Title: Promising but disappointing
Product review: Despite its rich writing and superb capture of Dublin idiom, this book is ultimately quite disappointing. It tells the story of a dysfuctional family with two alcoholic parents from the perspective of one of the young daughters, Tatty. Each chapter brings us forward a year in Tatty's life. Much of the narrative rings true but it stretches credibility somewhat that from chapter one, and at a very early age, Tatty is focussed on alcohol as being the main underlying problem with her family. Surely such realisation would dawn more gradually. Throughout, I felt that the anti-alcohol message (and there can be no doubting that children and alcohol should never be mixed) was the book's raison d'etre and this engendered a somewhat self-consciously self-pitying attitude in Tatty's narrative. Unfortunately, the book wears its heart too much on its sleeve.
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