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A major fiction debut from Fourth Estate. Utterly Monkey is a funny, energetic, wonderfully uplifting novel about where we're from and where we'd like to get to! Danny Williams is talented, upwardly mobile and has left his Northern Irish small town roots well behind him. In his mid-twenties, he lives in a stylish London flat and has a job in a top London law firm. However, one innocuous Wednesday night his old mucker from home, Geordie Wilson, arrives at the door. On the run from a loyalist militia, whose operational funds he has taken, he manages to bring everything that Danny has been fleeing from right to his smart London doorstep. Taking place over an intense and gripping five-day period -- set in both London and the fictional Irish town of Ballyglass -- Nick Laird has written an hilarious, touching and ultimately redemptive novel about friendship.
A successful young lawyer finds his carefully constructed London life dismantled when a childhood friend arrives on his doorstep fleeing a dangerous paramilitary group. Danny Williams has spent years distancing himself from his Northern Irish origins, trading his small-town roots for a high-powered career and a sophisticated urban existence. His equilibrium shatters when Geordie Wilson, a relic of his past, appears with a debt to a loyalist militia and a trail of trouble that threatens Danny's professional and personal security. The narrative unfolds over a compressed five-day timeline, forcing Danny to navigate the collision between his past and present while confronting the reality of his own identity.
This novel is characterized by its sharp, energetic prose and its ability to balance comedic situations with the weight of political history. The narrative structure effectively utilizes the pressure of a five-day window to heighten the stakes for the protagonist as he is forced to reconcile his past. The work suggests a focus on the friction between the identity one constructs in a new environment and the inescapable ties of one's upbringing. Readers likely find the interplay between the two central characters to be the primary driver of the story's momentum and thematic depth.
Page Count:
352
Publication Date:
2010-04-29
Publisher:
Fourth Estate
ISBN-10:
0007346727
ISBN-13:
9780007346721
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