Northern Spy
Nope, I still don’t like “beach reads,” but I’ve decided I’ll take a good thriller any day for a “palate cleanser” type of book. This one — Northern Spy, by Flynn Berry — was recommended by @katrinschumann. And btw, I totally agree with her about the title and cover design: Nondescript. But Northern Spy is a great clip of a read and revolves around the IRA in contemporary Belfast. So set aside titling and design quibbles!
One thing that I am forever thinking about — and that is informing the (slow) work I’m doing on a manuscript — is this: Are we “the same” no matter where and how we go? How much do our environs mold us? And perhaps more to the point: Is it possible to live in a vacuum and keep “who we are” intact? You wouldn’t think a thriller would address these questions, but for me they did. That is, on a very elevated level…you know, spies, informers, paramilitary groups, and all that.
One line in particular has stuck with me because it describes me very acutely (minus the reference to Belfast because, well, I’ve never lived in Belfast): “When I travel, even to someplace more beautiful, more civilized, a part of me is always aware of my distance from the center, the source of life. When the plane lands back in Belfast, even in spitting rain, even when the city is at its most bleak and littered, I think, Right, we’re back, let’s get into it.” #Homesick
{PS: I especially enjoyed Northern Spy because I read it in the same one-month-span that I also read and watched the following related books and movie: If you have an interest in and want to learn more about the Loyalist/Republican conflict in Northern Ireland (ie The Troubles), read Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe (nonfiction) and The Colony, by Audrey Magee (fiction). Then scoot yourself to the cinema and watch The Banshees of Inisherin.}
originally published on instagram