Whether in Belfast (which appears discredited by those who were not born there), in the countryside or by the sea, the characters we meet struggle – to exist, to grow, to survive. The Troubles, which tore Ireland apart for many years, are never far away, whether in the absence of a dead mother or an imprisoned father, or in the fear of an attack. But it is also a society corseted by religion and prudishness that is depicted. People have great difficulty communicating, women are demeaned and reduced to their sole domestic role. When it is the children and adolescents who undoubtedly suffer the most, they who have to face stereotypes and dramas without hope of relief. However, they can be more insightful, more cunning and less petty than adults, as Ruth (The Ghost in the Backseat), Louise (Victor Soda) and Caroline (Caravan) prove in turn.
A summary of Irish reality
Conversing with a dead person, realizing that your children have been swallowed by a slide, finding a bloody hand in your fridge: a touch of the supernatural erupts here and there, without it being gratuitous. Because with Jan Carson, everything makes sense. When reality seems too cramped a space for expression, she does not hesitate to expand it.
A class of children decimated by a mysterious evil
Finally, it is also in the brevity of the texts that their appeal and effectiveness lie. In a short time and with fine dexterity, Jan Carson manages to bring his reader into each unique world, to immerse us in the psychology of various characters, to sketch situations with high romantic potential. All offering, one might think, an intense summary of Irish reality. In short, in a nutshell, it’s great art.
⇒ Jan Carson | The Ghost in the Backseat | news | translated from English (Ireland) by Dominique Goy-Blanquet | Sabine Wespieser | 315 pp., €23
