Rating: 
Summary: Turn your brains on, kiddies
Review: The novel, Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe is a prime example of "smart literature". An appropriate definition of smart literature is, "a book you have to think about to like". I am guilty of turning my brain off the first time I read this piece of work. I thought it was vulgar and uncontrolled. When I actually turned my brain on for the second reading, I learned how wrong it was in that assumption. This novel follows the story of a young transvestite prostitute in Ireland who was abandoned at birth. He is searching for love, money, revenge, and his mother. The Northern Ireland War is the stunning backdrop for this novel. The conversation and insight by the protagonist is intriguing and his struggles to find himself and his mother are heart wrenching. When he finally spirals down in to depression and insanity, the reader feels the innocent little boy trying to grasp at one last little piece of a dream. His vengeful fits explode like searing fire off of the pages. Breakfast on Pluto is a short, fast read. If your brain is on, that is. If you don't get it the first time, read it again and the piece will fall together like a Chanel scented puzzle. Some people may be turned off to the graphic sex and rape, (I was one of them) but it is crucial to the story. This is a book that deserves to be read and Patrick McCabe is an author that deserves to be highly credited for his work. For a rating of this book, I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. (Hey, that 2 time reading irked me a lot at first, what can I say.)
Rating:
Summary: Turn your brains on, kiddies
Review: The novel, Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe is a prime example of "smart literature". An appropriate definition of smart literature is, "a book you have to think about to like". I am guilty of turning my brain off the first time I read this piece of work. I thought it was vulgar and uncontrolled. When I actually turned my brain on for the second reading, I learned how wrong it was in that assumption. This novel follows the story of a young transvestite prostitute in Ireland who was abandoned at birth. He is searching for love, money, revenge, and his mother. The Northern Ireland War is the stunning backdrop for this novel. The conversation and insight by the protagonist is intriguing and his struggles to find himself and his mother are heart wrenching. When he finally spirals down in to depression and insanity, the reader feels the innocent little boy trying to grasp at one last little piece of a dream. His vengeful fits explode like searing fire off of the pages. Breakfast on Pluto is a short, fast read. If your brain is on, that is. If you don't get it the first time, read it again and the piece will fall together like a Chanel scented puzzle. Some people may be turned off to the graphic sex and rape, (I was one of them) but it is crucial to the story. This is a book that deserves to be read and Patrick McCabe is an author that deserves to be highly credited for his work. For a rating of this book, I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. (Hey, that 2 time reading irked me a lot at first, what can I say.)
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't get to the brilliant part
Review: CM-A book I would have to read again to completely comprehend. Enjoyable & witty, a challenging read. K-Took me 2/3 of the way through the book to really understand what was going on and get used to his style of writing. Once I did, I really enjoyed the book, but it was almost too late by then!M-The style and irish colloquialisms caused difficulty initially in getting into this book, yet to combat that-read it all at once. This allows one to jump into Paddy Pussy's head-as frightful as that might be! Paddy is a troubled and naive person that lives his life to the beat of a different drummer, yet his quirkiness almost seems sane in the insane world of religion & politics of Northern Ireland. Patrick McCabe is a genious. J-I really enjoyed the exclamatory style of writing, despite the dark subject matter. Pussy's spirit was very admirable. The quick change of Pussy's emotion and the events that occured kept me interested, even though it was hard to follow. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I would have read it all at once instead of in so many segments. - Poor, poor pitiful Pussy! So pitiful & used, yet so in touch with him, er um, herself! A little fragmented, but overall a decent read. - Hum..I am still trying to figure out what was real & what was fantasy..I guess that was the point. Loved the use of language and the colorful descriptions of people and events. It was very interesting.. - Interesting entering the mind of such a different person. A lesson in optimism.
Rating: 
Summary: Wierd title ...good read
Review: I read this book for a neighborhood book club, discussion. I thought the group leader had flipped when she recommended it. However this was a good study in human behavior, denial, hardship, depravity, lovelessness, and some sort of triump over it. Worthwhile reading and very well written.
Rating:
Summary: Wierd title ...good read
Review: I read this book for a neighborhood book club, discussion. I thought the group leader had flipped when she recommended it. However this was a good study in human behavior, denial, hardship, depravity, lovelessness, and some sort of triump over it. Worthwhile reading and very well written.
Rating:
Summary: Not Worth The Time
Review: I'm a pretty patient reader so I stick with most things I pick up. And it's a shame that I'm so persistent because I should have put this one down and started something else. I've read some bad stuff and this ranks right up there. Patrick McCabe is a talented author. Both The Butcher Boy and Carn were excellent novels. So I was confused when I got through the first few pages of Breakfast on Pluto. Was it me? Was this genius and was I failing to recognize truly brilliant writing? I've figured out that the answer is no. Breakfast on Pluto is just plain bad. Unfortunately, its had the side effect of turning me off Patrick McCabe in general. Maybe one day I'll try something else by him but for now, I'd rather move on.
Rating:
Summary: Not for everybody
Review: It is no wonder that Patrick Braden's life is a mess. Conceived by a union of a parish priest and a sixteen-year-old girl, Patrick grows up with a foster mother he calls Mrs. Whiskers in a house he refers to as Rat Trap Mansions. Obviously this book isn't for everybody, although it isn't as graphic or steamy as one would expect, very mild in fact compared to most women's romance novels. By far the part of Patrick Pussy Braden's life on the streets in the sordid world of male prostitutes is downplayed, except for occasional misfortunes he experiences, like hooking up with a man who takes him out to strangle him. One is reminded almost of the movie, The Crying Game, where once before we have met a beguiling cross-dresser mixed up with an IRA man.
Told in the form of a journal kept by Patrick at the request of his psychiatrist, it is rather a pathetic tale, but one worth reading. The title comes from a song popular in the late 60's, a time when things came to a head in Northern Ireland. Like his mother, whom he never knew, Patrick is obsessed with music, especially the old romantic songs and musicals. An incurable romantic, Patrick doesn't have a happy ending, but it is an interesting journey along the way.
Rating:
Summary: The Silly and The Sentimental
Review: Music plays a part in this novel and the title itself was taken from a song recorded by Don Partridge in 1969. The lyrics are silly: "Go anywhere without leaving your chair/and let your thoughts run free/Living within all the dreams you can spin/There is so much to see." Silly or not, these lyrics are central to the plot of Breakfast on Pluto. Set in the tumultuous Ireland of the 1960s and 1970s, Breakfast on Pluto is the story of a transvestite named Paddy "Pussy" Braden, a character who uses the silly and the sentimental as a shield against the horrors of the modern world. The book is written as a memoir. Paddy, who has a crush on his psychologist, Terence, pens the memoir, ostensibly for the benefit of Terence and his (Paddy's) own analysis, but he does harbor ulterior motives all his own. The tone of the novel is flirtatious, effusive and, at times, completely unreliable. The details of Paddy's life are predictably sordid, unsavory and truly awful. Paddy has been abandoned by just about everyone and Breakfast on Pluto is thus a novel about loss and love and the loss of love, about violence and loveless sex and even encroaching insanity. McCabe, however, is such a talented writer that he can, and does, relate these depressing details in a prose style so vivid, so utterly original and lively and witty that Paddy Braden becomes almost charming. He is, by turns, caustic, sardonic, colorful, naïve, explosive, poignant and yes, even hilarious. He is simply one of the most audacious characters I have ever met, and this audacity, combined with the glee with which he relates the horrible events in which he take sheer delight, only makes him all the more compelling. The son of a priest and a beautiful woman who looked like Mitzi Gaynor, Paddy grew up in patriarchal, provincial Ireland unloved and unwanted in the home of a wicked foster mother. Paddy is not a character who was able to transcend the bad and turn negatives into positives. The absence of maternal affection in his life affects him deeply and he turns to silly, attention-getting antics. As Paddy matures, his penchant for women's clothing grows. It is a penchant that certainly doesn't endear him to his neighbors. Paddy, though, really doesn't care. Although it might be hard to believe, some of the book's funniest and most poignant moments, as well as some of the best dialogue, come when Paddy's frilly and fussy sensibilities clash with the grim reality of civil war. A recurring theme of McCabe's is his perception of hypocrisy in the Catholic church. In Breakfast on Pluto, McCabe explores this perceived hypocrisy in an eccentric and hilarious manner. Nowhere is it highlighted better than in a scene where Paddy goes into a church to confront his father. We realize that Paddy: sodomite, thief, liar, cheat, is no more of a sinner than is his sanctimonious father or the pious souls who come into the priest's confessional to bare their sins and be purified. As the book gains momentum, so does the cycle of violence and counter-violence and Paddy, for a time, escapes to England where things are different, but not much better. From this point on, the book deals in real trouble: torture, murder and betrayal. While some of the campy plotline has been left behind, Paddy's unique voice can still be heard. As his problems reach grotesque proportions, Paddy seeks his salvation, in, of all things, a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Even when Paddy returns to Ireland (for what Irishman can remain out of Ireland for long?), his indomitable spirit keeps him afloat. The silly and the sentimental are, for Paddy Braden, more than song lyrics. They are, sadly, his only source of hope.
Rating: 
Summary: I just did'nt like it !
Review: This is the first time for me to read McCabe.Being a Booker finalist and reading the Customer Reviews,I had high expectations.Roddy Doyle,McLiam Wilson and Brendan O'Carroll as well as the McCourts really ring my bell as modern writers.Hence I was hoping for something more like that.I read about 150 books a year and like characters I would enjoy meeting,even if fictional.I like to be left with something upon finishing a book.From our school days,we were fed the academic line about what a good book was;books that have been awarded honors,classics,etc.
About all that did was turn me off from reading and I assume the same with many others.Once I started serious reading and found authors I enjoyed ,a whole world opened to me.This book didn't give me what I look for. I have a copy of McCabe's "Emerald Germs of Ireland" which I will read shortly;maybe I'll like it.If not,we'll just move on, there are so many books and so little time.I have no argument with those who rated it highly and enjoyed it.Heck ;that's what life is all about.Art,Music,People,Places,we don't all like the same things;and who's to say what's great?
Rating:
Summary: Sanity of a pervert in perverted world sanity
Review: To tell the truth, I've opened this book only because it was shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize. I was disappointed from the very start - perverted hero, distorted English, weird plot. Modern novels are crowded today with gays, lesbians and all other kinds of sexual minorities as if straight Homo sapiens is vanishing from surface of the Earth. As if the author couldn't find normal heroes and normal words to tell his readers about problems of Northern Ireland. But nevertheless I finished my reading and changed my opinion in the end. Because Pat Braden, the hero of the book, transvestite and male prostitute, is the one who is sane in this perverted world where the blood streams and bombs explode, where people hate each other with inclination for consolidation only to exterminate anyone who differs from them. Pat, abandoned by mother, repudiated by father and unloved by most people, in his search for love is more human than his surroundings. The world is not so beautiful place to live in, Patrick McCabe tells us, sometimes it only a bit differs from abattoir, but it will not come to the end while its exhausted inhabitants still hope for love. The book includes really excellent pages, especially the inserted story of a man who crossed the border in pursuit for love but was tortured and killed by human (or unhuman) intolerance. By and large, this book is more worthy of Booker Prize than Ian McEwan's cold satire.
|
