And right at the end of this twisting turning year of our Lord Twenty Twenty I find one of the very best reads, for me anyway. I think the book has been around for about four years but I only just discovered it on a recent book haul. I was drawn to it by the very striking cover art and the dramatic blurb "Victorian London had Jack The Ripper, Georgian Dublin had the Dolocher." which is just about as swarthy and gaudy as a cover blurb should be and I am just shallow enough to fall for it, well, are'nt you? I think you might be or else you would find something better to do than read my old boobie-babble.
It hits the ground running, opening in a filthy condemned cell, as a captured monster in human form sits contemplating his own impending end. If you are truly squeamish you may not even make it past this chapter. and that barely scratches the surface regarding the depths of some inhumane depravity. Hold firm, have courage and keep going because this book is worth it.
What a find this Caroline Barry, as she writes with such realistic brevity yet confidence. It is ballsy, er, so to speak, almost guttural at times but exudes a very humane and times poetical reverence for the frailty of the human condition in extremis. Filled with acts of cruelty from some absolute brutes and yet also brave decent and loving actions, I grew to love the central characters and found I did not want to leave their company (James Plunkett's strumpet City affected me this way when I read it years ago. Another book where the city of Dublin is an unspeaking central character.) You witness as a misanthropic group of very different individuals all come together to form a family of sorts as they try to survive savage circumstances.
An old friend, Don Melia, rest his soul(Although he did not believe in an afterlife I cannot believe a spirit such as his will totally disapear from the world.) once explained to me back in the day, the heady eighties,the concept of pretend families. How those rejected by their families, mostly because of their sexuality, could come together to form new families based on the understanding and love and support any human being would appreciate. Standing together at the coal face of life, forming a pretend family that would eventually become real.In the case of The Dolocher it is mostly the unforgiving and merciless poverty which seeks to grind the human spirit into the dirty cobbles of old Dublin town. They all struggle to find dignity in a world where such a notion is a fairy castle aspiration, a notion cold and hungry children merely sneer at.
Its strumpet city meets ripper Street, its From Hell with a dash of Penny Dreadful.
Its a bloody marvel.
Literally.
