Book Review: The Lieutenant of Inismore by Martin McDonagh

So full disclosure: I read the play because I heard that Chris Pine was playing the title character in a production in LA.


The faces of Irish terrorism are...kinda hot.

Anyhow. I first read McDonagh's work in an advanced fiction seminar in undergrad. The thing about McDonagh is that he writes truly black tragicomedy. He writes things that are horrible and sad and hilarious. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is one of the most fucked-up stories about mother-daughter relationships ever. In Brugges almost offers the possibility of redemption and then renders the point moot.

The Lieutenant of Inismore takes all the intensity of The Cause and likens it to dead cats. (Warning: there is animal death in the play. Also, people death. Basically, lots of death.) And it fucking works.

I read it yesterday and have been laughing over lines from it since. "D'ye remember that last line o' the song, Mairead?" "Ye killed me fuckin' cat!" "Nah that wasn't it..."

Here's the other thing about McDonagh. His black comedy is...really...black. The people you like? Are gonna die, or become unlikeable. The people you don't like? Will probably die too. Did I mention there was a lot of death and violence? Well there is.

That said, that's one of the best books I've read in a long time, up there with Tam Lin albeit in a completely different direction. It's short, too--I read the whole thing in my lunch hour yesterday. So if you're looking for a quick read, pick this baby. And if you're in California, go see Chris Pine, and then tell me all about it so I can vicariously live through you. :D

ETA: Found this video with brief interveiws with the cast and shots of the play, including the cell phone torture scene with Padraic.