Himself

Product Information

Cauley, a rather unconventional, wealthy, former theatre actress who is not afraid of much, and who takes Mahoney a bit under her wing. Despite the fact that Jess Kidd was born and raised in London, her family is from the small town of Mayo.

Himself by Jess Kidd - Publishers Weekly Himself by Jess Kidd - Publishers Weekly

A special young man leaves the city of Dublin behind to travel to the village of his birth to ferret out his mother’s killer and bring him to justice. These melancholy departed foreshadow the tumult and catastrophe that result when Mahony comes back to Mulderrig.Due to the fact that the author is of Irish descent, Jess Kidd believed that it was only right that her first novel, Himself, should definitely head to the West. I think I may have to learn a few more languages to enable me to reach the number of superlatives I want to pile on top of this novel. His similarities to his mother quickly raise the ire, suspicion, and guilt of those residents who knew her, and might have had a hand in her circumstances. Mahony is scruffy, has a devil may care smile that floors every woman he encounters and oozes charm. Cauley stages a play with Mahony as the lead, she hopes it will lead to answers but instead unleashes a hell storm upon Mulderrig.

HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews

Cauley owes a debt of gratitude to Jane Austen's Collected Works, War and Peace and a few other large tomes, after all books do save lives. Now in his twenties, Mahony rides into Mulderrig, County Mayo, armed with a letter and a photograph he has just received to find out what happened to his mammy. And in this envelope was news which changed his life: a picture of him as an infant with his mother, telling him his real name, and that he is from Mulderrig. This improbable duo concocts an ingenious plan to get the town talking about the day Mahony's mother disappeared and are aided and abetted by a cast of eccentric characters, both living and dead.

Kidd hasn’t quite found a method of knitting all these different things together in a satisfying way, but the novel fizzes with potential. 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? Mahony takes a taste of his pint and watches as Jack Brophy rolls a cigarette, deftly, with one hand. While the plot hurtles along at a rapid pace, leading inexorably to the heart-pounding final conflict, Kidd injects ample doses of macabre humor and lyrical description in this memorable story from a strange, bold new voice. Tadhg will bring Mahony up to Rathmore House to see Shauna Burke about the room, for he has a box of strawberries for the Widow Farelly that will go over if left until tomorrow.

Jess Kidd – Canongate Books Jess Kidd – Canongate Books

He sat next to Sister Mary Margaret and let her wipe his nose with her handkerchief although he was too old for it. Cauley, an eccentric former theater actress who likes nothing more than to stir up trouble among Mulderrig's residents, Mahony is determined to uncover the truth about his mother.The prologue is set in Mulderrig, Ireland in 1950 and describes the murder of 16 year old Orla Sweeney while her infant son cries nearby. I may be late to the party with this one, but this is my favourite read of the year, and will probably remain so. Jess Kidd shares her story in writing that is lovely, inspired, ingenious, and quintessentially Irish in the colloquial expressions. For a very long time, I have yearned for an author like Jess Kidd to appear: the ghosts of Dylan Thomas, Gabriel García Márquez and James Joyce must surely have come to roost in her beautiful, mischievous mind. Although not much is moving now, other than a straggle of kids pelting home late, leaving their clear cries ringing behind.

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

Kidd injects ample doses of macabre humor and lyrical description in this memorable story from a strange, bold new voice. Sister Veronica said that his mammy had only brought him to the nuns instead of drowning him because she couldn’t find a bucket. This striking literary debut is a darkly comic tale of murder, intrigue, haunting and illegitimacy . Start by Googling terms like “acting the maggot,” “earwigging,” and “throwing shapes” to see what they mean. Now Mahony can ignore them in much the same way as you’d ignore the ticks of an over-loud grandfather clock.Cauley, the quirky theatre performer who is wildly entertaining and full of ideas as to how to help Mahoney; Bridget Doosey, a woman who knew his mother and has gifts of her own; and Shauna, Mahoney’s, landlady who will do anything to protect him. With poisoned scones, letter bombs, a hypocritical, cunning and loathsome priest, the judgemental evil Widow Farrelly, further murders, Mahony and his cohorts find themselves in danger. And she tells the tale in a beautiful, folkloric style that very pleasantly reminded me of Neil Gaiman. And his trousers are ridiculous: tight around the crotch and wide enough at the bottom to mop the main road. Lushly imagined, delightfully original and very, very funny, it hurtles along from the very first page.