Eureka Street is a novel by Irish writer Robert McLiam Wilson. Critically acclaimed, it was a huge international success in 1996! In it, the writer paints a portrait of a Belfast scarred by violence, where its inhabitants try to find happiness and balance… A colorful portrait, closely linked to the Northern Irish conflict, that will not leave you indifferent!
Eureka Street recounts the daily lives of Belfast residents as the city bears the full brunt of the end of the Irish conflict. Between terrorist threats and latent conflict, the inhabitants try to get on with their daily lives, without ever forgetting to look out for each other… You’ll be able to follow the routines of our colorful and endearing characters.
Starting with Chuckie the Protestant, who spends his time devising the worst schemes to raise money… Not to mention Catholic Jake, a tough old man with a tender heart, who’s been through a string of break-ups…
Around them, life seems hard and difficult, but solidarity and fraternity are their best weapons to keep going and prevent violence from gaining ground…
Robert McLiam Wilson has taken up the challenge of portraying rather corrosive and endearing characters in the midst of an unstable, fragile, explosive and rebellious Belfast, where recurrent violence has transformed it into a veritable powder keg.
Between armed conflict, denominational segregation and calls for violence, nothing seems to disturb the disillusioned Jake and Chuckie, 2 Belfast residents, Catholic and Protestant respectively, who seem to wander through life with difficulty. In their quest for success (material or sentimental, depending on the character), they both seem to endure their daily lives in the midst of a climate that’s more than a little deleterious.
Nothing could have predicted that their friendship would hold up in this unstable context. A friendship that the writer sets up as a powerful counter-example to the context of those years in Northern Ireland…
It’s Robert McLiam Wilson’s way of combating fatalistic prejudice and socio-political determinism: religious differences don’t have to divide people.
A very good novel, combining humor, cynicism and romance, delivering portraits that are at once singular, touching and disarming. A must-read!
3.50/5 (4 votes)
