Maria Doyle Kennedy

Donal O’Keeffe

Eric Anderson

Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent – Lonesome Reader

Lonesome Reader

It’s been a long time since a novel’s beginning has arrested my attention as instantly as “Unravelling Oliver.” The opening scene is narrated by a man named Oliver who is standing over his wife Alice. He’s just punched her. It’s terrifying being immediately thrown into the consciousness of a man that’s committed such a violent, cowardly act. His motives remain mysterious and the rest of this short, powerful novel goes on to explain who Oliver is, what he’s hiding and why he has beaten his wife. The chapters flip between the perspectives of Oliver and a group of people who have been associated with him throughout his life to compose a portrait of a man who has committed monstrous acts. While it at no point suggests he should be forgiven for his crimes, the novel conveys a logical path that has led to his selfish acts. The story is skilfully arranged to reveal information slowly with the limited perspective of characters relating different pieces of the puzzle. They don’t always fully appreciate the gravity of the information they hold. I love it when books so cleverly help the reader to understand a story better than the characters involved. It makes for a really gripping read.

There is something almost Dickensian about the story here of a man born in difficult circumstances and emotionally neglected. Through his cunning he achieves fame and fortune, but experiences a downfall from grace when confronted with the truth of his past. Where this novel deviates from that kind of Dickensian structure is that the main protagonist commits an act so heinous it’s excruciatingly hard to feel empathy for him – whereas we can do nothing but feel totally on the side of Great Expectation’s poor little Pip. Because of Oliver’s hard upbringing and fear of being rejected, he feels it necessary to always hide himself and maintain a certain emotion distance from everyone. He remarks at one point: “Friends are just people who remind you of your failings.” The novel conveys that when this man became emotionally isolated from those around him his sympathy floundered and he becomes prone to acting out of total selfishness. This is borne out of a legacy of shame.

Something that really impressed me was how this novel dealt with many kinds of unconventional relationships. There is the fascinating regal French character named Veronique who bears a son in unusual circumstances. A rather self centred actress named Moya thinks herself rather coy in the way she pursues multiple men, but whose motives are much more obvious than she realizes. A repressed gay man named Michael establishes a kinship with Veronique who helps him on the path to self-acceptance and finding a flourishing relationship. Also Oliver and his wife Alice don’t have a traditional partnership. It’s commented that “You don’t have to love a person. You can love the idea of a person.” Of course, this makes for an unstable foundation on which to build a long term relationship. Loving a person for being the person they really are is very different from loving someone as you’d like them to be.

It is striking that although the novel ventures into narrating the point of view of many different characters (in one chapter it even daringly invokes the voice of Alice’s mentally disabled brother Eugene) it never represents the perspective of Alice herself. This is somewhat out of practicality. After Alice is severely beaten she enters into a coma so has no voice to comment. However, I did at some times yearn for her point of view. It’s only natural to want to hear the perspective of the abused over the abuser. But, as I neared the end of the book, it struck me as right that Oliver’s confession coupled with the accounts of people associated with him was necessary for accomplishing the powerful effect that Nugent makes. The novel wouldn’t have worked otherwise.

Despite the seriousness and sadness of many scenes in this novel, it is handled with a light touch so it doesn’t become too grim or ponderous. There are lots of endearingly human and humorous moments. At one point there is even a funny instance of the author poking fun at her own heritage when French Veronique remarks “Always with the Irish, there is the drama!” Nugent also has quite a thought-provoking take on issues of race and heritage in the story she’s constructed. The issues raised left me pondering the meaning of the ending and wishing I had someone to discuss it with immediately. The book is effectively a series of monologues which isn’t surprising given the author’s theatre background; the different dramatic voices form a complete complex narrative. This is an extremely compelling and accomplished first novel and I hope Nugent continues to write more in the future.

Liz and Dermot Bolger will chat to Sinead Gleeson about how they started to write

Dublin Writers Festival

Have you ever wanted to write a novel? How do you get it out and on the page? How do you handle structure, dialogue and plot? And once it’s written, what is the best way to get it published? These and more questions will be tackled in a new series in The Irish Times called How to Write a Book. On Saturday, May 17th the series begins with a look at what’s in store. Then each Monday, in The Irish Times, on the Arts and Ideas page, for 12 weeks, arts journalist and broadcaster Sinéad Gleeson will tackle a different part of the book writing process, including how to start and where to get inspiration from, how to structure your book and find your voice, how to edit and present your work, and how to find an agent or publisher. She’ll be getting advice and hints from established and award-winning authors.At the Dublin Writers Festival Sinéad Gleeson will chair a discussion with novelist Liz Nugent, whose debut novel ‘Unravelling Oliver’ has been at the top of the Irish charts for some weeks; and poet, playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger.

Presented by The Irish Times in association with the Dublin Writers Festival and Irish Writers’ Centre.

Donal O’Keeffe

Patricia O’Reilly

Irish Times Paperback of the Week

The Irish Times

Irish Times Paperback of the Week.

irish times paperback of the week

Unravelling Oliver Reviews Poster

Penguin Books has put together a review compilation poster. Have a look.

UO Review poster

Liz chats to American book blogger BOLO

BOLO Books

Today, I am happy to welcome Liz Nugent to BOLO Books. Liz is the author of Unravelling Oliver. If you missed the review of Unravelling Oliver, check it out before continuing on to this wonderful interview with Liz Nugent. I suspect you will be ordering the book shortly after that. Enjoy!

BOLO Books: Where did the idea for Unravelling Oliver originate?

Liz Nugent: I must pay homage to John Banville’s The Book of Evidence for the inspiration. In 2002, I was the Stage Manager on a theatrical adaptation of that book so we examined the deeply flawed character of Freddie Montgomery very closely. I wanted to write about somebody like him, though Oliver is far less emotional and I think, more callous. It was years before I wrote anything down but when I found my first line ‘I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her’, I knew I had a character and a tone.

BOLO Books: The working title of the novel was I Try To Be Good, correct? At what stage was the title changed and are you happy with that decision?

Liz Nugent: That was actually the third rejected title. Originally, it was Redemption, but it was arguable at the end of the book whether Oliver was redeemable or not. Then I changed the title to Father, to catch the double meaning of a parent and a priest, but that was rejected because it wouldn’t necessarily appeal to female readers. I Try To Be Good is the last line of the book but was thought too simplistic for a title. I then sent a list of about 30 suggested titles, none of which were approved. In the end, my husband very casually suggested Unravelling Oliver one night and Penguin jumped on it with relief!

BOLO Books: Without spoilers, tell us a bit about Oliver Ryan, the man.

Liz Nugent:  Hard to say much without spoilers (!), but Oliver is emotionally scarred by not having a mother, or any knowledge of her until very late in the novel. He has no familial relationships to draw upon until the chapters set in France, but his overwhelming desire to be part of a family, and the lengths he goes to to achieve that, result in a tragedy and a personal trauma he can never overcome. From then on, he is incapable of love, a loss he is unable to feel. I hope I never meet anyone like Oliver.

BOLO Books:  Oliver’s wife Alice is very important to the novel and yet she is never given a voice in the story. Why did you make this decision and how did you go about making her important to the reader while she remains largely off the page.

Liz Nugent:  In an earlier draft, we did hear from Alice in the shape of a letter to Barney, written the night before the calamitous incident in the first chapter, but the story is Oliver’s and there was nothing in Alice’s letter that we didn’t already know. I can tell you that she told Barney that she had picked the wrong man, but we know that from the first line!

BOLO Books:  Unravelling Oliver is a structurally complex novel, with the reader getting little bits of the story that they must put together to complete the picture. How did you go about writing it? In other words, did you write each character’s sections together or did you bounce back and forth similar to how the finished product is presented?

Liz Nugent:  In my first draft, each character except Oliver had one long chapter each; Oliver had two. It was my editor’s (Patricia Deevy) suggestion to chop them up into short snappy chapters. Creating the segue from one to the other was a challenge but I think her suggestion was a very good one and made the book more compelling than it would originally have been.

BOLO Books:  The book is a fairly short and quick read (although, I would argue that it requires more work on the reader’s part than most books). Since you have previously written short stories, I wonder if you intend to write a shorter novel when you started or is that just how it turned out?

Liz Nugent:  Because of a childhood brain injury, I can only type with one hand so it probably takes me twice as long and twice as much effort as the average typist. I didn’t have a set number of words in mind – just enough to tell the story. I try not to waste words. I doubt that I’ll ever write a tome! I have a theory that shorter novels might be the way forward as readers’ attention spans shrink due to the immediacy of social media. I must admit that the size of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch daunted me but I made a serious commitment to the book and read it in eight days. I don’t think I’d do that for an unknown writer. You have to earn your readers.

The GoldfinchBOLO Books:  I do agree that it is easier to sample new authors when the works are shorter.  Like you, I will give a pass to an author I already know I love, regardless of length.

Unravelling Oliver is made up of a collection of first-person accounts that together help to create a picture of this one man. Which people in your life would you hope to have recount your life story?

Liz Nugent:  The ones who like me! My lovely husband Richard McCullough and my four brothers and four sisters and particularly my niece and godchild Sophie Nugent, who, at the age of 11, was already a published poet. She is 13 now and I suspect she’ll be the family writer of the next generation.

BOLO Books:  Irish crime fiction is currently experiencing a surge in popularity – a bit of a golden age. What do you think make these Irish novels unique in the canon of crime fiction?

For those that may be new to Irish crime fiction, what other authors do you suggest they might try?

Liz Nugent:  I’m answering both questions here.

I’m not sure I know how to answer that. I didn’t know I was writing a crime novel when I started out and I’m not very familiar with the work of other Irish crime writers apart from Declan Burke who writes brilliantly gritty stories. I got an advance reading copy of the soon-to-be-published Can Anybody Help Me by Sinead Crowley which I really loved because it deals with internet friendships and features a great pregnant detective character. It captures the zeitgeist of modern impersonal relationships very well. I have also heard great things about The Stranger on the Train by Abbie Taylor and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it.

The Stranger on the TrainBOLO Books:  Oh, excellent.  I have an ARC of The Stranger on the Train waiting for me on my Kindle.  Now, I am even more anxious to get to it.  I’ll keep you posted!

If forced to choose only one format for all your future reading, which would you choose: Hardback, trade paperback, mass-market paperback, or e-book?  And why?

Liz Nugent:  Mass market paperback because it’s the easiest to read in bed (I do all my reading in bed). Hardbacks annoy me sometimes, because the fly-leaf flaps around and is easily torn. And moving house with hardbacks is a lot harder! Even though I’ve just been published as a trade paperback, I don’t really get why they’re bigger? Is it to grab attention in a bookshop? I must ask Penguin.

I don’t own an e-reader because I’m terrified that their proliferation will cause the extinction of bookshops. Imagine! Plus – if you buy my book and happen to meet me, I’m not going to be able to sign your screen…

BOLO Books:  Actually, there are some new apps that allow for the signing of digital books, however, for me it’s just not the same as a signed hardback book.  For that reason, I hope I don’t have to move again anytime soon.  ;)