Abandoned in a Dublin orphanage as a baby, Mahony, now aged twenty-six, receives a letter left for him long ago that hints he might not have been abandoned after all. Inside the envelope was a photograph of a girl with a half smile holding a blurred bundle, high and awkwardly, like found treasure. Mahony turned it over and the good solid schoolteacherly hand dealt him a left hook. For the love of all that’s right and true in the world, you’ve got to read Jess Kidd’s debut Himself (Atria), a fabulously imaginative, darkly comic Irish tale set 'in the arse-end of beyond' in a village called Mulderigg. Reading this picaresque novel is like nursing a pint in a pub while a seanchaí, a traditional storyteller, trills the air with magic and mystery and a local modulates the narrative with irreverent commentary from a stool in the corner...In Mahony, the author has created a literary descendant of Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones” (also a foundling with parental issues), and in Mulderigg she’s imagined a literary neighborhood akin to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo, a place populated with eccentric characters, living and dead. The plot races to an ending of Biblical proportions (as most Irish tales do) and it’ll bring tears to your sorry eyes and joy to your hardened heart." Tadhg is propping up the saloon door of Kerrigan’s Bar having changed a difficult barrel and threatened a cellar rat with his deadly tongue. He is setting his red face up to catch a drop of sun while scratching his arse with serious intent. He has been thinking of the Widow Farelly, of her new-built bungalow, the prodigious whiteness of her net curtains and the pigeon plumpness of her chest.

Himself by Jess Kidd | Waterstones

That’s a mystery hard to resist, so Mahony doesn’t. On his arrival, the village reserves its judgement, but Mahony’s charm and charisma soon work their magic on many; a few (the guilty ones) do their best to dissuade his inquiries. Somebody definitely knows what happened to Orla Sweeney, and Mahony will learn the truth. Meanwhile, the ghost of Cauley’s jilted lover Johnny floats around the gardens of Rathmore House, to little purpose.An enchanted adult tale which takes place in 1970s Ireland. A special young man leaves the city of Dublin behind to travel to the village of his birth to ferret out his mother’s killer and bring him to justice. This book is definitely magical. It combines realism with a mystery with supernatural and fantasy. I have read all of these genres at one time or another and the combination here works quite well. Jess Kidd’s writing is lyrical at times, literary at times, and very inventive. Norma and I were lost in the magical lush coulee with two of our Traveling Sisters reading Himself. At times we were hidden in the bushes looking over our shoulders for the supernatural who were wanting to find us and tell us their secrets. Himself” by Jess is a spellbinding fairytale that intertwines the magical with the supernatural. Its dark whimsy draws you in with its brilliance.

Himself | Book by Jess Kidd | Official Publisher Page | Simon

Kidd’s writing hits every note. She can take us in an instant from a vicious encounter to one that is tenderly funny. Even her use of the supernatural seems natural in this small Irish village, where most believe in the ability to see ghosts, even if they don’t have it themselves. Into this village comes Mahony, the boy we eventually learn whose teenage mother, Orla Sweeney, "mysteriously" disappeared. He is looking for her armed with an old photograph, searching for the girl who left him, finding himself not welcome in this town where he was born. He meets and resides with his landlady, Mrs Cauley, a wonderful character, who recruits Mahony to star in in her Christmas play. She teams up with Mahony to try an unravel the mystery of his missing mom and while investigating we meet the good and the bad in the village of Muldering. Interspersed in the story are also the dead of the village who add a kind of mystical charm to the story making you want to find this place and perhaps even dwell there even if only in your mind.This moves mostly between the two main time periods of 1950, as in the prologue, and 1976, when Mahony arrives from Dublin. Kidd thoughtfully puts the date at the beginning of each chapter (thank you). There is one scene of animal cruelty that left me wanting the fate for the man that he bestowed on the dog. Set in 1863 London, this lurid but languid gothic mystery from Kidd (Mr. Flood’s Last Resort) finds eccentric female detective Bridie Devine investigating the disappearance of six-year-old Continue reading »

Himself by Jess Kidd review – humour and horror collide

He’s an adult now, old enough to search for her, for the reasons why she abandoned him. Who, and where he comes from.Despite an imaginative setting and richly drawn central characters, Himself never emerges as more than a mildly diverting caper of murder in an Ireland thankfully past. Then there is the book’s supernatural aspect: the eerie, poised alertness of animals, plants and trees, particularly in the forest scenes. This pastoral setting comes complete with a hermit (who may or may not be innocuous) dwelling in the woods, where a palpable malevolent presence broods throughout. As well as the chorus of the dead, we have a “holy spring” that erupts through Father Quinn’s study floor, and a concomitant plague of frogs; a storm of soot enveloping the village; life-changing floods. These cataclysms are perhaps too plentiful and too fantastical for one novel. Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character; if she can trim the excess and ration the energy, her next book should be very fine indeed. Determined to uncover the truth about what happened to his mother, Mahony solicits the help of brash anarchist and retired theater actress Mrs. Cauley. This improbable duo concocts an ingenious plan to get the town talking about the day Mahony's mother disappeared and are aided and abetted by a cast of eccentric characters, both living and dead.