Anatomy School [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

With The Anatomy School, his first novel since 1997's Grace Notes, Bernard MacLaverty returns to the dual concerns that animated that Booker-nominated success, and his earlier novels Lamb and Cal--the troubled politics of late 20th-century Ireland, and the familiar comedy of working-class Irish life.

We meet innocent Belfast Catholic teenager Michael Brennan as he enters a three-day retreat at Ardglass on the eve of his final year at school, resitting his A levels, to the increasing despair of his mother; by the end of the novel, at the end of the 1960s, Michael's innocence is somewhat tarnished, both by his own sexual awakening with an Australian girl in the local university's anatomy department, and by the sectarian bombs providing an inappropriate soundtrack outside. The bulk of the novel is given over to the schoolboy adventures of Brennan with his two friends, the popular sportsman Kavanagh and the sexually and politically mysterious new boy Blaise Foley. Seeking to spice up their workaday world of mocking their schoolmasters and sniggering about masturbation and pornography, together they embark on a torturously complex plot to hijack the year's A level papers--in Foley's eyes a blow against British imperialism but also a self-serving prank that leaves the ethically serious Michael in no small torment.

MacLaverty is at his best in the humorous moments, spinning out tense situations with the wandering skill of a stand-up comic and breathing new life into the compulsory old-folks' tea-party, the "dotery coterie" of Michael's fastidious mother, Nurse Gilliland, Father Farquharson and Mary Lawless. But undercutting the easy whimsy is a harsher tale of the inevitable death of innocence in a world of religion, politics and deception.--Alan Stewart -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Poor Martin Brennan has to contend with a variety of indignities: an overbearing mother who dreams of her son entering the priesthood, the pressures of passing his school exams (after an unsuccessful first attempt), and the ordinary turbulence of late adolescence. Shy and unsure of himself, Martin carefully navigates his world with the help (and sometimes hindrance) of his best friends: Kavanaugh, a smooth-talking charmer; and the rebellious Blaise Foley, who challenges Martin's precepts of authority and faith. Martin, a photographer for his school newspaper, studiously observes and absorbs his surroundings, from the impoverished lifestyle he and his mother must endure to the twittering ladies and pompous priest who frequent the Brennans' dinner table. As Martin struggles with his relationships, classes, and first foray into romance, he moves slowly into manhood, readjusting his worldview. MacLaverty, whose work has previously been short-listed for the Booker Prize, writes with an easy charm and perfectly captures life in 1960s Belfast. He invests the smallest characters with great wit and humanity, creating a moving, rueful tale. Brendan Dowling
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This is the story of the growing up of Martin Brennan, a troubled boy in troubled times, a boy who knows all the questions but none of the answers. This is Belfast in the late sixties. Before he can become an adult, Martin must unravel the sacred and contradictory mysteries of religion, science and sex; he must learn the value of friendship; but most of all he must pass his exams - at any cost.

Martin Brenna is a troubled boy living in troubled times, a boy who knows all of the questions but none of the answers. This is Belfast in the late sixties. Before he can become and adult, Martin must unravel the sacred and contradictory mysteries of religion, science and sex; he must learn the value of friendship; but most of all he must pass his exams - at any cost. "The Anatomy School" celebrates the desire to speak and the need to say nothing, moving from the enforced silence of Martin's Catholic school retreat, through the hilarious repartee of his eccentric elders to the awkward wit and loose profanity of his two friends - the charismatic Kavanagh and the subbesive Blaise Foley. An absorbing, tense and very funny novel which takes Martin from the initiations of youth to the devoutly wished for consummation of the flesh, "The Anatomy School" is a remarkable re-creation of the anxieties and joys of learning to find a place in the world.

Bernard Mac Laverty, geboren 1942 in Belfast; war tätig in einem medizinischen Labor und studierte an der Universität. Veröffentlichung eines Kinderbuches und sehr erfolgreicher Kurzgeschichten. Der Autor ist Lehrer und lebt an der Westküste von Schottland.