Malarky

Description

Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, 2013Winner of the Debut-Litzer Prize, 2013Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction PrizeANew StatesmanRead-All-About-it Selection, 2012A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, 2012A Salon.com What-to-Read Award Winner, 2012A Top Five Book Pick, ChatleaineAn iTunes Canada Best 2012 Fiction PickAn Amazon.ca Best Book of 2012 Editors PickALargehearted BoyFavourite Novel, 2012A Next Best Book Blog Top 3, 2012An Edmonton Journal Favourite, 2012A Three-Time Best-of-the-YearGeorgia StraightSelectionOur Woman will not be sunk by what lifes about to serve her. Shes caught her son doing unmentionable things out by the barn. Shes been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done things with Our Womans husband that could frankly have gone without mentioning. And now her sons gone and joined the army, and Our Woman has found a young fella to do unmentionable things with herself, just so she might understand it allMalarkyis the story of an Irish mother forced to look grief in the eye, and of a wife come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing. Comic, moving, eccentric, and spare, Anakana Schofields debut novel introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.Praise forMalarkyA caustic, funny and moving fantasia of an Irish mammy going round the bend.Emma Donoghue, author ofROOMAnakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fictioninternational in scope and electrically alive.Colum McCannMalarky is a terrific read, a brilliant collision of heartbreak and hilarity written in a voice that somehow seems both feral and perfectly controlled. Anakana Schofields Our Woman takes a cool nod at Joyce, then goes her own way in one of the most moving and lyrical debut novels Ive read.Jess Walter, author ofBeautiful RuinsWe become comfortable saying that theres nothing new, and then something likeMalarkycomes along, which is new and old and different and familiar, but ultimately itself, comfortable in its own skin, wise and smart and crazy-sexy or maybe sexy-crazywell, you just have to read it to understand. Its a novel that sets its own course, sure and steady, even when it seems like it might be about to go over the edge of the world.Laura LippmanThis is the story of Anakana Schofields teapot-wielding Our Woman: fretful mother, disgruntled farmwife, andsurprisingly late in lifesexual outlaw/anthropologist. Everything about this primly raunchy, uproarious novel is unexpectedeach draught poured from the teapot marks another moment of pure literary audacity.Lynn Coady, author ofThe AntagonistAnyone bold enough to name her book after a word so loaded deserves our attention. InMalarkySchofield pulls her long line tightand lets go when we least expect it.Michael Turner, author ofHard Core LogoMalarkyspins and glitters like a coin flipped in the airnow searingly tragic, now blackly funny. The language is joyful and exuberant, the characters thoughtful and deeply felt. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.Annabel LyonGood writing and dark wit always excite me and they come together thrillingly in this book. It has a quiet grip on the strangeness of the interior and exterior worlds of love and politics. I delighted in the writing and the scope.Jenny DiskiThis is a remarkably different novel. It is laugh out loud funny and sadly real. It is perceptive and revealing. It is raunchy. It is literate with no shades of gray. The protagonist, cleverly named Our Woman, is sui generis; you will not find her ilk anywhere. Hers is a voice we have not heard before and may not hear again.About.comOne of the delights of this novel is the language in which it is written. The tender inflections of everyday Irish speech seem to break into a jig, dancing to and fro I found in Malarky a refreshing rejection of the escapist fantasy that dominates much of our cultural life: it is boldly not fifty shades of anything. I admire Schofields ability to pull off something so difficult with charm and brio.The GuardianSchofields portrait of a woman whose personality is beginning to fragment after a lifetime in an emotional vacuum is both blackly comic and deeply felt. There is something heroic about the desperate resilience of Our Woman, and the originality of her depiction by Schofield, that leaves an indelible trace on the readers mind.The TelegraphThe best writers manage to balance comedy and tragedy, to combine the verbal virtuosity and high jinks of the comic vision with intelligent and sensitive insight into peoples lives and hearts. And Anakana Schofield is in the ranks of the best. She weaves her words well and demonstrates many of the gifts that the novelist has to own. This novel is deeper and more thoughtful than it seems. Clever, witty, imaginative and intriguing, Malarky is a stunning debut from an exceptionally good writer.The Irish TimesBrilliant laced with dark wit and quirky lyricism, this is a striking portrait of a society in flux and a woman on the edge.The Sunday MailThe Irish-Canadian authors episodic, deeply idiosyncratic work is not only eminently readable but also an absolute hoot told with such chuckle-inducing black humour and deep-seated intelligence its akin to being button-holed by a fascinating, blithely imprudent stranger.Metro HeraldThe novels poignancy is matched by its regular comic brilliance Schofield overturns stereotypes partly by embracing them first, toppling traditional domestic imagery in order to fully capture Philomenas internal and external worlds Her writings distinctiveness and comic energy invokes Patrick McCabe as well as Anne Enrights early work.Sunday Business PostMalarkyis a bold first novel from an author whose prose hums with electric wit and linguistic daring. The novel traverses darkly comic territory with intelligence and poise, relating the story of an unnamed narrator whose resilience in the face of lifes disappointments will stay with readers long after the verbal pyrotechnics have dissipated. Anakana Schofield is a true original, and her novel is a delight.Stuart Woods, Amazon.ca First Novel Award JudgeOne of the seasons best reads.The National PostQuirky, raucous and utterly unconventional.Readers DigestA miracle move over, Molly Bloom.Ann Kjellberg,Little StarThis book got a lot of attention on my Twitter feed this year from many women I admire greatly. Its about Our Woman, an Irish housewife surrounded by people she cant understand, doing unmentionable things to each other. What is a woman to do? Well, just maybe try some unmentionable things herself.Laurie Grassi,ChatelaineMalarky becomes truly compelling when Our Woman embodies an existential strangeness. In certain moments, we are not so far from Becketts Molloy Our Woman comes close to enlivening not only the political and the personal but also the human. Schofield has true promise for this kind of writing, and it is there that I hope she next turns her sizable gifts, in the book that will surely follow this resoundingly successful first novelSan Francisco ChronicleMalarkyis a book deeply rooted in the consciousness of a middle-aged Irish farmers wife and mother, Philomena, or Our Woman, who is grieving the loss of both her husband and son. Philomenas story is remarkable for the way in which it immerses a reader in the extreme disorientation and overpowering sorrow of loss. The narrative is fractured and discursive; it loops and soars and doubles back. But if this sounds overly complicated or esoteric, it isnt, mostly because Philomena is so brave and flawed and strange a character and her means of dealing with her losses so, well, human. This is a funny, raunchy, moving read, written in beautiful, brave prose.Heather Birrell,The Next Best Book BlogA fascinating voyage into the mind of a woman embattled absolutely beautiful.Toronto StarThe immensely gifted Anakana Schofields vivid study of a middle-aged Irish housewifes nervous breakdown has a huge heart and a fierce brain; Malarky is, by a wide margin, the most memorable fiction Ive read this year.Brian Lynch,The Georgia StraightA glorious, breathless romp through the mind of an immensely likeable womanSlightly BookistOne of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years Schofield starts at a pitch of inspiration most novels are lucky to reach at any point and remarkably sustains that level all the way through.The Montreal GazetteThis is a brilliant book. Finely drawn, deceptively muscular, and pulsing with warm intelligence and witThe RoverSchofields brilliant storytelling inMalarkyis among the most engaging Ive ever encountered.The Longest ChapterMalarkyis an exemplary read I look forward to the next of Anakana Schofields novels.Scott Esposito,Conversational ReadingIrish-Canadian literary critic Anakana Schofields first novel is a tumultuous ride.Malarkyasks questions without providing answers, chronicling the emotional, mental, and occasionally menial anxieties of Our Woman as she struggles with her own agency and desire. Set in contemporary Ireland, the book overflows with subtle and sometimes subversive allusions to James JoycesUlysses, Thomas HardysTess of the dUrbervilles, site-specific contemporary Irish art, and Catholic history. Yet Schofields strong prose style and inventive approach to structure will likely reward readers unfamiliar with these cultural references.Quill & QuireDelightfully offbeat Schofield shows a deft and altogether welcome comic touch.The National PostThe love of a mother for her son is the central theme of this novel. But the book has much to ask and much to say about many other topics as well, among them empowerment through sex, loneliness in marriage, the futility of war, the strains of immigration and the margins of mental health. Schofields ability to tie all these together in such an original, quirky, tender and eloquent way is to be commended Malarkyis an alternately beautiful, brilliant, profound, poignant and comedic work of literary fiction. The Winnipeg Free PressI loved this bookMalarky I was gobsmacked.Sheryl MacKay, CBC Radio,North by NorthwestMalarkyis like nothing else, and what everything should be This is a book that will leave you demanding more of everything else you read.Pickle Me ThisMalarkyis a wacky, dead serious book, and what stands out more than anything is its freshness in a sea of same-old, same-old novels.The Telegraph JournalA challenging but rewarding look at what happens to a mother when the bottom drops out.The Vancouver SunHead and shoulders above many of its peers.The Georgia StraightI loved this book from its opening lines Schofields strong beautiful prose is compelling.Freefall MagazineMordantly funny Malarky, a recent and notable addition to the growing field of mad studiesthe exploration of oppressive practices directed against those deemed madexplores the uses of humour to unveil and counteract that oppression.Canadian Literature