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    Ghosts and Lightning
    Ghosts and Lightning
    Ghosts and Lightning
    Audiobook8 hours

    Ghosts and Lightning

    Written by Trevor Byrne

    Narrated by John Lee

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Set in contemporary Dublin and the surrounding countryside, Ghosts and Lightning is a picaresque account of Denny Cullen's life after he is called back home to attend his mother's funeral. Denny-a sweet-natured but disillusioned young man who feels powerless in the face of death, dope, and the dole queue-is the steadiest in a cast of unstable characters. Denny and his lads fill their empty days with hooliganism, raucous parties, violence, and even an exorcism, but their fearlessness and humor make them as irresistible as an expertly pulled pint of Guinness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 18, 2010
    ISBN9781400185559
    Ghosts and Lightning

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    Reviews for Ghosts and Lightning

    3/5

    29 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)At first I was tempted to dismiss the 2009 character dramedy Ghosts & Lightning, the latest by hip Irish writing professor Trevor Byrne, because of it being almost identical in both theme and tone to so many other youngish Commonwealth authors like Roddy Doyle, Nick Hornby and Irvine Welsh; it is yet another look at charming yet troubled blue-collar underemployed males in a former part of the British Empire (Dublin in this case), the women who love them, and the trouble they are always getting into, told through phonetically sounded-out dialogue from that actual region. But I'll be damned if I didn't end up loving it anyway; because despite the above being true, Byrne at least does an impeccable job at it, turning in a story that is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, in a style that is both exotic to American ears yet easy to understand and follow. I don't really have much to say about it that hasn't been said a thousand times already about other such books; but if you're looking for yet another one in this vein to enjoy, it'd be hard to go wrong with this leisurely paced deep character study.Out of 10: 8.9
    • 2/5
      Adult fiction. I think I could like this book--it's got zany, Irish characters and colorful dialogue, but I just couldn't get into it.
    • 1/5
      Truthfully I could not even finish it. I got about 1/2 way through and gave up -- it just wasn't catching my interest. The dialogue/dialect may make the characters more authentic but for me it just got in the way. It didn't seem to be going anywhere and there didn't seem to be any real plot. It is very rare for me not to finish a book whether I am liking it or not but I have to many books on my list waiting to be read to waste any more time with this one.
    • 4/5
      The style of writing in this book took me a little getting used to at first, but it was worth it. It tells the story of Denny Cullen on his return to his late mother's house, and the self-destructive ruts that he and many of his friends and family are trapped in. I spent a lot of the book wanting to shake the characters and tell them that they need help, which I imagine is testimony to Byrne's ability to make compelling and believable characters; and I was glad that the ending was at least semi-hopeful.
    • 3/5
      A modern day Irish version of Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat. Heavy on the Irish dialect, slang and swearing. After his mother's unexpected death, Denny inherits her house along with his heavy drinking and partying sister. Denny takes trips throughout the countryside with a few friends while trying to deal with his loss. The characters seem real enough, with humorous scenes, hooliganism and Denny stumbling along trying to figure out how his world changed so quickly and what to do now. A rowdy novel that will find an audience.
    • 1/5
      I tried hard to like this book. Scratch that, I tried hard to get through this book, however, after 150 pages, I've given up. It's hard to say what it is that turning me off. The lack of a discernible plot line? The weird dashes to denote conversation instead of quotation marks? The incomprehensible (to me) Irish slang? Or my inability to relate to the characters? I imagine it's a combination of all of these. That's not to say that this is a bad book. I imagine there are plenty of people out there who would truly enjoy it. Perhaps I'm just too old for this type of druggie/slacker Trainspotting kind of tale. Whatever it is, this book is not for me.