Michelle GallenRecensioni

It's a coming of age story set over one summer in 1994 in a small town near the border with Ireland (aka the Free State). The town's population is roughly half Protestant (Prod) and half Catholic (Taig), but one can (and should) go living all their lives not really engaging with the other half. However, there's an integrated shirt factory in town, which is managed by a shady Brit Andy Strawbridge. Three girls start working there over the summer while waiting for their graduation grades and looking forward to leaving the town and starting college in autumn. It's quite an eventful summer in the lives of the girls.

Loved it! This book is definitely flying under the radar. I wouldn't have read if not for the book club. I'm not particularly interested in Northern Ireland, but I loved the setting and the characters and I loved loved loved the accent (both written and in the audiobook by the amazing Amy Molloy). It's a book with a very strong feeling of place and time. Great craft! The novel is not packed with action - I'd say it's more of a slow-burn. I wouldn't also call it funny, it's more somber than funny, though it's smart and witty and the dialogues are great. A glossary would have been useful, but Google came to rescue.

This had a fantastic Derry Girls vibe; it was a good coming of age story that was both funny and profound.

Although it was slightly darker than Derry Girls since I felt like it delved further into the Troubles in Factory Girls, there's flashbacks to when the main character, Maeve, was just a child and seeing all of the riots and

Eighteen year old Maeve Murray has her future planned out. Waiting for her A-level results to be published, she decides to take a summer job in a shirt factory with her closest friends Aoife and Caroline to earn some money before she moves to London to pursue higher education with the intention of embarking on a career in journalism. She can’t wait to get out of her Northern Ireland town and start a new life. Her first step towards independence is getting a summer job (despite the fact that she has to deal with an unpleasant boss whose treatment of his female employees is disrespectful to say the least) and renting a flat with her friend Caroline near her (temporary) workplace. Over the next few months, we follow Maeve as she adjusts to life as a factory worker, meets new people and makes new friends all the while hoping for a better future.

Michelle Gallen’s Factory Girls is an entertaining novel. Maeve is spirited (a bit brash at times) and resourceful. She observes and learns from her experiences, not all of which are pleasant. Set in the summer of 1994, in a small town in Northern Ireland during the last years of the Troubles, this novel gives us a vivid picture of the social and political landscape during those turbulent years. The author touches upon themes of divisiveness between the factions (more political than religious), sectarianism, bias, conflict, sexism and economic hardship, through an engaging narrative and a protagonist you keep rooting for. The narrative is shared from Maeve’s perspectives and we get to know more about her from her memories, which are presented to us through flashbacks. Maeve’s experiences in the factory in a mixed group of people which she considers to be a learning experience that will help her when she moves to London. A likeable protagonist, a cast of interesting characters, a good dose of humor and wit, and the historical context is what works for this novel. However, it took a bit of time to get into the story and I felt that the initial fifty percent of the novel suffers from minor repetitiveness. It also took a while to get used to the dialect. Despite some minor flaws, I did enjoy Michelle Galen’s Factory Girls. I can’t help wonder if we will get more stories from the author featuring Maeve, as she embarks on a new life.

Many thanks to Michelle Gallen, Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the advance copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released in the USA on November 29, 2022.

My Rating : 3.5⭐️

#FactoryGirls

Excellent book set in Northern Island at the time of peace talks. Follows 3 friends who are waiting for A level results and work in a factory for the summer.

What a relief not to be 27 year old Majella O'Neill of the miserable small town of Aghybogey, N. Ireland, near the Free State border, a place just as awful as its name sounds. Working in A Salt and Battered!, a chipper (fast food /fried fish shop) and observing its patrons endlessly to the tune of "Wha can I get chew?", Majella's beloved Gran has been robbed, beaten, and has died from an assault, her Ma is an alcoholic, and her Da disappeared after his cousin died during the Troubles. Now there's a shaky peace, but Majella is stuck, with few friends and little to look forward to. Somewhat paralyzed by her inertia and her obsessive-compulsive, self-soothing habits, even a trip to a bigger town to buy a new comforter requires a major decision and a dreaded excursion. For all that's negative, there's something about Majella that is admirable and sympathetic, mostly her sense of humor and her hilariously brutal analysis of the foibles of her neighbors. For an American reader, poring through the unfamiliar slang, the casual cruelty, the sex and gossip, is like being exposed to an entirely new world – completely enjoyable to visit but relief that it isn’t your home. But, as is told, joy could come in the morning.

Although it's set in 1990s Northern Ireland, this novel has the feel of YA dystopian fiction. Dystopian fiction works because it's at least somewhat believable/based on reality, but a story that feels like dystopian fiction but is set in the real world is unsettling to me. My teen history buff son has recently been talking about the ills of colonialism and what the world would look like without it. This novel fits well with that conversation.½

I appreciate the grittiness of the writing and the actual descriptions of annoying parts about being human and female. However there is much that is NOT said in this story that make it a bit frustrating to read in addition to the slang and dialect of Northern Ireland that really slowed down my reading.

This witty and deeply political novel set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles was such a laugh-out-loud joy to read! Maeve Murray is awaiting the results of her senior year exams to find out if she can leave all her/the Troubles behind to attend college in London. In the meanwhile, she moves out of her parents' sad house, where her older sister had committed suicide, and into a flat with one of her two best friends. The apartment is directly across the street from a shirt-making factory, where the girls take summer jobs. Maeve is immediately given the eye by and wildly attracted to the slimy factory owner, though she knows there's a lot that's really off about him. She's also profoundly shaken, as a Taig (Catholic) by her proximity to Prods (Protestant), which has not ever happened in her home or school life. It's a very informative novel about everyday Northern Irish small town life filled with sectarian violence and hatred, but the story overflows with humor, feminism, new words to learn (wean, gleek, scundered, cleastered – all understandable in context) and the best revenge. Thanks to the Wilmington Memorial Library for a delightful webinar with the author on March 25th!

I don't normally review books I don't finish. But wow. I could NOT connect with anyone or anything in this book. It is depressing, boring, and just a chore to get through. After the kittens, I cut myself loose. I've read plenty of sad/real life/'hard' books but this one is just devoid of any light. Hard to wrap my head around great the reviews for this.

First off, I enjoyed this book immensely, not because it was a “page-turner” in the traditional sense, or that it was an incredible and extraordinary story, but because it was absolutely ordinary, sometimes crass and graphic, and 100% real.

Another in the long line of books I’ve read this year set in Ireland, I was taken from the usual scenic landscapes or busy cities to a small, gritty town with a tense past. Beginning with a tragedy, the story follows Majella through her everyday routine and interactions, specifying her likes and dislikes outright. I was absolutely thrilled that despite her less than “fit” physique or being classically attractive, Majella is comfortable in her own skin, confident in her abilities, and content in her unremarkable life. She’s honest and loyal without gushing and responsible without ambition.

I like to describe these types of books as being more about the journey than the destination. Focusing on relationships and engagements, recalling significant events and memories, and reveling in the tasks at hand, this brand of storytelling takes talent and finesse to be successful. Gallen has proven that she knows how to capture the reader’s attention with the perfect blend of commonplace and introspection. Taking a walk in Majella’s shoes and experiencing her life firsthand allows the reader to get a sense of what it’s like to live in post-conflict Northern Ireland with its unique trials and adversity.

It would be remiss for me to not warn the reader about the challenge of reading this book on an empty stomach. Descriptions in this book are so vivid and detailed that I craved fish and chips throughout the entire story and ended up making them upon finishing the book. They were delicious and I devoured them as quickly as I devoured this novel.

Thank you Algonquin Books and Michelle Gallen for an advanced copy of this book. The opinions are my own.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen is a story of an 18-year-old girl, Maeve Murray who lives in a Northern Ireland town. She is waiting for her grades, GCSEs to arrive that will enable her to move to London to study journalism.

The story takes place in 1994 during the "troubles" of the time where the Catholics and the 'prods', Protestants, are at odds. There are bombings going on that the people of NI take as a given. It has been going on so long that it has become the norm. This conflict went on for 30 years so this time frame for the novel fits right in.

Maeve and her best friends, Caroline and Aoife get a job at a shirt factory and move in together in an apartment. Maeve wants to make enough money so she can go to London. This factory employees both the Catholics and Protestants which at times can be a challenge for both sides.

The boss, Andy Strawbridge is a good-looking guy, and he knows it and uses it to his advantage. To get the girls he wants and further his future prospects. He has his eyes on Maeve for sure. She is not sure if she wants the attention or not. After watching Andy, the girls determine that he is not on the up and up. His treatment of the women he employs is disrespectful to say the least.

This book reflects the troubles between the Irish, British, the Catholics and the Protestants and the IRA. There is mention of the conflicts between these factions, told straightforward but with a bit of humor. This summer has the girls partying a lot after work hours. There is sadness in the story also because Maeve's sister had committed suicide and Maeve is trying to understand the reasons which can make her bitter at times.

I found that I liked Maeve, even though she was pretty brash, and her colorful language added to the humor in the story even though the 'troubles' was anything but humorous. This was an extremely dangerous time for the people of Northern Ireland.

The author's writing definitely reflected this conflict and how the people lived during this time. Written with knowledge and humor made the story flow, otherwise I think it would have been difficult to read. I love reading books by Irish authors and this one is one of the best I have read in a while. I give it 5 stars!

The summer after high school graduation, waiting for the test scores that determine if she will to London for university and escape her small Irish town, Maeve takes a job in a factory. Her best friends also get jobs there. It’s 1994, and as good Catholic girls, the friends have spent their lives separated from the Proddies. Now, they will be working with them in the factory.

The factory boss Andy Strawbridge is gorgeous and rich, and uses his allure to his advantage. The girls are warned about him. Maeve is wise and contrary and verbally spars with Andy, very aware of his attractiveness. He seems to favor her.

The novel is well grounded in its time period and place, giving the reader a full sense of the political and religious contentions of the time. Growing up in The Troubles, self protection is second nature. The girls hang at the bar–sure to find seats away from windows where bombs may be thrown in. They know innocent people who have died.

The factory worker’s daily lives at work and in leisure, from the impoverished to the well off, make the bulk of the novel. Maeve and her friends rent an apartment. They go out drinking, learn their jobs, dream about the future.

Maeve and her friends become suspicious that the factory’s finances don’t align. And when paychecks don’t arrive, there is an uprising.

I enjoyed how the novel took me into the reality of Irish life. The threat of violence is always there. There is humor, too, and Maeve is a plucky and spirited gal. I was glad to be reading on my Kindle so I could quickly look up the Irish slang and lingo. It’s an entertaining read.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Big Girl, Small Town recounts a week in the life of Majella O'Neill, not long after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the murder of Majella's own grandmother. Majella lives in a small, poor Border town and comes from a small, poor family—her mother's an unemployed alcoholic and it's implied that her father was disappeared by the IRA—and works a dead-end job in a local chipper. She is almost certainly autistic, but undiagnosed, and lives a life of narrowly constrained routine.

This is a tough book to rate in that Michelle Gallen clearly sets out to achieve certain things, and does so, but they're not necessarily things I enjoy or am interested in reading about right now. As a pen portrait of Majella and the town of Agheyboghey, it's vivid and convincing: I could absolutely believe in her as a person and Agheyboghey as a claustrophobic small Irish town in the early 2000s. Majella's deadpan observations are often morbidly funny, and Gallen's got a great ear for naturalistic dialogue.

But while Gallen's attention to sensory detail is just as precise, all of the mentions of body odour and bodily fluids soon became overwhelming, and I actually started to feel nauseated from the number of times Majella mashes and crams chips into her mouth. The choice to render the dialogue phonetically grated with me (it always does), I thought the pacing was off, and for me there was a little too much emphasis on character observation over character development. In many ways, a really strong first novel—just one I didn't click with.½

I'll admit I was struggling with the writing style a bit - a sort of stream of consciousness and day-to-day ordinary events in Majella's life. I kept going, however, as I had a strong sense that the story was going to take me somewhere - perhaps somewhere very interesting. I was intrigued with Majella's personality, and her relationship with her mother, as well as her father.

That said, I finally reached a point that I can't push past. I reached 47% last night and, after some pondering, finally had to put the e-book down. I won't go into specifics so as not to ruin it for any readers out there, but let's just say I reached a scene that I personally could not push through. It may not be an issue for others, but I couldn't force myself to read through this uncomfortable scene. If it were just a reference, that probably would have been okay, but it's a bit too detailed for my stomach to handle.

I was leaning toward a 2-star rating here, for "it was okay", but I'm still left with that intriguing sensation that there was something more to this story then met the eye - something I'll never know since I didn't finish the novel. So, I am awarding an extra star for being intriguing- even in the face of my difficulties with the style.

A big thank you to Michelle Gallen, Algonquin Books, and NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for this honest review. I wish them the very best on the upcoming release!

Abandoned. This book was not for me. The language was too crude. The writing style just didn't work. It was supposed to be funny, but I never got far enough to determine it. I'm not sure whether a friend's review or a publisher's blurb placed it on my radar. It didn't live up to its promise.

This book came with a lot of hype that it did not live up to. It is about a 27 year old woman(Majella) living in a small Northern Ireland town shortly after the 1998 peace agreement. Her grandmother was murdered the previous week, her father left the family 15 years ago(no one know what happened to him), and her mother who she lives with is an alcoholic. Not a very pretty picture. Although the writing is excellent and there is some witty lines, being in Majella's head for 300 pages was pretty dreary. Not a book I would recommend unless you want a picture of life in a small Irish town.½

I did not find it magical. I found a dismal, depressing, novel, with a rather unlikeable main character. The reader just followed along with the repetitive minutiae of her boring drudge of a life working at the local chip shop and dealing with rude customers, then going home and dealing with her alcoholic train wreck of a Mother. Then there's these mysteries about her Gran's death and Father's disappearance that didn't really go anywhere. Kind of like the whole book. Didn't really go anywhere. At the end, just another what? That's it? Would never recommend this book to anyone. Don't believe the hype.

Trigger alert for animal abuse.

We spend the week following her grandmother's funeral immersed in Majella's narrow and not particularly deep, but very clearly seen world. Hours are spent at the chip shop where she works and each entry is from the catalog of likes and dislikes. Is a patron of the chip shop the brutal murderer of her grandmother? In a small city you are like to know the person who did it.½

Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking; Majella O'Neill is such a fascinating, complicated, and lovable voice, and she shines a unique light on her small Northern Irish town. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nicola Coughlan of "Derry Girls," which I highly recommend - she captures the unique Northern Irish dialect perfectly, and much like "Ulysses" this feels like a book that needs to be read aloud (possibly a bit tipsy) to fully appreciate.

I wanted to like this book. And I did manage to finish it, but I would not recommend it to anyone. Firstly, do not read it if you are a cat lover. Secondly, as many have said, it is quite bleak. And if I had to read one more description of the main character shoving or pushing food into her mouth, I might have vomited.½

Majella O'Neill lives in the small town of Aghybogey in Northern Ireland; it's after the Troubles, but only just. She works at a chip shop with Marty, and lives with her ma in her childhood home; her dad disappeared years ago. Majella hoped he would turn up recently, when his mother - her grandmother - was assaulted and killed; his failure to reappear convinces Majella that he's dead, like her Uncle Bobby. The results of her grandmother's will come as a surprise: instead of leaving her land to Aunt Marie, as everyone expected, she left it to Majella.

Majella seems to be neurodiverse, using coping strategies such as rocking and finger-flicking to calm herself, though she has been shamed for these strategies by her mother and teachers and only does them in private now. She has a long list of things that irritate her (loud noises, etc.), which boils down mostly to "other people." Yet, unlike Eleanor (Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine), Majella does not really come any further out of her shell or her patterns.

I can't say I agree with the positive reviews for this book (starred review from Booklist!). At first, it did remind me of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine crossed with Milkman by Anna Burns - only, unlike Eleanor, Majella O'Neill shows little to no character development over the week the book takes place - no change, no growth. I kept reading in the hopes that something would happen or change, and on the last page or two there's a hint of it, but nothing near like what I'd hoped for. Admirable recreation of a time and place, but ultimately a letdown.

See also: Milkman by Anna Burns, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Quotes

Throughout her childhood, the local news had been a litany of deaths, explosions, and murder attempts. Things only got worse after peace broke out. (8)

It was a town in which there was nowhere to hide, so people hid stuff in plain sight. (15)

She hated fighting with her ma. Neither of them ever won. (108)

She had learned a long time ago that it was a bad idea to tell people what she was really thinking. (132)

As hard as it was to figure out what people meant from the actual words they used, she found figuring looks out near impossible. (208)

Majella had yet to see the magic in the human journey... (256)

The main problem Majella had found in Aghybogey was that the lads weren't reading the same magazines as the girls, so they weren't engaged in any self-improvement program... (276)½

I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you

I'm torn. I found this to be well written in that I felt I was right there with Majella, and could picture everything clearly as told in the book, but the book was dreary and almost hopeless. Majella is an overweight girl in her twenties in a small town in Northern Ireland. Her mother is an alcoholic, her father left years ago with no explanation, and her grandmother was murdered. Honestly I don't think her weight played a large part in the book, well it did, because she tells the story from her point of view looking at the world as a heavy person, and knowing that's all the world sees her as. Nightly she works at a fish fry. Nightly the same characters come in. Nightly she returns home and microwaves her fish dinner from work. Nightly she deals with her mother. Before leaving for work, she deals with her mother. Daily she does the same prep before letting customers in. Daily she follows the same routine, over and over and over. Her life is very grey and dreary. I saw that someone mentioned she might be autistic, and I can see that, but I'm not sure.
It was an interesting book overall.

Twenty-seven-year-old Majella O’Neill is an overweight reclusive who lives with her alcoholic mother in Aghybogey, a small town in Northern Ireland near the Irish Republic border. She works in a fish-and-chip shop called A Salt and Battered! The novel depicts a week of her life.

The book is set in 2003, five years after the Good Friday Agreement that ended most of the violence of the Troubles; however, the legacy of the Troubles looms over Aghybogey which remains a community divided between Taigs (Catholics) and Prods (Protestants), with little contact between the groups. Certainly, Majella's family has been affected: years ago her uncle died in a bomb explosion and her father “disappeared”; recently her grandmother died because of a beating.

The book begins with a list of things Majella dislikes which extends to “ninety-seven items, with subcategories for each item.” There are seven chapters, organized by day of the week and chronologically by time, but within each chapter there are sub-headings based on Majella’s dislikes. For example, “4:04 p.m. - Item 12.2: Conversations: Rhetorical questions” and “7:15 p.m. - Item 3.4: Noise: Shite singing” and “10:00 p.m. - Item 8.4: Jokes: Repeated jokes” and “11:07 p.m. - Item 4.1: Bright lights: Fluorescent bulbs” are some of the subtitles in the Monday chapter. This structure effectively elaborates items on Majella’s list.

The character sketch of Majella is the book’s greatest strength. Though the term is never used, it is quite clear that she is on the autism spectrum. She craves routine, enjoys repetitive actions, has difficulty reading faces for emotions, and finds social situations awkward. To relieve stress, she has a habit of rocking and flicking her fingers. She dislikes change so the monotonous routine of her job is perfect for her. She tends to be gruff and straight to the point but is also kind-hearted.

Majella’s observations of life in Aghybogey and her comments about its residents are astute. The tensions between the Catholics and Protestants are mentioned often. Though she is Catholic, Majella sees flaws in her religion too. A priest tells Majella they have not been able to find her father to notify him that his mother has died: “the Catholic Church had feelers stretching into every home that hung a crucifix on its wall, a reach wider, deeper, creepier than the police.” One of Majella’s co-workers is Polish and though everyone accepts them because they’re hardworking, she knows that in truth, “the Poles were welcomed because they were Not Prods. Every Pole who came over to Northern Ireland tipped the scales another wee bit lower in favor of the Catholic side. Majella reckoned it’d be a different story if the Poles were Muslim.” And typical of a small town, before the day is over, everyone knows that Majella went to a lawyer for a reading of the grandmother’s will and even knows the contents of that will.

The dialogue is phonetic. For example, Majella greets customers with “’What can ah get chew?’” Some dialect does present some confusion. Oxters, craic, gurning, minging, boke, stocious, guldered, cleastered, rifted and redd are some of the words that had me checking a dictionary. Like Majella’s Polish co-worker, I learned some new words for drunk: blootered, lamped, mouldy, peeshed, lashed, stoven, langered, goothered, and gee-eyed.

There is considerable humour. Someone who has drunk too much can be described as “full as a sheugh” or “full as a bingo bus” or “full as a Catholic school”! Some of the humour arises from Majella’s literalness. When Marty complains about a constantly flickering fluorescent light by saying, “’Well, fuck me if ah don’t take a hammer tae that light the nights,’” Majella’s thought process is hilarious: “Majella knew Marty didn’t have a hammer and so wasn’t likely to attack the light. She was not sure of the relationship between him not hammering the light and her having to fuck him.” When a woman wants to build bridges across community divisions, Majella has to be told that the bridges are not literal bridges: “This struck Majella as a much more difficult engineering project, one complicated by the fact that although most people would see the need for rebuilding the literal bridges, no one had an eye for invisible bridges. Majella herself did wonder why no one had considered drawbridges in the whole scheme of things, which could serve as bridges when the need arose.”

This is not an action-packed novel. It focuses on life in a small Irish town as seen through the eyes of an usual protagonist who simply wants to live an untroubled life. Majella will remain with the reader long after the book is closed.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen is the story of 27 year-old Majella who lives in Northern Ireland. The book description makes it clear that this is Majella's story. At the same time, there is a hint that this book touches upon the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, the history remains very much at the periphery. Many articles on this book indicate that Majella's character is on the autism spectrum. I am delighted to see books start to emerge that focus on differently abled characters. Unfortunately, this connection is never made clear in the book itself and does not compensate for the other off-putting aspects of this story. Sadly, I was completely not the reader for this book.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/12/big-girl-small-town.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher's blog tour.

Thanks to Workman publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tell Majella O’Neill no tales of wild, romantic Northern Ireland. Her town, Aghybogey, is intolerable, and so are nearly all of the people in it—except, occasionally, her coworker Marty. Majella’s a large, grubby, 27-year-old working in a “chipper,” a restaurant that we in the U. S. would call a “greasy spoon.”

Majella tries to retain clarity and personal agency by maintaining a detailed list of what she likes and dislikes. Each section in the book is named for one of these likes or dislikes. By imposing personal preferences on each event, she keeps herself separate and well-defined within the hellhole of Aghybogey, even if booze is on the Dislike list and she gets drunk on Sunday nights. Nothing can happen outside of Majella's tidy like/dislike frames.

The reader never leaves Majella’s dark comic perspective and I felt encamped there rather too intimately for comfort. The reader may want to put on clean underwear and/or take a shower every few chapters, and yet Majella is a clean and beauty-loving person by nature. "Dirt and Disorder" are on the Dislike List. She’s simply been swamped by the filth all around her. The nastiness of Northern Ireland during the Troubles killed family members and pets, plunged her mother into addiction and hoarding behaviors, and almost blots out the sun. Majella works long hours at a low-wage job for a hateful employer.

Rocking back and forth and flicking her fingers are ways for Majella to maintain her sanity. She takes smoking breaks to avoid overstimulation at work. She has rules: you must say your rosary and wait a respectful length of time before “wanking” (masturbating, Good Stuff Item 9.1) before bed, to avoid sacrilege.

The author, Michelle Gellen, keeps the book from getting too dark and despairing by making Majella body positive, sex positive, and just plain spunky under the circumstances.

I felt that all of the bodily fluids got in the way of plot development, which may have been the point: they are one of many things holding Majella back from figuring out the next steps in her life: she is after all neurodivergent, on codeine, grieving, and easily distracted. The inept British security forces who occupy her town (PissNI) can’t figure out who beat her granny to death and their investigation is a terror to Majella and her mum, not a source of hope or comfort. It may not help Majella's levels of motivation that her diet is entirely composed of grease, salt, and sugar.

U. S. readers may read sociopolitical implications into the ending and be puzzled by what it means, but maybe no one in Ireland can figure it out either. Gallen reveals one thing Majella is planning to do but I was left feeling dissatisfied. Having come with her this far, I wanted to walk in her big greasy shoes in some decisive direction, preferably positive. Perhaps it's a sequel setup?

If you like the main character, you’ll like the book; if you don’t you won’t. I did like Majella, very much. As a book club pick (and the book club guide will have a much-needed Irish slang glossary) this will give thoughful book clubs plenty to discuss.