Barely believable
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This is a well constructed and fascinating story. It is only when you consider the likelihood of anyone having been so close to so many deaths and remembering the fine detail of each that you appreciate that it is indeed a story.
Virtually none of these dramatic episodes can be confirmed by a living witness.
The book presents no analysis of events beyond the madness of the Irish. There is no book I more regret buying on the stregth of reviews. I don't believe one word of it.
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Amazing!
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This is very easy to read but certainlly not void of information and fasinating facts. Terrifying violence and written with amazing passion, it's fantastic.
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Not for serious readers of Northern Ireland's recent past.
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I do wish that I hadn't bought this book. I read only half of it and found that I couldn't continue. It was pure tat, self-promoting and so shallow. I shall give this book to someone I don't like!
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"That was Belfast."
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I have read countless books which have used the events of this era as their focus and theme. Having grown up on the fringes of south Belfast myself during the early to late-seventies, I don't think I have ever read such a balanced narrative on "the troubles" and the blinkered tribalism that fuelled them. Even though by the final chapter when Myers writes of "...the darkness of my time there" - and by then we know he means the despair of guilt at possible wrong decisions, a failed love affair which still haunts him, lost friends and general disillusionment at suddenly discovering your twenties are gone - this is nonetheless an uplifting narrative where the writer's appetite for life remains strong. True, for every humorous encounter with, say, a Swedish prostitute ("...how I learnt the "Excuse me" is whorish for goodbye forever...") there are several encounters with terrifying characters such as Rab Brown, the UVF psycopath, and the odious John McGuffin, the bar-room socialist and parasite. This is powerful writing. One gets the feeling that Myers has set out to exorcise his own ghosts. I hope he has succeeded.
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Awesome.
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Like previous reviewers, five stars isn't enough!!!
I don't read books ok. I really mean I DON'T read books. Usually after the first few pages I get bored/distracted etc. Not this one.
I had it finished inside 4 days.
Just as Belfast had Kevin hooked from the moment Robert Bankier was killed, this book had me hooked from the moment I read the prologue.
If your interested in this subject then there can only be one book.
THIS ONE!
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