"It's everything a serious reader would want from a novel. Suffice to say I read it spellbound. The novel is perfect, a classic, satisfying love story. Being language driven, the love story itself is transformed into an epic. Regardless of any plot or theme, it's the voice, the acerbic, relentless observations, the exhilarating metre of sociological dissection, the skewed homecoming poetry of it, the anger and energy and bitterness. It's superb, every word of it held me enthralled. Making this the fuel of a love story is a supreme achievement. It's more than the great Irish novel; its very language is dependent on a narrator's voice corrupted by his wandering. You take a scene to its linguistic origins, refract its meanings and create myth, the voice is contemporary and so compelling in its delivery. Delighted in the puns, the literary and cultural references, the brilliance of the wit and one liners, the put downs to die for and the absurd and crazy, surprising twists of storyline." — UK Writers Workshop review