Ghosts and Lightning

Starred review from October 26, 2009
Although gothic tropes pervade Byrne's strong debut novel, they're doused—or soused, rather—with vibrant Dublin brogue and streetwise wit. On the death of his mother, 26-year-old Denny Cullen comes home to a small, “disgraceful fuckin kip” in Dublin's sprawl, where dwells his quite alive and quite drunk lesbian sister, Paula. She claims there's a gender-bending ghost hiding under the bed, so their friend and methadone-addicted spiritual adviser, Pajo, conducts a kitchen-table séance that prompts Denny to find meaning and purpose in his own life. Overwhelmed by grief and alienated from his father and brothers, Denny struggles against the boozy tides of violent childhood memories, unemployment and low self-esteem. If his aimlessness threatens to scuttle a plot that depends upon the shenanigans of his friends and their enemies, then it's Denny's voice and sensibility that buoy the narrative. He and his mates turn phrases so wry, so inventive, so Irish, that one feels the burning intelligence and resilience that reside in even the mangiest stripe of the Celtic tiger.

February 22, 2010
Twenty-something protagonist Denny Cullen is called home to Dublin when his mother dies unexpectedly. He stumbles through the following weeks; vivid reunions with friends and family are felt through a veil of loss and grief. Written in the strong, colorful dialect of working-class Dublin, Byrne's first-person fiction reads like a memoir, and British actor John Lee's narration is natural and realistic. Lee articulates Denny's thoughtful observations with self-deprecating wit and heartfelt warmth kept in check with gritty, dark humor. A Doubleday hardcover.