We’re a week out from the shortlist announcement, and I just finished my ninth from the Booker Dozen. In following this year’s theme of thin volumes and character studies, Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Grove Press 2024) is a gritty look at small town Irish life – heavy on drugs, violence, and hopes to escape – that takes place over a weekend. I wanted to like it more than I did, but I don’t think I was in the correct mindset to fully appreciate and love this group of misfits.
The novel opens with Dev Hendrick, an early twenties high school drop out who lives alone (after his mother died) out in the countryside with his mother’s dog. He’s Steinbech’s Lennie. After Dev’s mom died, some local drug runners (and distant relatives) realized his house was perfect to hold drugs because of how remote it is. Masquerading as a twisted friendship and familial relationship, the men treat his house as their own. And poor Dev is torn between wanting to just be left alone and wanting friends. But this Friday night, they showed up with a kid – Doll English – that they will tie up in Dev’s basement until Doll’s brother, Cillian, pays his debts.
Doll is kidnapped Friday night while leaving a party at one of the “wild houses.” He’d gotten in a fight with his older girlfriend, Nicky, and he’s alone when he’s taken. Seventeen-year-old Nicky drunkenly stumbled to Doll’s house in hopes of finding him there. When she woke up and found he’d never returned to his bed, she decided he must have stayed with his brother and continued her day. Nicky is probably my favorite character of the bunch – orphaned and having tended bar since she was 14, she’s finally on the cusp of getting out. University and the city are on the horizon for her, but right now she’s dating the younger brother of a drug runner who owes a lot of money after losing a lot of coke. And she’s elbows deep in a plot to get him back.
Wild Houses is somewhat surprising and somewhat not surprising a selection. Barrett’s talent in shorter form is certainly apparent, but Wild Houses just missed the mark for me – I couldn’t find the novel’s heart the way I wanted.
Should you read it? Sure. My problem with this longlist is that they are all pretty much falling into the “perfectly fine” category and there have only been a handful of standouts for me. On the flip of that, there haven’t really been any complete and utter duds.
Booker 9 of 13.
A Girl Named Tommi 