REVIEW: Holding by Graham Norton
I was told a long time ago about this book. And I've been excited for it ever since. I was told that this book was not commercial fiction or autobiographical in any way, despite it being written by Graham Norton. No, the man we all love for his Eurovision sarcastic comedy and his on-point television show on Friday nights has written a brilliant and moving literary piece about community, about love, about helplessness and loneliness, but most of all about holding onto the past and the things that haunt us, the things we can't let go of.
Before I read this book I was told it was Father Ted meets Hot Fuzz and I felt like this was a very accurate description. The book follows PJ, an overweight police officer who enjoys his own company and the tranquil, uneventful life that Duneen (a fictional village in Southern Ireland) seems to embody. But then a body is discovered at the new building site, the land of which was once owned by the Burke family, and more and more of the village's fantastically original and real characters become involved. There's Mrs O'Driscoll who owns the village shop and always finds out what is going on in the village before anybody else; there's Sue Hickey who likes to spread gossip and to organise all of the village events; there are the three spinster sisters: Alison, Florence and Evelyn - Evelyn, the youngest, still getting over a former lover; then there is Brid the village alcoholic and Mrs Meany PJ's caretaker and cook. And the characters are all so intriguing and have so much depth, it was difficult for me to pull away from reading and to not be convinced that they were real.
The book contains Graham's sarcastic and rather well-timed humour which was one of the things I loved most about the book - despite the fact that it is literary and almost against everything we've previously associated with Graham - this was a nice touch, a nice familiar hark back to who had written this easy-flowing novel. I felt the twists and turns and red herrings were well done and the revealing of secrets felt natural and not forced by the plot-line.
I, like the characters and the title (which I wasn't keen on first but took its own hold on me) did not want to let go of this book. I wanted to keep holding on as long as I could, I wanted to hold on to this world and these characters even if some of them were a lot more frightening than any of us had first thought. I would thoroughly recommend this novel if you're looking for something easy to read but with the thrill of a who-dunnit.
You can buy Holding by Graham Norton here.