Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

Published: 2020, Penguin

Genre: Fiction

Themes: competition between brothers, Irish family, price of success

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤

I usually put a few props on the tray that I use for book photographs, but what on earth do you use when you want to portray a family of self-serving, malicious miscreants as the characters in this book?

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent is a dark story of three brothers desperately competing for the love of their selfish mother. It begins at the funeral of one of them and throughout the book you are left to guess which one it is going to be. Each takes a turn at telling their version of their family story, and at the end of each section you are left thinking, 'yep, someone would certainly want to kill him!'

The narrative is beautifully written, to a quality right up there with best contemporary Irish writers, and it is rightly an international best seller. I enjoyed it from the start as the three brothers begin as a fairly typical family mix of boys with a boisterous good looking one (William), the plodding sensible one (Brian) and the sensitive little brother (Luke). As events unfold their true characters are slowly revealed and little sibling rivalries evolve into nasty tricks and horrible disloyalty.

Their mum enjoys some level of fame as a singer fronting a showband, and while she is out performing or socialising with her show business friends, dad is left to manage the family and provide most of the meals. Her career brings the boys in contact with the entertainment industry and as they grow up they make their own careers in the performing arts and all their childhood rivalries continue.

Having the three brothers in the entertainment industry makes their indiscretions all the more plausible as there are reminders of the type of actions that led to the 'Me too' movement. It also gives the perfect platform for the kind of excess, greed and manipulation that underpins every chapter. It is well worth reading.

Comments

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