical book, and as quirky as it is, it's quite emotionally moving as well, as it explores the ideas of loss and grief, of a girl trying to rise above circumstances she has been handed although everyone wants to fight her at every turn, and the rejuvenating power of friendship. I know that at its heart, this book is a mystery, but I could have done without its brief foray into actual crime novel territory, even though I understood the point, in showing that even lovely towns like Mulderrig have these types of secrets which many want to remain hidden. Sister Veronica said that there wasn’t a letter left with him. Wasn’t he a little bastard that no one wanted and why would anyone be writing letters for him? The town of Mulderrig is haunted by ghosts that the protagonist, Mahony, can see. From both a practical and thematic standpoint, what role do you think the ghosts play in this story, and why is it significant that only Mahony can see them? Mahoney is a man on a secret mission, but he has walked into a viper pit of parochial mistrust and murderous secrets. By day Mulderrig appears respectable; a solid fat-ankled mammy dressed in patchworked fields. But at night she's gypsied to the nines, beringed and braceleted with fairy forts.

Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colors are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don't want to go. I loved the magical elements and the ghosts. That can sometimes be a difficult genre for me but in this case I thought it was charming and amusing. I’ve discovered that I enjoy magical realism done right, and Kidd does it exceptionally well. Because even for all of the novel's warmth and whimsy, there is also a profound darkness to it. The story is not all fun and games. Although brief, there are a few scenes of violence that I found to be gut-wrenchingly disturbing. The bed is carved from dark wood and is horribly ornate. At the head of it stands a dead man holding his hat against his chest. The dead man looks up at Mahony with his eyes low-lidded and full. Mahony sees the famished hollow of his cheeks and the sad drape of his moustache. The dead man lifts his eyebrows imperceptibly then his gaze sinks down again to rest on the floor.