The Holy City by Patrick McCabe

The Holy City

Patrick McCabe

If an Irish coffee is your thing, then this book could give you a similar warm glow, although like the coffee is not to all tastes. There is much froth on the top but go deeper and dark, strong flavours emerge. The plot time shifts may make you a bit light-headed too, and your could be left with a bitter after taste, as something nasty lurks in the dregs.

Extract
The owner of the Good Times had done a great job - completely refurbishing the pub's interior. With the result that now there were not only posters of pop stars and singers - there was a giant one of the Beatles with their guru and - one of Julie Christie swinging a Union Jack shopping bag - but also adverts for Smirnoff and cigarettes, with mountain streams flowing in super-saturated colours, the night skylines of famous cities glowing like something out of a fairy tale. Smart cocktails were being served and a starry sky had been painted, twinkling away on the blue-domed ceiling. New chairs had been brought in that were shaped like artists' palettes and the fabulous chrome counter had - or so it was claimed - been imported from America. There was a cardboard effigy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, with a glinting star leapfrogging off his pearly teeth.
Parallels
  • John the Revelator by Peter Murphy
  • The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
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Violence
Explicit sexual Content