The Good Son
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By Paul McVeigh
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1 review
Winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2016
Finalist for The People’s Book Prize 2016
Shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2016
Chosen for City Reads 2016
Shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize
ELLE Best Books of 2015
The Reading Agency: Books of 2015
Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn’t a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him ‘gay’. It doesn’t help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn’t think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn’t like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it’s all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.
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The Good Son is a compelling read with a narrator you can’t help falling in love with. Set against the backdrop of the early 1980s in Belfast, the story is told by eleven year-old Mickey Donnelly, during the last summer before he goes to secondary school. The story is a vivid reminder of the violence and distrust that tore Belfast apart during the Troubles, and the impact of British soldiers ‘policing’ the city. The sense of oppression and terror is brilliantly conveyed, the whole story feeling utterly convincing and real. And yet Mickey is such a lovely boy, and so funny, that the book is uplifting and positive as well. If there were more people like Mickey who truly care about others and want only to do the right thing, the world would be a far better place. I loved this book and read it in one sitting, totally wrapped up in it and rooting for Mickey all the way through.
