BOOK JOURNAL: Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Entry #9: an incredible, immersive novel set in the late-1960s Northern Ireland with a compelling love story and a socio-political history lesson
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Rating: 7/5 stars
I’ve hit that summer slow down in my reading pace. You know the feeling, right? My free time normally earmarked for reading has been gobbled up by attending to sunny summer social obligations, taking advantage of the gorgeous PNW weather, and exhausting myself in the delightful plight of being a new puppy parent. These kinds of “reading ruts” are the hardest—I have the desire to read, I’m in the middle of an incredible book, but I just don’t have the requisite, distraction-free time to devote to the pursuit.
The book I’m reading now is The Alternatives, by Caoilinn Hughes, and I’ve described this a Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano infused with wry and dark Irish humor and general climate change existentialism. (More on Alternatives in a future Book Journal post.) For this week’s Book Journal, since I’m already steeped in Irish literature, I thought I’d chat about one of my favorite books of 2023, which was also written by an Irish author—Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.
Trespasses is set in late-1960s Northern Ireland during the region’s political upheaval. For my fellow history nerds, this troubled time was aptly called The Troubles. Goodreads’ synopsis of the book give you a glimpse of a layered and interesting plot:
“Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment—Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married—Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.”
This book was one part love story, one part history lesson, and a sprinkle of the observational dark humor and understanding of human nature—characteristic of the very best contemporary Irish authors we all know and love. Louise Kennedy gives me everything I know and love about Sally Rooney’s writing, but she adds sharp political commentary in a more overt way than Rooney infuses in her books. Her dialogue is incredible, and reading this book literally transported me to the rainy, windblown region of Ireland. Kennedy is especially special because writing is her second career, having spent thirty years in the culinary industry as a chef. We love seeing a woman in her late 40s pivot!
When I have a particular genre craving, I tend to really lean into it. This isn’t my first obsessive bout with female Irish authors, and certainly won’t be my last. (Check out the other recommendations below.) This time, in my reading of The Alternatives, I was inspired to snag a couple of copies of Iris Murdoch’s books and to move Louise Kennedy’s sophomore book—a collection of stories called The End of the World is a Cul de Sac—higher on the priority TBR list. Obviously, I’m hanging out in Ireland mentally, and welcome you to join me. Trespasses is a wonderful choice for this pursuit.
“Aside from the obvious one, this was the real difference between her and them. They had the confidence to be foolish, to be wrong.”
“chuisle mo chroí: the pulse of my heart.”
“Cushla peeled potatoes and parsnips and carrots. She carried the skins outside in a basin. Their neighbour, Mr Reid, was in his garden. There was an apple tree strung with fatballs, the lawn blooming with drifts of snowdrops and crocuses; beds that would be bright were turned over and ready for planting. The Laverys had a wan clutch of daffodils that came out sulking in spring and a single diseased rose bush.”
Louise Kennedy’s second book: The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
The Guardian’s write-up of Kennedy, quoting her as saying “I read Wuthering Heights twice and found it demented” (lol)
This interview of Louise Kennedy on Thoughts from a Page. She recommends two compelling books (below).
This interview on LitHub, specifically this bit:
“My father-in-law died in hospital (not from the virus) in March 2020, the day before Ireland entered its first lockdown. His funeral was heart-scalding, eight of us standing what felt like miles apart in a draughty crematorium, weeping. The following weeks were a strange and frightening frenzy of doom-scrolling, manic cleaning and bickering with my children over handwashing. With the libraries and bookshops shut I had nothing to read, so friends left bags of books on my doorstep.
I moved into the spare room and powered through seventeen novels in three weeks, which somehow calmed me; I was ready to go back to work. I barricaded myself into the shed in the garden and added three stories to the original twelve in The End of the World is A Cul de Sac, brought my novel Trespasses on by several drafts and completed a PhD. It was awful not to see friends and family, and to see the effects of lockdown on my then-teenage children, but I also loved being at home gardening, cooking and writing. Part of me would love to be locked down again.”
Anything by Sally Rooney. My favorites are: Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You
Anything by Maggie O’Farrell. I’ve listened to After You’d Gone (her debut, which was phenomenal), and The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet are on my TBR.
Join me in working through Irish female authors in the canon:
Iris Murdoch: The Sea, The Sea, A Severed Head, and The Black Prince
Edna O’Brien: The Country Girls Trilogy and her memoir Country Girl
Louise Kennedy herself recommended these two books in the Thoughts from a Page interview: My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden, and These Days by Lucy Caldwell
I’m bookmarking several that I haven’t read from this Penguin Random House list of Irish authors as well!
I’d add “Milkman” by Anna Burns to your list, too!