Review by Andy Ford, Warrington South
The Spinning Heart captures the moment when the Irish economy, the so-caled ‘Celtic Tiger,’ collapsed into debt, default and desperation in 2008. Donal Ryan makes his point through the thoughts of 21 inhabitants of an unnamed town in Tipperary, each of whom has one chapter of the book, in which they express their memories and feelings through an internal monologue.
Many of them are building workers who have worked through the boom; but when the collapse comes they find that their boss, ‘Pokey’ Burke, has failed to pay their stamp, taxes and pension contributions.
“Robbed. And not even by a man, but by a little prick”, one of them recounts. “He went over and started to beat the prefab door until Pokey opened it a crack and threw an envelope at him and slammed the door again, just as Mickey put his head down and went to ram him like an old billy goat. Mickey’s hard old skull splintered that door…I want my fuckin pension, you little prick, Mickey roared and roared.”
The workers are left high and dry, while their boss has absconded to a life of luxury in Dubai, or Europe…or somewhere. Ryan tellingly captures their bewilderment and anger at the betrayal and unfairness of the system. “And now I can’t pay for the messages. Christ on a bike. I had a great swagger on there for a couple of years, thinking I was a great fella. Foreman. I was clearing a grand a week…” The builders have spent the boom years building houses; now they are empty – ‘ghost estates’ – with just one or two residents.
Ryan captures many different voices well
Besides the builders, there are others – East European immigrants, small business owners, single parents, Gardai, young graduates, lost souls of all kinds, including a child and a ghost – and Ryan captures all their inner thoughts, fears, dreams and anger, allowing the story to unfold as if through a kaleidoscope.
Through it all there is a compelling picture as something like in an Irish country town emerges. There is a murder plot to bind it all together and the technical skill required to tell a story successfully through 21 different voices is breathtaking.
Ryan’s technique is like Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, in the way that characters unintentionally reveal insecurities and flaws in their own words, or maybe Peep Show, with its streams of thought showing the characters’ struggles to survive the crash and their manipulation of others. There is also an element of Under Milk Wood, with its sure handling of one particular place and its people. You could easily read the book twice to get the full effect of Ryan’s writing.
Donal Ryan has real mastery of the different voices: old, young, construction workers, and the female characters, and hardly puts a foot wrong. His use of Irish slang will have you reaching for the dictionary (or Googling the words) and it gives the book a unique texture.
It’s not often that you discover a whole new fantastic writer, but Donal Ryan is just that. He is innovative, socially aware, truthful, and NOT part of the London literary set. And he does all this in 156 pages. It’s a good read.
You can get The Spinning Heart at all good bookshops, such as Waterstones, here. Donal Ryan’s latest book is The Queen of Dirt Island.
