4,5/5
How does one live in a city scarred by religious riots and terrorist attacks ? Well, just about like anybody else. In Belfast, in the 1990’s, Chuckie, Jake and their group of weird friends are going on about their lives, finding and losing jobs, talking about sex and boobs, breaking up and mending up with girlfriends. Anything but being catholic or Protestant. And yet, that’s everywhere. Bombs and tags and threats and death. On the tv, on the radio, on the corner of their street.

It is a surprising novel, full of a dark, absurd and sometimes childish humour. Even though it is sometimes moving and deadly serious, it puts a smile on a face, you care for these morons, who reminded me of the people in a Simon Pegg movie like Hot Fuzz. Incredibly touching, I couldn’t help but root for them all as they failed and won little victories at life. It was SO good because it is everything you want in a book. Fun, crazy, social, moving, touching, sometimes cruel and too real. It hits close to home somehow.

I would recommend this novel without much doubt. I did not give it a higher grade because awkwardly it nearly became a favorite but not quite. I can’t explain it, because I guess this is not something you can explain. Maybe there wasn’t enough poetry in there ? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. Not every Book has to be a favorite.