I've read Roddy Doyle you know. I've even struggled with Joyce and Seamus Heaney's poetry, but for my money the best Irish writer around (apart from Oscar Wilde, and that was only kind of) is Colin Bateman. I've kind of read his books out of order since I started on Divorcing Jack, moved to Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men and now jumped back to his second book CoV. Still, it doesn't matter, there's no connecting plot or characters, it's just that I would prefer to note the change in style, etc. that an author goes through as he matures.

In Colin Bateman's case it seems to start at a high, and pretty much maintain it throughout the books I have read (I'm looking forward to his new one just out in hardback). This tale of a gonzo journalist in a viciously divided twn in Northern Ireland called Crossmaheart had me rolling in the aisles with laughter and near tears with pathos. The story is full of Bateman's familiar one-liners and witticisms but there appears to be an underlying bitterness that the Northern Ireland conflict always seems to generate because of its futility.

Suffice to say it's a love story and a detective story and high comedy and tragedy all rolled into one. It's such a good book that I stayed up until about 3AM this morning trying to finish it, and although the shocks come as little surprise because they are so heavily signposted, this is still a superb novel.

Ben gives it:

Price: £5.99
Published by: Harper Collins (ISBN 0-00-647935-9)

last updated: 23rd April 1997