I have taken Liz Nugent to bed the last few nights and I have decided that I hate her. Well that’s not quite true, I took her award winning novel Unravelling Oliver to bed and after reading it, I am just jealous of her - particularly after she has just won Crime Novel of the Year 2014.The novel is about Oliver Ryan, a successful writer that has beaten his wife so badly that she ends up in a coma. The novel opens brilliantly and keeps up that standard of quality all the way through. While it is set in the present day, Unravelling Oliver is centred on a working summer holiday in a vineyard in Bordeaux France in the eighties and the developing relationships between Ryan, the handsome yet reserved character whom everyone seems to love, his then girlfriend Laura and her repressed homosexual brother Michael. These months as college students out seeking adventure, end up changing them all and not for the better. A tragic fire in the Chateau at the end of the season has terrible consequences that won’t be fully known for decades to come.Each chapter focuses on one of the novels characters and is written from their point of view. As a writer, I am still trying to get past the whole telling not showing thing which isn't a problem for Liz. Her writing is sublime. In many ways it reminded me of a Quentin Tarrantino-esque movie where each of the separate strands of the story gradually intertwined as Liz brings her story to a tense conclusion. I met Liz Nugent once, she seemed nice but I am still trying to get over the shock of her writing ‘you’re an awful bollix’ on the inside of my jacket – I mean the inside of the jacket cover of her novel that I had bought. I wasn't wearing a jacket on the day (Thank God). While I can’t comment on her judgement of character, I can on her novel - buy it now or you will be missing out. This really is an intriguing story and I applaud Liz Nugent for the excellent job she did in telling it.Oliver is one of those men everyone loves and looks up to. But suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, he beats his wife into a coma, of which she may never recover. The book then goes back through his life to demonstrate to the reader why he committed this horrendous act.It’s told from the perspective of those who have known him for years. It’s also told with his own words as he tells how he grew up and became a successful author.Oliver, to me, seems to have a false self-esteem, seeing himself as a man who should be adored by everyone he meets, especially women. Ms. Nugent writes his story with such honesty that you come to think of him as a real person, not a character in a fictional novel.The reader can draw their own conclusions as to whether or not they like Oliver. I have my own impression of him and the other characters in the story, which I won’t give up so as to not spoil the book for others.All in all, I found this to be an awesome book and read it over a weekend because I simply couldn’t put it down. Try it!
What do You think about Die Sünden Meiner Väter (2013)?
Great read, from start to finish. Look forward to her next one.
—SWilke
brought to mind 'The Book of Evidence' by John Banville
—leiz
