A Goat's Song: A masterpiece of Irish Fiction

This book starts off very well and one gets invested in the characters but for me, the middle becomes rambling and I became somewhat lost with the amount of narrative concerning the north south divide and skipped sections. I felt this book could have done with some tougher editing. Overall however, I enjoyed this book and its portrayal of the descent into alcoholism and its effect on relationships.

A haunting story of a doomed love affair wonderfully written. If you have not read any Dermot Healy seek out this book; beautiful, powerful writing.

The first section - in which you find asylum in a drunken world of almost abandoned hopes on the west coast of Ireland feels astonishingly authentic - a tenderness and humour which has both Beckett & Flann O'Brien in it. The mid section which gives a portrait of an RUC sergeant in the midst of The Troubles is extraordinary: full of understanding, yet without sentiment, it establishes an obdurate loneliness at the heart of a political division demanding loyalty. This novel feels increasingly like one of the most important to come out of Ireland since the 1980s.

This is a marvellous book, but not an easy read. The story is constructed around two main relationships, one cool and reserved and the other intense and destructive. Nationalism, sectarianism and "the troubles" are woven into the story to make this an interesting view of recent Irish history and the descriptions of Belmullet and its people are so well written that I can almost smell the sea and the earth. A raw Irish tragedy.

Healy' extraordinary style, disconnected, intermittent, lucid, gets you into the mindful of the deeply in love and the alcoholic like no one else I can think of. His evocation of the spare life of the Mullet peninsula and of fishermen brings both alive, and makes them attractive, lonely and quite logical. This is my third reading; I will go on to the fourth

I really enjoyed this book and a heady terrible mix of intense passion between two people with the devil of alcohol as the perpetual hand maiden.

The book arrived, a hardback, perfect in great condition, exactly and as described. Excellent value

A classic. .read it and pine