The Good Life, The Dirty Life and Other Stories Book

So this book. It has sat on my bookshelf for over a year, bought because I liked "These Important Messages" so much and Googled the author, but I never quite got around to reading it. Now I have. And I'm very glad I have.

"The Ledge" is a book about a lot of things, namely theft and death and movies and love stories. Lots of questions to think about -- who stole what from who? Does this count as stealing? Is this theft justified by that theft? I'm barely twenty, so I can't say I understand ALL the complexities and questions posed in modern literature just yet, but I tend to plow on and assume it's okay if I don't realize that A is connected to B, even if a fancy literary scholar would. There's so much in this novel that I'm absolutely certain I didn't make all the connections, but I think that's okay. That's what makes good art. You can read it again later and think about it again later and maybe you'll find something new.

All the characters in "The Ledge" were horrible people in some ways, and really interesting/admirable people in others. I loved John Kelso as a character, but the gradual realization that maybe he was a person not entirely deserving of my love made me stop and think every so often about whether I should change my mind (and the fact that I didn't change it also made me think.) Similarly, Kenny went from being a vaguely sympathetic character to a seriously repulsive one, and whenever he was featured after that, there was this battle in my mind as to which side of him should count for the most. I'm still not sure. It reminded me of "The Casual Vacancy" in that way.

I also loved the slow converging of each featured character with the others. I got really excited when Lynne and John found each other, and couldn't put the book down after Tom and Kenny met in the bar. The parallel of Lydia and the zoo director was also really fun to read.

The only bit I wasn't quite sure about was the subplot and how that connected to the end. The themes lined up, but every time there was a new section about the old woman and her life, I did groan a little bit -- I wanted to get back to the real story. The sections were beautifully written and entertaining once I'd gotten into them, but I'm still not certain whether that was the best way to carry the plot forward. I did love the Doctor's descent into madness, though, especially the scene where he goes properly crazy and starts cutting around the old woman's pillow and filing his nails until they bleed. Chilling and memorable.

On the whole I really liked it and I can't think why it isn't more popular. Fast-paced, funny, and both simple and complicated in different ways. A glowing review from Roddy Doyle should be more than reason enough to read it.