I know it can feel, especially when starting out as a writer, that the scarcity of opportunities should have us all furiously elbowing each other out of the way in a race to the bottom. But I think it’s an attitude you grow out of, as a focus on your work takes precedence. If I have a criticism, it’s that there are some repetitive conversations. I enjoyed Erin’s frequent trips to the Church (Catholic of course) where she went to contemplate. Her descriptions of the icons, such as baby Jesus, and all the crosses…the different depictions of Jesus were interesting. Her contemplations on God and the Church were intriguing. This is where Connolly shines, in Erin’s scenes in the different churches. Religion, Connolly says, is something Irish people (North and South) grow up with unique reference points for. “You go [to the church] at a really young age, and it’s really dramatic, and it’s a place with heavy smells, and it’s really sensory. I think that is something that’s going to be part of your imagination forever.” I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK. The book was published in the UK on the 24th of August 2023 by Canongate. The ways in which men and women interact is also at odds with the kinds of male/female dynamic we’re used to.

Adrift, Erin spends her days hungover, and most nights drinking or taking drugs, blotting out life – either accompanied by her gay friend Declan, her “it’s complicated” lover Mikey, or Matt, an American who Erin meets at a bar, who’s in town teaching while trying to write a novel. To focus on the traumatic aftermath of the civil war is to miss the greater work being carried out by contemporary northern writers. Much like Michael Magee’s Close to Home, Rachel Connolly’s Lazy City takes on a task much bigger than solely reflecting the north-easterly part of Ireland. I was like: what? [But] you have to be so careful in how you manage those interactions. Because they want nothing more than for you to become shrill and hysterical.” There is the sense that Connolly hasn’t yet mastered the novelistic skill of filtering: “I’m thirsty as well as nauseous, maybe still tired too. I can’t tell past the nausea … [A hangover is muted] thanks to the coffee or the painkillers.” Mundane passages on ironing, eye make-up, the cyclical fashions of jeans, Mass times, compound the problem. Good fiction needs ordinary detail to contrast the dynamic, but the balance here is a little off. Somehow both tightly controlled and highly spontaneous, Rachel Connolly’s Lazy City is refreshingly open to the world. Frank, attentive, free of artifice or emotional contrivances, Connolly brings something new to any subject she shines her singular intelligence on”Excels in its measured and realistic portrait of grief but struggles to develop into a propulsive narrative. To group them together, however, is unfair on the best examples of the form, of which Lazy City, the debut by Belfast-born, London-based writer Rachel Connolly, is one. It’s also a novel about trauma and its aftermath: again, a common theme today, but done sophisticatedly here, with a quality of thinking rare in a debut. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.

My feeling is that if you can do even a small amount to change this then you probably should. To this end, I often even find myself effectively doing PR for, not even friends’ books, but books that have nothing to do with me. I went a bit mad about one extraordinary novel which was out last year, Pure Life by Eugene Marten (which I would really like you to buy), and in my view wasn’t getting enough attention. I posted about it so much on social media that one friend asked: “What’s the deal with you and that Eugene guy then, were you seeing him at some point or what?” Crisp, clear-eyed and witty writing. . . . Rachel Connolly’s characters and their flawed, human attempts at redemption will stay with me for a long time.—Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually It’s really books about a specific way of being a young woman. And there’s still a lot of misogyny, and not taking your work very seriously, or thinking that your book is a fun project.” Do I have your attention? Good, Irish fiction is on top form right now, and this slow burning beauty is no exception. I did find the casual recreational drug use even within the rural community quite eye opening it was more how I expected life for city teenagers to be.

Advance Praise

Some of the elements of the book are sad; her relationship with her mother and the loss of her best friend. The writing of the book was good and there were certain parts and relationships I did enjoy and would prefer to read more about (Erin and Matt - Mikey's brother), rather than the weird romantic/sexual ones. More than this, Lazy City exhibits an understanding of the importance of our homeland as the container that shapes us. Erin’s unhappiness – “I’m in so much pain,” she whispers to one sleeping partner. “I wish I could tell you” – is uniquely informed by a society with its own collective trauma from the Troubles, yet it’s also Northern Ireland’s plastic-Jesus religion that provides her with unexpected comfort. Erin feels better after visiting a church; I felt better after reading this book. Connolly is a writer in whom I have faith. I liked the way the main character uses make up as a mask ,she is avoiding lots of things in her life and the ability to hide herself behind the make up was important to her.