EXCITING TIMES by Naoise Dolan
★★★★★
Ecco, June 2, 2020
Exciting Times is the most Sally Rooney book to have not been penned by Sally Rooney. In a way that statement is overly reductive of Naoise Dolan’s fresh and distinctive voice, but still, the fact remains: if you don’t find Sally Rooney to be much to write home about, steer clear of this debut about Irish socialist millennials overanalyzing their messy and self-destructive relationships. But if you’re like me and that’s sounds like a recipe for perfection, you’ll probably love this.
Shown through the eyes of an Irish expat living in Hong Kong, Exciting Times essentially focuses on a love triangle between narrator Ava and two individuals who in many ways are polar opposites – the rich, tactless English banker Julian and the elegant, clever Hong Kong native Edith. Each is distinctly compelling, though the love triangle itself isn’t what moves the narrative so much as Ava navigating her own boundaries and ethics and evolving perspective on relationships. Irish identity is another theme that takes center stage; Ava is an English teacher and finds herself tempering her natural speech patterns so that she teaches ‘correct’ English to her students. It’s a thoughtful, clever, meditative book from a number of angles.
Dolan’s prose is this novel’s shining jewel; she has such a compact, witty, dry voice – it won’t be for everyone and I can see where others might find that it grows wearisome as the novel chugs along, but I found it consistently charming. ‘”Anything strange?” said Mam on the phone. She really said it, “antin strange,” but if Brits spelled Glosster as Gloucester then I supposed Mam deserved similar leeway.’
Exciting Times is definitely this year’s Normal People while also being very much its own thing, and I recommend it very highly.
Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
You can pick up a copy of Exciting Times here on Book Depository.
pace, amore, libri 