A book so bad - I threw it in the trash bin afterwards. I had various problems with this book. The topic, the Northern Irleand Conflict/ The Troubles, was interesting and catchy. Unfortunately, MacLaverty did not suceeded in making the topic interesting or exciting. His language was dull and boring, he often used unnecessary descriptions which just read more boring and put the reader to sleep. His description just weren't convincing and sometimes even gross and tasteless. The characters were just as dull as the writing. None of them convinced the reader to feel anything for them, you couldn't offer sympathy to anyone of them. There was Cal, the main character of this book, who is a whiny, self-pitying idiot and gets himself involved in the Republican Movement in Northern Ireland although he doesn't want to. This book centers around him and his Dad, the only people left in a Protestant-dominant neighbourhood and also Marcella who just lost her husband and is adored by Cal. The choice of names was also rather weird "Crilly", "Finbar Skeffington" "Cal" "Marcella" (for an Irish?). Cal was a coward and his self-pitying and cursing himself on every page slowly annoyed me and put me into sleep. It was the same on every page. He was unreliable although you always thought he was written so you could pity him. But I never didn't. Marcella, a few years older than him, was just as irritatin as Cal himself. He threw himself on to him but the suddenly stops because she feels guilty because of her dead husband. She teased him. A lot. Which was okay and understandable, I guess, since her husband just died but she was just so annoying. A coward just like Cal, she didn't even try to leave the house she lived in with her husband. It was all so boring and without any progress. The only person in this book who is decent and likeable is probably Cal's dad Shamie but only because he has to go through a depression later in the book so you kinda feel sorry for him. Also he was the only person who didn't pity himself and always acted strong. The other characters were just dull and weak and also badly-written and described. They did not feel like real human beings. On the side, they were Crilly who is too dumb and just beats people up, and Skeffington, "the Brains" of the Movement. Their pseudo talk about the War and religion, quoting the Bible, was just boring and made me wanted to punch them in the face. But at least they did something, they talked about their visions and tried to make them true through violence, Cal just sat there, watching their violence without acting. He just let them do the terrible things and only thought about himself. It was always like: "No, the police will catch me if I do that." He never thought: "All those people who died during the bombings". No, not for Cal, he just likes to save himself but hasn't the guts for doing so and keeps whining. What bothered me most is that the book concentrated more on the "love story" rather than on the sufferings of the Northern Irish population, suddenly the Troubles were just irrelevant and whole pages were wasted to describe their sex life which was just gross and creepy. He stalked her from the bathroom window, always looked at her and tried to talk to her. He was needy all the time. There was no romance, no suspense, it just didn't feel like a real lovestory although MacLaverty tried so hard. It is not an anti-war novel, not even a novel that showed the real circumstances, just a boring book about a fucked up love story and a whining teenage boy - no thanks! At least Cal taught me to be brave so I don't end up acting all stupid like he did.