In his story collections, Homesickness and Young Skins, Colin Barrett, who grew up in County Mayo on Ireland's west coast, demonstrated an affinity for writing about the lives of the inhabitants of that region. It's not surprising then that in Wild Houses, his first novel, he's returned to his home turf with a brisk, engaging tale of a small group of dubious characters who'd be at home in one of Martin McDonagh's darkly comic films.
The action of the novel unfolds over the course of a weekend in the small town of Ballina, hosting its annual Salmon Festival. But that celebration is far from the minds of brothers Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, who appear one evening at the front door of their cousin Dev Hendrick with teenager Doll English in their grasp. The Ferdias work as enforcers for a drug dealer, and they've been using Dev's house to store their boss's product. They've kidnapped Doll to pressure his older brother, Cillian, a former dealer, into satisfying an old drug debt.
There's pure pleasure in reading Barrett's crisp prose, but what ultimately elevates the novel is his ability to blend an unsparing eye with genuine empathy for some superficially unappealing characters readers nonetheless end up caring about, even as they recognize their profound flaws. As the novel's tension builds toward the inevitable confrontation between the thuggish Ferdia brothers and Cillian, readers will appreciate the human dimensions of this story. Barrett is heir to the sensibility of fellow Irish writers like Roddy Doyle and Kevin Barry, and the fact that he's only at the beginning of his career is reason for celebration. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer