#BlogTour ‘Our Little Cruelties’ by Liz Nugent

About the book…

This story begins with a funeral. One of three brothers is dead, mourned by his siblings. But which one? And how? And, most importantly: why?

William, Brian, and Luke are each born a year apart in a lower middle class Catholic family in 1960s Dublin. William, the eldest, rises to the top of the heap in the film industry as a successful movie producer. Luke, the baby of the family, surprises everyone by morphing into a worldwide pop star. Brian, the compliant middle son, is the eternal adult in the room: the helpful, steady one, the manager of finances and careers.

But none of them is actually quite what he seems. Wounded by childhood, they have betrayed one another in myriad ways, hiding behind little lies that have developed into full blown treachery. With an unnerving eye for the complexities of families, Nugent delves into the secret life of a deeply troubled household and provides stunning insights into the many forces that shape us from childhood.

Liz Nugent’s new work of fiction follows three working class Irish brothers, and delves into the many ways families can wreak emotional havoc across generations.

My thanks to Ellie from Penguin Random House for the blogtour invite and my gifted review copy of the fabulous ‘Our Little Cruelties’ which is out now.

I am not quite sure why this is the first of Liz’ books that I have read, a fact which will absolutely be rectified. She writes a brilliant story which sucks you in from the prologue as you want to know which of the three brothers’ funeral you are attending.

With pitch perfect timing she places you front and center and then whisks you away to explore each of the brother’s experiences and memories in turn. Each of the three has their own turn at the mic, their memories tinted by a backwards looking perspective which places them as the victim of the other two, the most unloved, the most unsuccessful, the most ungrateful and so on.

And all the while, hanging over your head like an ominous rain cloud about to empty its deluge, is the funeral.

You get to know these characters intimately and as a passive observer, can make a three dimensional picture of their lives and how they each get to the point where they end up(trying to be super careful not to give anything away here!)

Over the course of 4 decades, the minutiae of what siblings do to each other and the rivalry that this builds between them is so carefully curated, it is the kind of profile that those with closely age related brothers and sisters can instantly relate to. The complex relationship each shares with their father and mother is explored through gender roles that went against how things ‘should’ have been-dad was a worker who also looked after the kids and cooked whilst mother was ‘celebrity’ and clings desperately to the few highlights of her career to perpetuate this myth of ‘success’.

Eldest son Will believes everything is his due first, that includes success in his field of film making, as a parent and with women and due to the way he has been parented, has very conflicting views on the way women and men should behave. He clings to damaging patterns of behaviour which are reflected in the emergence of the #MeToo movement and his toxic parenting has horrible effects.

Middle son Brian feels like he has to constantly lash out to be heard, the one regarded as a ‘disappointment’ and a bit wet, he has none of the magnetism of his brothers, no solid career and as such, falls into ‘managing’ his brother and niece as social media celebrities.

Youngest son Luke, who never felt loved or wanted by his mother grows up with a fixation on saving, and being saved, ends up an accidental rock star and his spiral into addiction to replace his love for God and Jesus is heartbreaking to watch.

The things that they get away with doing to each other are reflected in their relationships with significant others, especially after the deaths of both parents and without that toxic background, they begin to create their own. All the things they live through and do to each other are all created out of a antipathy towards the truth-Will will not realise that he is not the sun and moon in everyone’s lives, he cannot make people, he merely breaks them after using them up. Brian uses his anger to make a variety of increasingly poor decisions and ends up living with his younger brother and then using him. Luke uses his place in the family to abdicate any responsibility towards his life or his family, and his selfishness cannot co-exist with his extreme egotism in wanting to save the world. His cruel shaking out of the cradle of his complacency begins a lifetime of addiction and rehab cycles.

All 3 are vectors in a Venn diagram with their toxic relationships the only thing in common with each other-that is to say, this is not a bleak, harsh book without a sense of redemption, it is a keenly felt novel of brothers who know no better, and choose not to elevate their relationships. It is as thought their roles have been set in stone, a triangle of constant jibes and nastiness that can only fall apart when one of the sides is removed by death.

A stunning character study and whodunnit/who was it, this keeps you on the precipice of suspense and wanting to know more about the Drumms, appropriately names, as each member of the family marches to their own beat. One which is, very much, out of time with the rest of the world.

Simply put, this is outstanding.

About the author…

Liz Nugent worked as a stage manager in theatres in Ireland and toured internationally before writing extensively for radio and television drama.

Unravelling Oliver was published in 2014, hit the number 1 spot for several weeks and won Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Lying in Wait, published in 2016, went straight to number 1 and was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club. It won the Radio 1 Ryan Tubridy Listeners Choice Award at the Irish Book Awards.

In October 2017, Liz won the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Award in Literature.

Skin Deep was published in 2018. It also went straight to number 1 in the bestsellers charts and scooped two awards at the An Post Irish Book Awards in Nov ’18: Crime Novel of the Year AND the Radio 1 Ryan Tubridy Listener’s Choice Award.

Twitter @lizzienugent @PenguinRandomHouse

Links-http://www.liznugent.ie/