The triangle’s central point is Ava, who has moved to Hong Kong from Ireland to teach English. The key story arc is a love triangle (although something about that description doesn’t feel quite right – it’s too simple to capture the nuance with which the dynamic is drawn out). For the past couple of days, I’ve clung to this book like a security blanket. It transported me away from my own modest routine into the glitzy newness of arriving in Hong Kong as a young expat (a term Dolan doesn’t like, because it just means ‘you’re white, of course – and more welcome as a result’ this perceptiveness to her surroundings and cultural context pervades the book, and is one of the best things about it). My immersion in it from page one calmed my frayed nerves and was a balm for my tattered attention span. I think the blend of circumstances making up life at this particular moment led me to love Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan’s debut novel, even more than I would have if I’d picked it up in more normal times. To step away from our own bodies and out of our own heads for a little while. In times like these, the best thing books can offer is escapism – the opportunity to inhabit a different place and a different life. We’re limited in what we can do, who we can see and where we can go. Our current reality – quite apart from being dystopian and scary – isn’t exactly fertile ground for variety and excitement.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |