From Publishers Weekly
McCabe's deliciously warped wit is razor-sharp as ever in his latest book (titled after an old J.J. Cale song), which reads alternately like an acid-induced reverie and the naive ramblings of a man trapped between art and reality. Charged with kidnapping and assault, Joey Tallon is sentenced to do time in Mountjoy prison (or "The Joy," as it is ironically called), a fate not much worse than staying in his cramped trailer in Scotsfield, a small border town plagued by violence in 1970s Northern Ireland. While locked up, Joey takes to reading and becomes a founding member of the prison's first literary society. While some of the convicts take a stab at poetry, Joey keeps a diary, which he later reads, "secretly hoping to stumble upon a novel." Newly obsessed with outlandish film projects after his release and still eager to publish a novel, Joey becomes delusional, seeking (unsuccessfully) to involve pop icons like Joni Mitchell, Madonna and Bono in his artistic endeavors and setting himself up as the laughingstock of Scotsfield. Under the spell of his misguided optimism, Joey unwittingly reveals too many secrets about events related to the Troubles, many of which point to the sinister politician Boyle Henry and his minions. Joey has his own share of skeletons in the closet, including some positively Oedipal encounters with a blow-up doll named for his father's long-dead mistress. His creative efforts bury him deeper in a world of illusion, and he continues to pine for his muse, the lovely Jacy, a local girl who may just be a figment of his imagination. McCabe (author of Booker Prize finalists The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto) deftly patches together episodes of Joey's peculiar life using diary excerpts as well as letters and notes from film shoots, yet turns the traditional epistolary novel on its head. What results is the bone-chilling account of a would-be writer who collides with fiction because he takes it too seriously. McCabe is happily not at risk of doing the same, allowing his trademark humor and crafty Irish colloquialisms to leaven even the darkest of scenes. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Reviewing his life through diaries, notes, and fictions, Joey Tallon has quite a tale to tell. It's the end of the 1960s--that is, the mid-1970s--in Scotsfield, a small border town in Northern Ireland. A bartender and part-time roadie, Joey is overweight, obsessed with both steak-and-kidney pies and Jacy, his "California girl," with whom he dreams of escaping to America. But while Joey is a would-be flower child, gobbling acid along with his pies and pints, he is out of place among the local toughs and Provos (Provisional IRA) and the milieu of violence that taints the town. After surviving a bombing, Joey transforms into a Mohawk-sporting, would-be Travis Bickle (of Taxi Driver) and commits a crime that lands him in prison. Rehabilitated by a nurturing warden, his post-prison career leads him to try teaching, writing, film, and even politics. It may be a new Ireland, but when he revisits Scotsfield's buried past in a too-truthful film, Joey learns the past is not buried very deep. McCabe's latest--he is also the author of Emerald Germs of Ireland (2001)--is a rollicking tragicomedy, brilliantly cast. Joey, with his physical girth, intellectual myopia, and injured indignation, could be the Irish cousin of Ignatius J. Reilly in John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces (1980). Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With T. S. Eliot's words as his guide, Joey Tallon embarks on a journey toward enlightenment in the troubling psychedelic-gone-wrong atmosphere of the late 1970s. A man deranged by desire, and longing for belonging, Tallon searches for his "place of peace" - a spiritual landscape located somewhere between his small town in Northern Ireland and Iowa... maybe between heaven and hell.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

McCabe's deliciously warped wit is razor-sharp as ever in his latest book (titled after an old J.J. Cale song), which reads alternately like an acid-induced reverie and the na ve ramblings of a man trapped between art and reality. Charged with kidnapping and assault, Joey Tallon is sentenced to do time in Mountjoy prison (or "The Joy," as it is ironically called), a fate not much worse than staying in his cramped trailer in Scotsfield, a small border town plagued by violence in 1970s Northern Ireland. While locked up, Joey takes to reading and becomes a founding member of the prison's first literary society. While some of the convicts take a stab at poetry, Joey keeps a diary, which he later reads, "secretly hoping to stumble upon a novel." Newly obsessed with outlandish film projects after his release and still eager to publish a novel, Joey becomes delusional, seeking (unsuccessfully) to involve pop icons like Joni Mitchell, Madonna and Bono in his artistic endeavors and setting himself up as the laughingstock of Scotsfield. Under the spell of his misguided optimism, Joey unwittingly reveals too many secrets about events related to the Troubles, many of which point to the sinister politician Boyle Henry and his minions. Joey has his own share of skeletons in the closet, including some positively Oedipal encounters with a blow-up doll named for his father's long-dead mistress. His creative efforts bury him deeper in a world of illusion, and he continues to pine for his muse, the lovely Jacy, a local girl who may just be a figment of his imagination. McCabe (author of Booker Prize finalists The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto) deftly patches together episodes of Joey's peculiar life using diary excerpts as well as letters and notes from film shoots, yet turns the traditional epistolary novel on its head. What results is the bone-chilling account of a would-be writer who collides with fiction because he takes it too seriously. McCabe is happily not at risk of doing the same, allowing his trademark humor and crafty Irish colloquialisms to leaven even the darkest of scenes. (Dec. 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

McCabe (The Butcher's Boy), a two-time Booker Prize nominee, returns with this darkly comedic novel of the complicated life of Irish-born Joey Tallon. The story follows Joey's emergence into self-discovery and ultimate redemption after dealing with the early loss of his parents, the magical temptations of drugs, and his discovery (during a prison stint) of an innate, if peculiar, ability to record his thoughts. Also chronicled are Joey's awe at first seeing Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver and his introduction to Allen Ginsberg and Hermann Hesse. Ranging from the turbulent political struggles of 1970s Ireland through today, Joey's story is played out against real governmental violence. Woven throughout is a ragtag caravan of characters who engage and affect the protagonist in some way. Some readers may find the novel difficult, as the text is presented in fragments, scripts, and memories that may not always be exactly true. Joey also occasionally contradicts himself when he moves between himself as a young man and as an adult. Nevertheless, fans of McCabe will be engrossed, and those new to him will be rewarded if they persevere. Recommended for most public libraries with large adult fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/03.]-Christopher Korenowsky, Columbus, OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews