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I liked Barry‘s The Heart in Winter so I thought I‘d look at his older books. This was on the Booker longlist in 2019. Barry has a way of writing that is beautiful, sometimes downright stunning, but in this case it was hard for me to grab ahold of the story the way I like to. Two aged gangsters sit waiting in a ferry terminal in order to catch sight of the daughter of one of the men who has been gone for years. They reminisce as they wait. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

In this creepy book with great, creepy sentences, Maurice and Charlie wait in the port/purgatory of Algeciras. They are restless, cruel, old men who have somehow survived a life of dealing drugs and pain. Despite their meanness, their friendship is special; their damaged souls fit together. The ending signals that hope exists, even for life‘s most lost, and peace arrives when people and things arrive safely at their rightful destination.

Some of the most gorgeous prose I've ever chosen to read for fun. Fascinating characters with just the right amount of depth, no unnecessary detail given. Really beautiful and dark.

Love the idea of books/shows/movies/whatever media being there to introduce us to people we'd never have the chance to meet in real life. This totally covers that.

Loved this book; now adapted for the screen! https://deadline.com/2023/04/michael-fassbender-domhnall-gleeson-ruth-negga-nigh...

This is a lyrical story with equal parts humour and gravitas. Fans of Irvine Welsh and Samuel Beckett will feel some resonance here- I certainly did- yet the story and the telling of it remains uniquely something else.

This has not been my favorite read of the year. I guess that I can‘t love them all.

Some of the most gorgeous prose I've ever chosen to read for fun. Fascinating characters with just the right amount of depth, no unnecessary detail given. Really beautiful and dark.

Love the idea of books/shows/movies/whatever media being there to introduce us to people we'd never have the chance to meet in real life. This totally covers that.

Excited to read this!

A modern retelling of Waiting for Godot with aging Irish drug traffickers serving as the protagonists. The bulk of the book is spent in a ferry terminal turned pseudo purgatory where the reader is peppered with flashbacks of the men‘s lives. Fitting that the men were waiting for a ferry to cross the water (Styx?) as they re-examined how they‘d spent their lives. Ultimately I found the prose nearly too poetic to be truly gripping.

“A melancholy hour falleth. As afflicts a gentleman of colorful history. But, if he has nothing else to his name, he has his regrets, and these are not without value to the martyr‘s self-portrait displayed in his minds eye. I am fifty one years old, he thinks, and still at least halfway in love with myself. All told you‘d have to call it a fucken achievement.”

Waiting for someone to get off a boat. The people you run into at a port.

Two Irish men wait in the ferry terminal in Algeciras, Spain, for one of their daughters to show up. They are not sure if she will be on a boat going to or coming from Tangier, so they wait and talk and reflect. Waiting for Godot-esque. Very atmospheric, really beautiful writing. I love it.

Night Boat to Tangier has many of the elements that I enjoy in literary fiction, yet somehow it didn‘t work. The writing, while lyrical, was too disjointed and I would have preferred a more cohesive plot for this story. I also kept confusing the two main characters, Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, which is likely due to the structure of the book. My friend recommended this to me, so I‘m even more disappointed that I didn‘t enjoy it. 2⭐️

"A troubled silence descends -the old times are shifting again, they are rearranging like fault lines.
The past will not relent"
Doesn't bother me but there R no quote marks for convos if that is an issue for U

Book reminded me if the movie In Bruges often nothing was happening, some times I was confused at what was +or was not) happening.

It is different from what I normally read, quick and easy, but with layers.

This book was not for me, it is a short book, just over 200 pages. So I decided to keep going, but I just didn't like any of the characters! #books

Poetic & spare, full of humor & grit, romance & sadness. I loved this melancholy tale of 2 brutal men, holding vigil one night at a Spanish port, waiting with hope and regret for an estranged daughter. The dialogue is blackly comic, their banter reminds me of a more sweary Mr‘s Croup & Vandemar from Gaiman‘s Neverwhere. The sense of place is so vivid, just a few choice lines capture the essence of each scene to perfection. The writing is gorgeous!

Break time at work and starting a new book.....
Thought I might get away with this one for #booked2020 #TartanNoir but the characters are Irish ☘️ , so nope! 😉
Ps. The writing is fabulous so far. Such a sense of place, and awesome dialogue....

Brilliant brutal interplay between two aging dope smugglers waiting for the boat from Tangiers. I have never experienced dialogue so intimate with a dusting of dark humor and Irish angst. Overall book is a tapestry of marvelous language weave. I am off to find more by Barry.

These are my library reads for March! Looking forward to them all. #libraryreads

Powerful use of language. I will be reading all his work.🇮🇪

The New York Times listed this book as one of the 10 best books of 2019. The audiobook is read by the author, and he does a good job. Although the language and characters are well crafted, the book was not for me. I marked it as a pick because I can recognize the beauty of the work even if it does not resonate with me emotionally. The characters are well drawn, but not of interest to me. I may try another book by this author.

Unfortunately the author‘s narration killed this one for me. He has a strongly accented breathy voice and it overwhelmed the elegant and restrained touches of this brutal text. So, a miss.

(I‘m not drawn to search out a paper copy, but I did purchase paper copies of the next two books I wanted to checkout on audio, to be safe. Then I had to figure out what to get on audio next...)

Guys. Kevin Barry is brilliant.

The comedy duo in this had me laughing out loud. It‘s profane and mines the depths of depravity. That said it has fantastic insight, pathos and brilliantly crafted and interesting characters with colourful pasts. Looking for more Kevin Barry and hope it won‘t disappoint...

Far from a traditional, plot driven crime novel, this book is more a character study of two ageing criminals; an examination of the impact a lifestyle of crime has on relationships and our psyche. Although largely plotless, this novel is one that creates both a vivid sense of place and person. In few words, Barry seems able to say a lot about people, and the fragility of our worlds in the face of more subversive elements of society.

Brilliant, beautiful, profane, and powerful. Now I want to read all of Kevin Barry‘s books.

Two aging Irish gangsters sit at a port in #Spain hoping to find the daughter of one. The book then looks back at snippets in their lives alongside their actions at the port. Interesting characters and engaging if choppy prose, but I found myself losing interest a bit as the book went along. More meh than yeah.

#ReadingEurope2020

This is good

This is genius, plain and simple.

“A novel drenched in sex, and death, and narcotics...”

If melancholy has a shape, it is this book. You can feel the sadness and the badness seeping through the pages. Loved City of Bohane, and now this. Two hard old men spend days waiting in terminal for to find the daughter of one of them. It‘s been 3 years and she‘s either catching the boat to or from Tangier. “She‘s a small girl. She‘s a pretty girl. She was in Granada maybe? And not long ago. Dill? Or Dilly? It comes from Dilys.” This refrain

Dark. Age. Death. Love. Drugs. Violence. Algeciras. Tangier. Wow, what a novel!

Am I the only one feeling like I m in a play by Harold Pinter when reading Kevin Barry's Night Boat To Tangier?

Ageing Irish drug dealers, rivals, friends Charlie Redman and Maurice Hearne sit in the port of Algeciras, Spain watching for Maurice‘s (Charlie‘s?) 23-year-old vagabond daughter Dilly, whom they have not seen in years. Stoked in Beckett, some beautifully evocative turns of language, but mostly lovely reflections headed nowhere, waiting at port.

What a wordsmith Kevin Barry is. He has an amazing style of writing but the story itself, though very well crafted, didn‘t really appeal to me.

I struggled with this character driven, loose plot novel. I seem to be in the minority here, but I didn't find it engrossing, rather I found it at times to sound a little pretentious. The prose tended to be melodramatic, but I did like how atmospheric they were as well. I would caution anyone else who reads few literary fiction books, but recommend it to those that enjoy it .

⭐️⭐️

#netgalley #arc #literaryfiction

Incredibly impressive. I am very excited to discover Kevin Barry. I'm disappointed it didn't make the Booker short list, but I'm sure it will still do very well.

Another lunch break at work, another #bookhaul 😂🤦‍♀️!!
I move around, and unpack so many books every Tuesday, that I always end up with a little personal haul..... I‘ve had my eye on the tagged Man Booker long lister for a while, and couldn‘t resist a book about Friends...

After a year of study, my time is my own again. So Operation ReadAllTheBooks is underway. I‘ve been looking forward to this gem for ages.

Algeciras 2018, two old gangsters, Charlie and Maurice, are sitting on a bench at the boat terminal, waiting on the boat from Tangier. They‘re waiting on Maurice‘s daughter, Dilly, to show up. Dilly‘s been missing for 3 yrs, and they‘ve heard rumors that she‘ll show up on this terminal. As Charlie and Maurice are waiting, they start thinking about the past and how they made it to this moment.

My 5th book from the Booker Longlist.

Next up.

A book from the Booker Longlist that didn‘t make it to the shortlist.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kevin Barry is a new author for me and I am keen to try his other novels. For some reason I went into this thinking “action novel” but it is a lyrical character study of two aging criminals and their reminiscences. The chapter entitled “The Judas Iscariot All Night Drinking Club” is a masterpiece of mood and slow building tension. There might be an argument to be made that this is more style over substance but I admired it tremendously.

I seem to be the first to not like this book but I really didn‘t. Although the storyline set in the present (two men waiting in a Spanish harbour for the girl Dilly to arrive) had some potential, the storyline set in the past (about the two men doing drugs and things - a subject I mostly find annoying) didn‘t work for me. This author has been compared to Beckett. That may be a compliment but I‘m no fan of Beckett either. Not at all. #bookerprize

After reading this list of upcoming reads, I added these 4 to my ever growing #TBR ....
Which Fall releases are you excited about?
https://theweek.com/articles/858943/25-books-read-second-half-2019?utm_source=Sa...

While waiting for the missing daughter at a Spanish port, two aging friends - drug dealers contemplating about fortune/misfortune in life, and through passages from the past, reveling their common history. This is a slow, atmospheric, ‘plotless‘ story, written in a captivating, strong prose, and I think that the prose is the strongest point in this quite cruel, but still very emotional novel. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #BookerPrize2019

Loved this. Favourite #booker longlist (until the next one?!)