Some of what works in Farrell's _Troubles_

Don't be misled by the title of this post: pretty much everything works in Troubles. But because so much works I won't be able to discuss it all.

The jacket copy murmurs something about the novel being about the decline of (British) empire, embodied by the decline of a hotel on the Irish coast. A neat idea, but one fears the allegorical temptation might be too much for Farrell, that the characters and events will be a little too obviously driven by the overarching scheme. We've all suffered through narratives where the characters were clearly dancing to the author's tune whether they made sense as humans or not.

Farrell writes humans. He writes them with a clear eye to their fallibility but with compassion and humor. It may even be that there is pure allegory here, maybe Sarah Devlin stands for the Irish Spirit or the Major is British Chivalry, but if so you won't be left muttering to yourself, "Please, JG, I get it, you needn't keep hammering away." They're human, and you care about them.

The hilarity of this novel is hard to describe. I think it derives from the quiet, warm tone of the narration contrasting with the absurd events and the small confusions of various characters. I can't remember a novel that's so, well, well-behaved that yet made me laugh out loud. (Though even as I type "well-behaved" it doesn't seem right. There's some delightfully naughty bits here and there, too, described in that same unflappable tone.)

And of course, laughter often works best for me in the service of heightening emotional impact, and Farrell perfectly executes this too. After all the mostly benign madness, when the real troubles finally arrive it is both terrifying and right. The finish of this novel elevates it well above mere comedy.

This book got a little bubble of notice when it won the Lost Man Booker prize, and we can be grateful it is now so easily available. Farrell should not disappear from view.

And of course it always warms the heart to know that a great favorite novel is only the first in a loose trilogy. I'm quite looking forward to The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip.