Family fortunes

Besotted

It begins when 16-year-old twins, Michael and Kieran, visit the Cork home of their Irish grandparents with their family for the summer holidays. They have just completed their ‘O’ Level exams in England. The results, when they arrive, are expected: Kieran has excelled in every subject while Michael has disgraced himself by failing all but one — art.

But more than the apprehension of his parents’ disappointment and wrath is Michael’s bleak realisation that he will not be going back to school. This means he will no longer have the opportunity to run into Salema, an exotic half-Indian girl. So far, he has failed to ask her out on a date, due to nerves. He finds solace with the forward Peggy O’Connor, a frisky local girl who invites him to a disco. He also meets Peggy’s cousin, Fergal Noonan, a young priest in training, who witnesses them necking in the graveyard. Many years later, he receives a long and enlightening letter from Fergal, who was present when significant events took place.

Back in the rambling family home in Cheltenham, Salema, who happens to be a gifted pianist, begins to turn up to practice music with Kieran. When Michael is called upon to entertain Salema one day, he finds he cannot articulate himself properly and is relieved when Kieran arrives.

Kieran on the other hand is comfortable with her and it is only a matter of time before they embark on a relationship, to Michael’s secret despair.

Fast forward to London, 20 odd years later. Michael — now a photographer — is in his apartment when his niece, Trinity, arrives at his door. Having overheard her parents arguing about an “11-month pregnancy”, she is uncertain whether Kieran is, in fact, her father. She asks Michael to help her find out her true parentage. She persuades him to attend an anti-war rally with her, where they run into Peggy, who has her own version of past events.

Throughout the novel, dialogue is enlivened by comic moments, while on other occasions we are aware of a compelling tension. The writing flows with an apparent facility and finely observed detail: ‘there were clanking noises from the kitchen and the soft sound, from somewhere upstairs, of his mother singing. Emily threw a card down and scratched her leg. Old Mrs Doyle panted, scattering cigarette ash on the table.’

We are there. The scene is believable. The highly-sensitised awareness of a teenage boy after his first encounter with a girl is equally vividly evoked: ‘he found himself instantly alert, his body buzzing with energy, a sensation on his skin that was a memory of Peggy O’Connor. The wind made the casement rattle. He turned his head and saw that Kieran was gone and he was alone. His pulse was racing.’

In this, his second novel, Joe Treasure confirms his status as a quietly assured writer with a keen ear for dialogue. His portrayal of an Irish community and of family relationships in particular, is convincingly natural. Between the unexpressed rivalry of two brothers; the conflict of their English/Irish identity; the shadow of religion and its attendant guilt, and the chemistry that sparks in unexpected places, this is an engrossing coming of age novel, charged by the secret at its core.