Too late. It’s arrived
You’ll have to shoulder the responsibility.
It is John Banville I spose
No. I’ve read all of the Benjamin Black books and you could read this one independently of the rest of them
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Kramer and the postie were the stars and George’s parents
Went with one on the history of suicide bombers… From the tsar in 1881 to today.
A Cavan man was asked to be a suicide bomber. He said he’d do it but ‘I won’t use my own car though’.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned here already but Patrick Freyne’s “Ok let’s do your stupid idea” is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Parts of it are genuinely laugh out loud funny which I expected but it also has far more depth than you’d imagine.
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I started the audiobook and stopped it as the narrator sounded a smug bearsden type, so I’ve bought the book to read
“Hard to seem a man of consequence, Strafford acknowledged sadly, when your skull was as flat as an upturned plate and your name was AmbieJenkins”
Nearly worth the price for this line alone @Fagan_ODowd
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Finished that just there now @RaymondCrotty. Very very interesting read about a country I knew little about post Pol Pot. Seems to be developing nicely into a mini North Korea with the son being put into place to take over.
I read the 2020 paperback version with the epilogue on the era post the 2013 elections by the way.
Are the Cambodian people as passive as the book implies?
Glad you liked it @Fagan_ODowd. First came here at the time of those 2013 elections. CPP won all the seats in parliament in 2018 elections!
Cambodian people are generally fantastic. Great thirst for learning and looking after each other. It’s a very hierarchical society however and one of the worst education systems in the world. That can hinder progress. Many are indeed passive but probably underlining reasons for that. A real antipathy towards Vietnam also.
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I see what you mean about the Banville book. Not much uplift in it
I have a copy of the same book here, I must read it.
Glad you liked it. Not as good as “That they might face the rising sun” which is a masterpiece. Terrific descriptive ability, he grabs the local scenery, mulberry bushes, even the fucking rushes in breathtaking clarity. A smashing writer…
Great man to mind a pound. 
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You’ve summed it up.
Love the themes in it too. The death of Moran was the death of old Ireland. In some ways sad with its old traditions but also a sense of freedom from the shackles for the next generation.
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Read it during the autumn, it was class. The way you can see him forgiving the old man as he progresses is very moving.