November 30, 2020
Hardiman’s rollicking debut dives into the stories of a good-hearted but mischievous Dublin family. Millie Gogarty, an 83-year-old widow drawn to petty theft, “seems to have so little control over her slippery fingers,” as well as over her tongue. Her long-suffering son, Kevin, 50, has been out of work for two decades. Kevin and his wife, Grace, have four children, including the rebellious 16-year-old Aideen, who deliberately smashes her sister’s mirror (“no regrets there”), steals money from Grace, and is about to be shipped off against her will to a boarding school. When Millie is caught shoplifting again, Kevin arranges for a caretaker, an American named Sylvia Phenning, to keep an eye on her. Millie objects, but ends up getting along so well with Sylvia that Millie lends her money to pay for her nephew’s surgery in the U.S. However, in this hilarious, zippy novel, nothing is as it seems. While some of Millie’s escapades are so exaggerated that they move into slapstick territory, the prose is consistently sharp, as is the Gogartys’ hilarious banter. Full of surprises, Hardiman’s endearing novel stands out for its brilliant insight into the mixed blessings of family bonds. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary.
Starred review from January 1, 2021
In her poignant and often hilarious family-drama-turned-caper debut, Hardiman, with a light tip of the hat to James Joyce's Dubliners, masterfully inhabits the lives of three generations of the Dublin Gogarty family. The widowed matriarch, Millie, 83, is a kleptomaniac with idiosyncrasies and personality to spare. On the poignancy spectrum, she is painfully aware and panicked by time passing. Her son, Kevin, a 50-year-old, professionally obsolete, unemployed celebrity-rag writer, is a stay-at-home father of four. He feels and fights time's passing, too. His oldest daughter, Aideen, 15, is a sullen handful whom he humorously pegs as "The Troubles." Kevin and his often-absent wife decide in exasperation to send Aideen to a private boarding school they can't afford. Escapades ensue as the tables turn on Millie's filching ways, Kevin steps to the edge of unfaithfulness, and Aideen goes on the run after a prank gone wrong. Each of the three is lonely and on their own odyssey to find someone who cares. With catch-your-breath-or-pause-for-a-think prose, the sprightly plot is deepened by explorations of the human condition--first love for Aideen, regret and failure for Kevin, and Millie's awareness of an ever-swelling never-again list. Hardiman's final, almost Leprechaunish touch, is deftly satisfying.
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