The
Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton
Hugo
Hamilton grew up in Dublin in the 1950's, son of a softly spoken,
good natured German mother and an obsessive Irish Nationalist father.
His father was obsessed with reviving the Irish language and he
went around Ireland during war time making speeches for Irish neutrality
and married Irmgard after the war as part of his plan for "bringing
people from other countries over to Ireland". He seemed more
concerned with the Ireland of the future than with his own children's
future, ruling with an iron hand, severally punishing his children
whenever he caught them speaking english. He is an intimidating,
sometimes brutal figure, who refused to acknowledge his name in
english, and at one stage while he worked for the ESB, he left a
large area without electricity for days because the correspondence
was not addressed to him in his beloved Irish name. The issue of
mixed culture is dealt with very well by Hamilton and anyone who
is of a dual nationality will relate very well with the young boy's
feelings.
The
parents disagreed on how to live. The mother believed in laughter
and inner strength as a means of survival, a tactic which her own
father used to survive under Nazism. It is interesting to observe
how the parents do not discuss politics eventhough both their lives
have been very affected by it.
Although
the book is written very simply, full of a child's insights and
bewilderments, it is done in a very effective way of conveying the
deep emotions and isolation associated with emigration and a boys
struggle from a very early age with the idea of identity and conflicting
notions of Irish history and German history.
This
book was much appreciated by our book club members, for its sensitive
observation of a family trying to deal with real issues of identity
and belonging and the way it is told in the language of a child
who has not yet learned to query all he observes engages the reader
all the more.
Reviewed by Kilrush Library Book Club
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