Close to Home. Michael Magee

This is an intriguing combination of hopelessness and optimism. I initially thought it  very much in the  Shuggie Bain mould and there are c certainly general similarities but Shuggie is grittier and much more passionate and so for me far more emotionally involving. There is a degree of detachment here, which is appropriate given the (necessary) ambivalence about the hopes, and aims of central character. Will he be able to break out and away.

Stylistically, there were some marvellous pungent and glittering sentences particularly in first part, that really stand out. There was throughout a magnificent sense of the greyness and trapped quality of the lives evoked, a product of the quality of the writing. The looming and constant presence of the British Army (of occupation in the minds of the inhabitants) was constantly but not over-emphmatically present; it remained a personal not political story

I remain intrigued as to extent author is main character – writing quality referenced suggest he is but not explicit and for me remained only an intriguing possibility? In this sense, it was unlike Shuggie where the autobiographical element is central and undeniable.

The final sentence intriguing – to what extent is he truly at home now - in his mind and where he physically (and mentally) is?  I think/like to think it is an optimistic ending.