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Top of the pile
80
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
64/100Critics
96/100Scholars
Author:
Séamas O'Reilly
Publisher:
Little, Brown and Company
Date:
June 7, 2022
A columnist for Britain's Observer looks back on his childhood in 1990s Northern Ireland, where he was the second-youngest of 11 siblings raised mainly by their father after their mother died of breast cancer in 1991.
What The Reviewers Say
This is an irrepressibly funny and poignant memoir of family life after bereavement.
Anyone with prior knowledge of O’Reilly’s work will not be surprised to learn that this is not a heavy or ponderous read. In fact, it may be one of the funniest books ever written about the death of a parent. There is of course real sadness documented here. Much of it is centred around O’Reilly’s sense of dislocation about what has happened, and his limited ability to frame it afterwards.
Grief is a journey which varies for each person who has lost a loved one and O’Reilly struggles to process his own grief due to his young age. The humour of which emerges from the pages is rightly inserted at the most inopportune moments. Sedaris in style (observational anecdotes in abundance), O’Reilly’s love for his father and siblings is apparent. Expect to laugh out loud, almost constantly, and fall in love with the O’Reilly clan. I cannot recommend this enough. An outstanding read..
It's hard to imagine a memoir about an author's dead mother could elicit actual belly laughs, but somehow, O'Reilly makes it happen.
