Synopsis: Little Big Boy tells the often harrowing tale of a small boy, struggling to cope in an environment of violence and fear, in 1970’s Dublin. All he wants is to be a big boy, but that comes with a price. At home, he faces an increasingly violent father and at school, he encounters new threats from other boys and more menacingly, from one Christian Brother in particular. In the midst of his turmoil, the one person that stands up for him and keeps him safe is his mother. But a series of seemingly unconnected events, conjure up a storm of epic proportions, with this little boy in its path
*
Review: Two years ago I read a book that was to become my favourite book of 2014. That book was Darkly Wood by Max Power. Its mix of dark fairytale, myths and legends, stories within stories, along with an amazing narrative meant that I was thinking about it long after I had finished it, and I still think about it.
Perhaps that’s why I took so long to read another Max Power title. What if it didn’t live up to Darkly Wood? What if it didn’t live up to my expectations?
But enough of the what ifs. They are not relevant and certainly not helpful.
Little Big Boy is a personal, heartfelt account of a young boy growing up in Ireland. I admit I was a little reticent to read it, as another personal account by Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes was on such a level that similarities between the two would have been unfair, but it’s not totally unavoidable either.
Through a first person narrative we see the Little Big Boy of the title go through various growing pains. We see his brother Eamonn doing various rounds with his brutish father. His mother is no wilting wallflower but it’s obvious she is far down the list of priorities of her husband. But I come from an Irish Catholic family, even though I am English born. I actually love and embrace my Irish heritage, whereas my other siblings, especially my brother was less endeared to Ireland. It irritated me a lot that they would act this way, but I am sure many Irish / English Catholic families have similar issues.
"The author never flinches from hard details, but he laces the story with light to laugh out loud humour."
Little Big Boy has a lot of scenes where the boy is getting into fights a lot, especially at school. For me, this was more interesting than the home life stuff, because I too would fight with other boys and befriend (kind of) some of them later. Of course there were many occasions where a truce was never made and yet I look back now and think it was character building. One has to take a positive angle on things, even something as serious as bullying, because the alternative (killing yourself) is too horrid to think about.
I loved the scenes that included the gaelic language. It is beautiful to listen to, but on the page you can only guess at what it means, but the author never leaves us in doubt about that. Perhaps my favourite example of this was how a boy wanting to go to the toilet had to ask permission in the precise gaelic terminology, otherwise they would not be allowed to go. Now I like languages but will admit I am lazy at learning them…conversational Chinese and a working French is what I am best at, along with a very basic knowledge of Italian and French. My mother would sometimes use a gaelic term but not very often. But I saw some similarities with my own upbringing and the main characters, though I had ‘teachers’ at school, not Brothers or Nuns (my mum was taught by nuns, though she had a choice gaelic word for them).
Midway through the story, it takes a rather sinister turn. If you read it, you will know what I am on about. But it links masterfully with the last third of the book. It’s here that Little Big Boy truly strikes gold. The short chapters allow you to make progress through the book quickly without losing the plot. It’s like some of the chapters are stories all on their own, such as the time the boy is out with his father (who is in the pub) and he has to stay by the car until he comes back. I could relate to that – my own father stayed out until 3 or 4am most nights, and made up stories to my mum about where he had been. But she knew, of course she knew.
The author never flinches from hard details, but he laces the story with light to laugh out loud humour.
So my recommendation is that you should definitely read this story if you like a story that jumps out at you on every page. It’s not fair to compare it to Darkly Wood as it is a very different story. However, it just shows the author’s talent, breadth and depth of writing ability, and bravery in committing such a tough upbringing to the page for us avid readers to consume.
It’s another winner from Max Power.
