Why a Booktrail?
1980s: Mickey wants to escape everything – his family, Belfast and his life
The Good Son
What you need to know before your trail
Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn’t a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him ‘gay’. It doesn’t help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn’t think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn’t like his Da.
He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it’s all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.
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Belfast
Mickey Donnelly is not to fit in. He goes to secondary school in the Ardoyne, one of the roughest and trouble strewn estates in Belfast at the time. These are indeed troubled times for Ireland in every sense of the word but this book focuses on the inner turmoil of Mickey himself. He is called “Gay” by his peers and isn’t allowed to join in their world. He retreats into this world of his and it starts to get very complicated and claustrophobic.
He wants to take his beloved Ma to America, away from the Troubles and everything and everyone else. He hates and fear school “Nine weeks til St. Gabriel’s”, is his countdown to the dreaded day when he has to go. This time period and setting seen through the eyes of a very young boy mean that this novel is a good illustration of the fear and uncertainty of living in such times. The view of working class children like Mickey in particular.
The author himself grew up during the time he evokes in the novel and so his experiences and impressions of Ardoyne are ultimately what are now part of Mickey’s story. The Troubles might be quiet in the background but sometimes it’s the quiet things you have to look out for.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Good Son
Author/Guide: Paul McVeigh Destination: Belfast Departure Time: 1980s
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