A Son Called Gabriel

Damian McNicholl

First time author Damian McNicholl writes what is shown in the unrevised proof a “fiction/memoir”, and though I don't normally think of a memoir being fictional, it seems it was fictionalized as a result of name changes and possibly composite characters. The author's brief intro on the back cover leads me to believe there was a lot of himself in this work. Gabriel is the firstborn child in a Catholic Northern Irish family. The book covers the period from the time Gabriel first enters Catholic school until he is getting ready to enter college in Cardiff, Wales, to escape “the troubles” at home. He has early and ongoing problems in school – not fitting in, preferring to play the girls games at recess, and studying more than the norm for a lower middle class boy, and later, a sexual “phase” he is going through as identified by the local priest. When deciding what football team to have as a favorite he decides on Chelsea. When asked to explain why, he says “I like the color of their outfits...and Chelsea is in a nicer part of England”. This boy is destined for problems in school – harassment, hazing, and the ocassional fight that he tries desperately to avoid; difficult to achieve when growing up different, distinctive, unique – with more than a little sexual confusion thrown in for good measure. Early on, while at the store with his 'mammy', he begins to learning the harsh reality of life in Northern Ireland – the class culture split largely along religious lines, and questions his mother “Can we be saved even if we are Catholics, Mammy?” Although there seems to be an attempt to write an Irish memoir in the vein of “Angela's Ashes”, I thought the result of Mr. Mcnicholl's effort was to me passionless by comparison – as if the life observed was two steps removed from the life lived. This is an advance reader's copy, and those problems may be worked out in the editorial process by the time of the final release. For me there was something missing in this effort, and while I think it was worth the time, it will be unlikely to make the top then for the year.