Take The Thing About December Picturized By Donal Ryan Exhibited In Physical Book

I could not put this book down, I was racing to get to the end of the story, in spite of knowing it wasn't going to end happilyeverafter.
It follows a year in the life ofyear old man/boy, Johnsy, in Tipperary during the times of the Celtic Tiger.
Johnsy is somewhat limited and has been overprotected by his parents, Away from his family's protection, Johnsy is regularly tormented by a gang of his peers, who are on the dole, and spend their days drinking and looking for trouble.


I first discovered this author when I read sitelinkThe Spinning Heart, This story has a similar feel to it, I descibed that book as melancholy, the same could descibe this as well, Instead of a "feel good" story, this is a "feel bad" one, And yet, I couldn't stop reading, in spite of how it made me feel,

Ryan has a talent for evoking such raw emotion from his characters, The arguments, the misunderstandings, the awkwardness of new relationships, all relayed in beautiful, often bleak prose,

Here's Johnsy: If you were feeling especially lonesome, and just sitiing in the kitchen, say, and you let it out through the gate because you weren't concentrating properly on keeping a rein on it, your mind could have a fine old wander about for itself.


I just want to copy whole sections I was moved by but I'll restrain myself.
Let me just say that Ryan's characters are so painfully real, you can feel what they are feeling.
You will live the year along with Johnsy, And you'll feel like you're on a fast train that is out of control, And then you will crash,

What more can you ask for in a book “Metalno srce” mi je bila super knjiga, a “S prosincem” još i bolja.
Donal Ryan je stvarno majstor likova i moram pod hitno nabaviti još njegovih knjiga!,A rather short little book that contains much, Johnny has lost both his parents in a short period of time, He is ill equipped to handle life on his own, and he spends much time pondering this defect.
He tries so hard to hang on to the past, remembering times with his

dad, He is bullied relentlessly, and though he receives some kindness, he is mostly now alone, People try to toke advantage of his slowness by trying to trick him out of his land.


Set in Ireland during the time of the Celtic Tiger this is a very well written and gritty novel.
Much of it is grim, but it is hard not to take to and feel sorry for Johnnie.
In many ways he is such an innocent, The book chapters AR months, the months since he was left alone, This is his story and though in his internal dialogue he often laments that he understands so little, in fact I think he has the measure of some of the undesirable characters found in the story.


A novel about changing times and the effort of on young man who has a very hard time keeping up with the changes.


ARC from NetGalley, Where to begin with this book, . . this was a book club choice, something I would have never picked up of my own accord.
I'm so glad I got the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and enter the world of Johnsey Cunliffe.


In truth, Johnsey's world isn't that different from my own, I grew up in rural Ireland, I've grown up with people speaking the way the characters speak in this book.
There were words here that I hadn't seen or heard since I was a child, so there was an air of nostalgia off it for me at times.
That only added to my sadness at times,

The book is set over the course of a year in Johnsey's life, presumably his most difficult year.
Each chapter is a different month, and we see Johnsey dealing with some horrific life events, His self esteem is on the floor, but as we learn about the type of person he is, we learn that he has more common sense and more cop on than a lot of the other people he encounters.
He is endearing, sweet, and I was so full of hope for him when things seemed like they were going to look up a bit.


I'm not in the habit of spoiling books, so I don't want to say too much more, but sufficed to say I don't think I took a breath for the lastor so pages.
Genuinely read it with my hand over my mouth,

One of my surprise favourites of the year, Having enjoyed The Spinning Heart so much last year, I came to this, Ryan's second release, which was actually written before his first, with caution, in case I found that it wasn't up to the same standard.
While it didn't quite reach the levels of its predecessor, it was still a very strong and thought provoking novel.


Set once more in a small, unnamed village in Tipperary, this time before the fall of the Celtic Tiger, it follows the fortunes of Johnsey Cunliffe.
ayear old farmer's son with learning difficulties, whose life circumstances have already changed for the worse with the death of his well respected father to cancer the year before the narrative begins, and who is already victimised and mocked by local bullies, while others in the population turn a blind eye.
While written in the third person, Ryan skilfully conveys Johnsey's thought process and simplified view of events around him as his life circumstances change again, and the majority of those around him put pressure on him to give in to a local consortium bent on redeveloping his land.


I was ultimately left with a terribly sad feeling after reading this book, which I suppose is credit to Ryan, who conveys such sympathy for his protagonist, without being in any way judgemental of his, or other characters' intentions.
Johnsey's outlook isn't logical, but is often more morally sound than those around him, One is left wondering, even as a reader, about the intentions of those who stick with him, like Mumbling Dave and nurse, Siobhan although less so the latter.
And, of course, events come to a head at the end of the yearno spoilers but don't expect a happy ending.
. .

A book that may not be as 'special' in my eyes as its predecessor / successor, but one that is extremely thought provoking and worthy in its own right.
I look forward to Ryan's future work! Johnsey Cunliffe is the butt of many a joke and the victim of bullying in his small Irish village.
He is socially introverted to the point that he doesn't know how to hold a conversation and, after the death of his parents, finds himself isolated and fearful.
He spends a great deal of time thinking about suicide but worries that it is a mortal sin.
Even walking home from his mundane job is a frightening experience for him as the bullies await him with verbal and physical abuse.


He has two elderly friends in the village, the Unthanks, They provide him with food and sustenance as they loved Johnsey's father very much and now worry about young Johnsey on his own.
Johnsey worshiped his father and wishes that he was more like him, "Why couldn't I have been born with a full quota of manliness"

Johnsey leases out the farm that his parents left to him.
They left him money as well but he is incapable of managing it, I might have ventured a guess that he was simpleminded but the inner working of his mind contradict that assumption.


When the town wants to buy Johnsey's land for development, all hell breaks loose, Johnsey feels like his inheritance contains the lifeblood of his ancestors and they wouldn't have wanted him to sell it.
He also feels a huge sense of embarrassment and humiliation at his inability to take care of himself and his land.
"All he could do was think about how some lives are full to bursting with people and work and sport and children and fun and his own was all empty spaces where those things ought rightly to be.
"

Johnsey is portrayed as pathetic and put upon, Those that don't actively try to harm him, attempt to pull the wool over his eyes and rip him off.
When he finally does make a friend and have a chance at romance, things get even wonkier.
Poor Johnsey!

Donal Ryan is a wonderful writer, I have read several of his other books and each one was better than the next, This one suffers from suffering and the repetitive story of Johnsey's failures in all his endeavors, I wanted to see it move a bit more quickly, Otherwise, it is a gem, Best book I read in June,, If you're an eejit or averse to local jargon in fiction, you might not take to this short novel set in a small Irish village.
The Thing About December is the story of a challenged Johnny Cunliffe trying to hold onto what is familiar in his life while it slips like sand through his hands.
In general, Cunliffe's treatment by the local townspeople ranges from grudging acknowledgement to flatout physical abuse, So, Johnny finds himself at a brand new low level of disadvantageousness when his mother passes away.
The Unthanks, the sneakily motivated proprietors of the village bakery, may be one of the best descriptive names ever in a novel.
I suspect they are Irish cousins of the slimy French innkeepers in Les Miserables, They pretend to care about Cunliffe, but they have a whole other agenda going on here, Ryan has a gift in his magnificent ability to write and tell a story, His two books are the best things that have happened in my life in, The Thing About December tells a story of the same small town depicted in The Spinning Heart.
Although it was released after The Spinning Heart, it was written before, And tells the story of another young man caught in the grip of forces and smalltown incivility.
The Thing About December is told in a more standard narrative form than The Spinning Heart and may be an easier introduction to these wonderful stories Ryan tells for us.
This is Ryan's first book, and as such it suffers a little in comparison to his latest 'From A Low and Quiet Sea' which quite frankly is flawless, a real beauty.
This one has much of the same wonderful facility in its writing, smooth, flowing prose, sympathetic characters with unsympathetic enemies, a taut and moving plot.
But somehow it's not quite there yet, it's on the doorstep of the greatness of his next books, the ones I have read anyway A Spinning Heart, and '.
. Quiet Sea'. I'm on to his stories next, A book about greed and bullying of the principle character Johnesy , a man who lost, his parents during a traumatic year in his life, and how he has to fend for himself with his learning difficulties.
He inherited his family farm and when the land is rezoned is worth millions, which brings out the dark side of his friends human nature until the dramatic end.
Tužna i melankolična priča baš stvorena za ove blagdanske dane, Donal Rayan mi je definitivno najveće otkriće ove godine, Pisac kojeg ću još čitati, Donal Ryan has become an author I plan to watch, He has a unique and powerful voice, In this, his second book, he tells the story of one year in the life of Johnsey Cunliffe.
The novel is broken into sections by month, loosely organized by those tasks Johnsey recalls his father performing on the family farm when he was small.
But now his father has died and his world has changed and Johnsey, a young man who lacks social graces and is considered somewhat simple by locals, is trying to figure out what his life is to become.


There are givers and takers in his world, It's the time of things actually going well for Ireland but that doesn't always mean well for everyone.
Johnsey is caught in the wheelings and dealings and his simplicity is not a help,

As in sitelinkThe Spinning Heart, Ryan uses some lyrical prose in his decriptions of the land and also provides wonderful portraits of various characters who surround Johnsey.



The morning sun was fairly beaming down and all the
trees were heavy with green and there was a haze of
flies and bugs and butterflies about the land and all
he could do was think about how some lives are full to
bursting with people and work and sport and children
and fun and his own was all empty spaces where those
things ought rightly to be, were he the kind of man
that could close his fist around opportunity and keep a
tight howlt of it rather than shrinking from it and hiding
inside his parents' house nearly too scared to even
peep out for fear of failure and ridicule.
loc


This selection reveals a few thingsa near stream of consciousness approach and the use of Irish vernacular which wash through the book and which I allowed to flow over me.
Something not present here is the often earthy tone of Johnsey's thoughts and speech, While I would assume it is a fairly normal pattern for the young Irish male character Ryan has created, at times it seemed a bit excessive.
But I can't allow that to interfere with my overall praise of this novel though some readers might be put off.


This is, ultimately, a very powerful novel and, while I like The Spinning Heart fractionally better, I rate this one atto.



Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book for review.
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