Himself

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For Mulderrig is a place where secrets run amok and stay hidden forever. And the town folks? They are friendly to newcomers - that is, until they realize who Mahoney is and what he is after. Yet Mahoney is a charmer, swoon-worthy even. The smile, the scruffiness, the charm. And he has a gift. He can see and speak to ghosts of the past, some of whom are happy to help with his plight, while others are simply afraid of him. Starred Review. Exceptional ... While the plot hurtles along at a rapid pace, leading inexorably to the heart-pounding final conflict, Kidd injects ample doses of macabre humor and lyrical description in this memorable story from a strange, bold new voice." - Publishers Weekly While Jess Kidd spent so much time creating the "good" characters, and they are so tremendously appealing, some of the "bad" characters don't get the same attention, so they feel a little more like stereotypical characters than fully realized. But the beauty of Kidd's storytelling, and the warmth of this book is wonderful, reminding me a bit of those quirky Irish movies like Waking Ned Devine. (In tone, not subject matter.) This is a book which would be absolutely terrific as a movie because there is so much your mind's eye pictures, and it would be great to see that portrayed on screen.

Himself | Book by Jess Kidd | Official Publisher Page | Simon

That’s a mystery hard to resist, so Mahony doesn’t. On his arrival, the village reserves its judgement, but Mahony’s charm and charisma soon work their magic on many; a few (the guilty ones) do their best to dissuade his inquiries. Somebody definitely knows what happened to Orla Sweeney, and Mahony will learn the truth. Jess Kidd in her debut novel, has created a world where humor resides among evil, where the good occupy the same world as the not so good, where fantasy and reality blend and merge into realm of sadness and happiness, where a son searches for a long lost mother and eventually finds love and understanding. Truly, this was for me a remarkable tale, and once again found myself loving the unique and mesmerizing storytelling of Ms Kidd. Mrs Cauley, who has taken it upon herself to help Mahony, has taken over the role of my favourite character of the year, wrestling it just from the grip of Dead Papa Toothwort from “Lanny”. But Sister Mary Margaret had told Mahony a different story, while she had taught him to hold a pencil and form his letters, and recognize all the major saints and many of the minor ones. I may be late to the party with this one, but this is my favourite read of the year, and will probably remain so. 5 Stars!Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colors are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don't want to go. The characters, alive and dead, are real and unforgettable. Mahony goes to visit Mrs. Cauley , who knew his mother well. She is a frail, elderly actress, who appears to be at death’s door but can still command attention. There is one scene of animal cruelty that left me wanting the fate for the man that he bestowed on the dog. Due to the fact that the author is of Irish descent, Jess Kidd believed that it was only right that her first novel, Himself, should definitely head to the West. Furthermore, an imaginary town and village seemed like an ideal place to experiment with the blending of crime fiction and other elements. Kidd recalls the summers that she spent as a child on Ireland’s West Coast wandering across her relatives farm. Jess Kidd believed that each place that she went was inhabited by different types of creatures. For her main character, puzzled ghosts of the dead, who follow the protagonist throughout the town as if they are trying to find answers, inhabit the town of Mulderrig. As the book begins to get shape, the author begins to reveal some of the major questions that revolved around the disappearance of the outcast mother, Orla.

HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews HIMSELF | Kirkus Reviews

But then, when Mahony looked around himself, everything was exactly the same. The same smeared mirrors over the same dirty seats. The same sad bastards falling into their glasses and the same smell crawling out of the gents. Did you come away from the novel feeling positive, negative, or neutral about religion? Why? Do certain aspects strike you as hypocritical? If so, which aspects? Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colors are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here the trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don’t want to go. Why would they when all the roads that lead to Mulderrig are downhill so that leaving is uphill all the way?”A very quirky novel, Jess Kidd has a distinctive style that is difficult to describe. The tone and language were everything in this novel. The humor lightened up what is a serious murder mystery and brought in much needed levity. The language and descriptions oozes charm. In Himself we meet Mahoney, 26 years old, charismatic, very good looking and able to charm even ghosts with just a wink. What he does to the female population of Mulderrig, a small town in County Mayo Ireland, is amazing:) I am pretty sure he has charmed many of the readers of this book, including me. This was a fun read: a town populated with colorful characters, both living AND dead, a juicy mystery, and a bit of a love story thrown in to boot. It was sometimes a bit of a chore keeping all the players straight, and there's a very nasty dog killing scene that seemed to serve no purpose other than to create a ghost dog, but on the whole, it was a fine time. I particularly enjoyed the cursing; nobody can spew creative curses like the Irish. Himself starts off dark and violent and left us wanting to stay hidden in those magical bushes to hide from the dark but soon humor is introduced into the story to lighten the darkness of this story. Jess Kidd does a good job balancing the dark with some light here with magic and humor.

Himself by Jess Kidd review – a dark and rollicking debut

Abandoned in a Dublin orphanage as a baby, Mahony, now aged twenty-six, receives a letter left for him long ago that hints he might not have been abandoned after all.He looked at the envelope in his hand. ‘For when the child is grown’… Inside the envelope was a photograph of a girl with a half-smile holding a blurred bundle, high and awkwardly, like found treasure. Mahony turned it over and the good solid schoolteacherly hand dealt him a left hook. ‘Your name is Francis Sweeney. Your mammy was Orla Sweeney. You are from Mulderrig, Co. Mayo. This is a picture of yourself and her. For your information she was the curse of the town, so they took her from you. They all lie, so watch yourself, and know that your mammy loved you.’” Mahony rents a room in the same house as the retired actress Mrs. Merle Cauley. Mahony and Cauley conclude that his mother must have been murdered and begin to investigate, starting with the interviewing everyone who shows up for auditions for the annual amateur play. The two have a similar way of cutting through bullshit and pretension and make an entertaining team. Because even for all of the novel's warmth and whimsy, there is also a profound darkness to it. The story is not all fun and games. Although brief, there are a few scenes of violence that I found to be gut-wrenchingly disturbing.

Himself by Jess Kidd | Goodreads

Mahony turned over the photograph and studied her face. God, she looked young. He would have put her as his sister rather. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen. start to convey Mrs Lavelle out of the hall with the tenacity of a swarm of worker ants seeing off a trespassing wasp” So what went wrong? As it's often happens with great story, stupid characters doing stupid shit. Like can we not have a male MC who is so “handsome” and so “flawless” that women of all ages ranging from 14 year old to 60 are ready to become his sex slave without actually giving any real insight as to what makes him so special? Also can we not have female characters whose sole purpose in the story is to pine over a dude who has no interest over her whatsoever? Whether Mahony wishes the dead to remain in his peripheral vision or not, he can’t avoid them. He has come to town, searching for his story, and they have stories to tell. The narrative and writing alone are powerful enough to power this novel to the heights of one of the best debut’s I have read, but the magical realism element propels it to another stratum entirely. The ghosts, the ever-pervading presence of the forest, the little town which feels like a living, breathing, sentient being itself. Incredibly magical.

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I had a really tough time believing every female in the town of Mulderrig found Mahoney so irresistible. I got kind of tired hearing about how ridiculously good looking he was. This is a beguiling, dark atmospheric and wondrous literary read interwoven with the supernatural and the fantastical. It is a stunning debut from Jess Kidd that draws the reader into what is a spellbinding read. A dark fairytale brimming with folklore, humour and flawless comic touches. For me, it called to mind the talented Kevin Barry and other Irish writers, past and present. The past gives us Orla's story and the present in the 1970s focuses on Mahony, her son. It begins with the murder of teenage single mum, Orla, and when the murderer looks to kill her baby, plants and nature have grown to magically protect the child. Aside from ghosts, consider the other supernatural elements that the author introduces into the universe of her novel. What is the role of the forest, for example? Why does nature “misbehave”? He has a photograph of her, where she’s holding him as an infant, given to him as he was leaving the Orphanage. Sister Veronica had left him an envelope, his real name, and the town of his birth: Mulderrig. He knows from the note that he was taken from his mother, by unknown townspeople, because his mother was “the curse of the town.” Tadhg withholds a fart, just while he’s thinking. “Shauna Burke rents out rooms to paying guests at Rathmore House up in the forest. That’s about it.”