Review: Here Are The Young Men by Rob Doyle

ON THE face of it, Here Are The Young Men is a rite-of-passage, a boy-to-man, story of four school friends.

Here Are The Young Men
(Image may be subject to copyright)

But we soon discover Matthew, Kearney, Rez and Cocker have already passed many of the milestones on the journey to manhood at some speed and at some cost. We learn how quickly drug-fuelled excitement becomes not just unsatisfying but a burden, for reader and character alike.

The menace established in the early chapters of Rob Doyle’s debut novel, compels the reader to keep reading, despite a growing sense of trepidation that something truly terrible will happen in these suburban lives.

And yet there is a sense of being cheated when the rising tension is not paid off with the murder and mayhem that seems almost inevitable. We are steeled for carnage that is not delivered. Leaving the reader relieved but deflated. 

Perhaps the author is challenging us to ponder the much-misquoted Falling Down line “we’re not so different you and me….” in our consideration of Kearney, who is by times childish sap, psychopath and lonesome loser.

Author Rob Doyle (Image may be subject to copyright)

The theme of young male alienation has been explored by Irish writers over many decades. In this novel the sense is more of young male disassociation or dislocation rather than alienation

But then what’s the difference?

The main characters move in a world where other friends or associates, and indeed family, are peripheral to the point of being unimportant. Parents do nag about jobs, and drugs, and getting out of bed but they seem to lack influence. But maybe that too is the point?

There is a great deal of violence in this novel but all of the uglier, brasher disturbing violence is delivered through games, including Grand Theft Auto and game-fuelled fantasies.

The pre-publication information tells us “murder, suicide, rape and torture take a very real shape in their lives leaving them with a single way out that carries profound moral consequences”. This summary mixes the action of the game-world with the lives of the four, though there are certainly profound moral consequences to be faced by, at least, Kearney and Rez, even if nobody seems to realise this.

The title Here Are The Young Men has something of the dock and courtroom to it, perhaps again leading the reader up a darkened garden path. But who know what will happen after we’ve read the last sentence?

Kearney’s almost benign, sneaky, quiet, unlikely, awful and cowardly crimes bear no relationship to the snuff movies and games that set us up for them. And while the violence-loving voyeur in all of us may get some satisfaction seeing Kearney meet his match there is nothing redeeming about it.

Violence against women is a strong feature of this novel but has no part in the actual story. It may be that games and movies play such a large role in the lives of young men that the lines between the screen and life are blurred to the extent they disappear. It is a danger for the reader here too.

Here Are The Young Men is published by the Lilliput Press and costs  €20. This review was first published in the Sunday Independent (www.independent.ie).
Barbara Clinton