But how can I prove what I am doing is not seditious when I’m merely just doing my job as a trade unionist, exercising my right under the constitution?The teachers have a high profile march scheduled and Larry Stack almost makes an excuse not to attend but Eilish reminds him that teachers have an important role in standing up for constitutional rights. Her words will doubtless haunt her forever because Larry does not come home. Now she is alone with the responsibility of four children and the conditions in Dublin get worse and worse.
That is up to you, Mr. Stack, unless we decide this warrants further investigation, in which case it will no longer be up to you and we will decide.
Listening to this book as authoritarianism, callous cuts in funding, attacks on free speech, detention without due process, and frightening foreign policy are happening in my own country was a disturbing parallel. Prophet Song is a dystopian novel but what does that mean exactly?
Adj, relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice. "the dystopian future of a society bereft of reason"
At one point, Eilish reflects that one takes happiness or contentment for granted until it is gone. A review I read about this book criticized the Stacks for their complacency and implied they deserved their fate because they were not politically involved. Well, I have no children but Eilish has four, as well as what sounds like a demanding job in science so I can understand why she did not have time to be an activist or pay much attention to the government that came into power two years earlier. She has just returned to work after her maternity leave and one of the ways the book shows the passage of time is by the baby’s development. He is just “the baby” at the beginning but by the end he is Ben, kicking to be free and able to run (which could be disastrous) if she puts him down for a minute.
Perhaps if Eilish had been more politically aware, she and Larry would have taken the threat of the new government more seriously. Once he has been arrested, she has to decide whether to stay in Dublin, hoping he will return, or take advantage of the fact that she has a sister in Toronto and try to escape, leaving everything behind. One can't help thinking of German Jews prior to WWII, paralyzed by the same growing fear exhibited by Eilish, but unable to leave the country in time. Lynch vividly shows Eilish's desperation at her husband’s absence and – soon – the disappearance of others, and her deterioration as she tries to keep her family safe, not just her children but also her elderly father. A scene where she is trying to find her son in the hospital had me in tears as I drove home from work.
A funny coincidence that Eilish, an Irish name that is a variation of Elizabeth, is virtually unknown in the US (it was ranked 12,443 in US births in 2023) yet is featured in Prophet Song and in Long Island, which I read earlier this year. Prophet Song won the 2023 Booker Prize, but its US publisher either had difficulty with the rights or had some internal glitch preventing it from getting the book into stores until after the award had been announced. I am sure this hurt readership then but now that I have finally read it, I think the topic will ensure it continues to reach the right audience. It was sad and depressing but I thought it was well done and I wanted to know what was going to happen.
Prophet Song was the starting point for my last Six Degrees of Separation so I decided to read it for Reading Ireland Month with Cathy at 746Books. I listened to 95% as an audiobook until my poor car got rear-ended and I lost access to the car's CD player so I read the last chapter in a hardcover from my library. Normally, the only noticeable difference in audiobook format for me is if I have a question about something it is difficult to go back to re-listen: if listening to a CD, then one has to go back to the last track, which could be multiple chapters, while if using the Libby app (which I recommend but often has longer waits than for the hardcover), there is a “go back 30 seconds” feature, which is very useful.
However, if I had listened to the entire audiobook, I would not have known that Lynch eschewed quotation marks and paragraphs, as well as writing in the present tense. I find all these things pretentious and unnecessary, plus the lack of paragraphs negatively impacts the reading experience. I probably would have returned the book unread but the narrator was very good and, thus, I believe the listening experience was better than my reading experience would have been. Despite that concern, I liked the book and would recommend it to others - if you are in the right mood. Is it set in the future? Perhaps - or maybe it's taking place right now!
Title: Prophet Song
Author: Paul Lynch
Narrator: Gerry O'Brien
Publication: Atlantic Monthly Press, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Source: Library
Perhaps if Eilish had been more politically aware, she and Larry would have taken the threat of the new government more seriously. Once he has been arrested, she has to decide whether to stay in Dublin, hoping he will return, or take advantage of the fact that she has a sister in Toronto and try to escape, leaving everything behind. One can't help thinking of German Jews prior to WWII, paralyzed by the same growing fear exhibited by Eilish, but unable to leave the country in time. Lynch vividly shows Eilish's desperation at her husband’s absence and – soon – the disappearance of others, and her deterioration as she tries to keep her family safe, not just her children but also her elderly father. A scene where she is trying to find her son in the hospital had me in tears as I drove home from work.
A funny coincidence that Eilish, an Irish name that is a variation of Elizabeth, is virtually unknown in the US (it was ranked 12,443 in US births in 2023) yet is featured in Prophet Song and in Long Island, which I read earlier this year. Prophet Song won the 2023 Booker Prize, but its US publisher either had difficulty with the rights or had some internal glitch preventing it from getting the book into stores until after the award had been announced. I am sure this hurt readership then but now that I have finally read it, I think the topic will ensure it continues to reach the right audience. It was sad and depressing but I thought it was well done and I wanted to know what was going to happen.
Prophet Song was the starting point for my last Six Degrees of Separation so I decided to read it for Reading Ireland Month with Cathy at 746Books. I listened to 95% as an audiobook until my poor car got rear-ended and I lost access to the car's CD player so I read the last chapter in a hardcover from my library. Normally, the only noticeable difference in audiobook format for me is if I have a question about something it is difficult to go back to re-listen: if listening to a CD, then one has to go back to the last track, which could be multiple chapters, while if using the Libby app (which I recommend but often has longer waits than for the hardcover), there is a “go back 30 seconds” feature, which is very useful.
Title: Prophet Song
Author: Paul Lynch
Narrator: Gerry O'Brien
Publication: Atlantic Monthly Press, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Source: Library
Happy St. Patrick's Day! For reviews of other books set in Ireland, click here.
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