Home discomforts in Graham Norton's latest literary excursion
Graham Norton.
- Home StretchÂ
- Graham NortonÂ
- Coronet Pb: €13.99
- ebook and audio narrated by Graham Norton
A COMMUNITY in West Cork is not necessarily as homely and safe as might be expected as was evident in Schull when Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered, and on the island Inisrún, in Louise O’Neill’s latest novel, After the Silence, when Nessa Crowley is killed. Conversely, in Home Stretch by Graham Norton the deaths are misadventure. Three young people die in a car accident leaving another passenger paralysed and two youths alive and totally unscathed, physically at least.
Norton is interested in the reactions of the denizens of his fictional town, Mullinmore, located just far enough south of Cork for a journey to the city to be an undertaking. The dead include a betrothed couple and their prospective bridesmaid. The injured girl is the sister of the bridesmaid, her nose recently put out of joint by not being chosen alongside her sibling. Those who walk away are the doctor’s son, who owned the vehicle, and the local publican’s son, Connor, the driver.
Connor is the protagonist and it is the journey away from his hometown which forms the crux of the story. But Norton does not forget or ignore those who stay behind. The townsfolk initially reject Connor entirely, regarding him as a killer. He is forbidden to attend the funerals and subsequently quarantines himself in his room. His family, themselves ostracised, which is no small thing for their income from the pub, eventually decide to send their boy to Liverpool to work on building sites.
Norton exposes prejudice and cruelty towards the driver of the car. The community is unforgiving when he is found guilty of dangerous driving and handed down a suspended prison sentence. Neighbours find it in their hearts only to empathise with the bereaved mother of the bridegroom, a woman who was not their bosom pal during her son’s lifetime but is elevated, through loss, almost to sainthood. She has been left completely alone and without family. It must be said, however, that a number of the congregation regard her display of grief at the funeral as unnecessarily dramatic, as if she thought she was in a film.
Writing with admirable precision from the points of view of several townsfolk, Norton manages to convey the vicious small-mindedness of the inhabitants of Mullinmore. At the same time he demonstrates compassion towards them and their bigotry as if saying kindly, ‘they know not what they do’.
It is not impossible to imagine that Norton himself, as a very young man might have experienced some similar rejection. Certainly there was a period in his life, whilst studying at UCC, when he felt unable to leave his room owing to a nervous breakdown. Norton would probably not welcome a reading of Home Stretch as autobiographical but some parallels will surely have informed his story-telling and contributed to the verisimilitude of the novel.
Expatriate Irish frequently bounce back home like bungee jumpers and one of the fascinating things about Connor’s story is how far he can stretch the cord, not only physically but also culturally as he adopts a lifestyle which would be unimaginable to most of those in Mullinmore. Will Connor rebound like so many of his compatriots, and if he does, will the hostile attitudes and opinions which hounded him in the first place be fuelled and ignited by knowledge of his recent experiences?
With more liberal laws, such as the legality of same sex marriage, in Ireland, Norton himself is less of an outlaw than he once was. His work in the media and charming personality have contributed to the attrition of prejudice in his home county and country. Home Stretch might enhance this effort.
