Named by The Observer as one of the ten best new novelists of 2023, Michael Magee’s debut novel Close to Home is a Belfast novel, but more than that, it is a distinctly West Belfast novel.
Sean Maguire has returned to the city from Liverpool with a degree in English and a dream to write a novel, but prospects are thin on the ground and he is eking out a living working in nightclubs, sharing a squalid flat with his best mate Ryan and spending all his spare cash on drink, drugs and nights out. At a house party, he knocks another young man unconscious and the fall-out from this impulsive act threatens to derail his already precarious situation.
Drawing on his own experiences, Magee has crafted a novel that explores the economic and personal constraints that have left Sean in a liminal space, being pulled in different directions by the life he wants, and by the life he wants to leave behind. He reignites a friendship with former girlfriend Mairéad who is now part of a cultured, well-off crowd living in the south of the city and he harbours both animosity and jealousy for a life that he sees as just out of his reach. His erratic brother Anto remains close to home, wallowing in alcohol and violence, unable to move out from under the shadow of their father and the havoc he wrecked on the boys as children.
Sean is part of the generation who were promised something better by the Good Friday Agreement but instead find themselves inhibited in different, but equally stifling ways. Class has replaced religion as a means of societal segregation, as an awkward scene at a job interview in a gallery demonstrates. The Troubles might be over, but a legacy of trauma still exists and the notion of ‘moving on’ – from both a personal and a societal point of view – seems as unlikely as ever.
This portrait of modern masculinity is played out against a milieu of job shortages, rising rents and ongoing sectarian distrust. Magee is a compassionate and insightful writer and his debut is shot through with humour and emotion, despite the difficulty of the subject matter. His exploration of family life, friendship and modern masculinity has a poignancy and sharp sense of place that marks him out as a writer to watch.
Cathy Brown
(This review is extracted from Issue 10 of Dig With It magazine, out April 20. The issue also features a Q&A with Michael Magee. See our online shop.)
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