The Wild Laughter

May 11, 2020
Hughes’s sharply observed follow-up to Orchid & the Wasp takes a stark look at an Irish family’s love and betrayal amid the recession of 2008. Hughes opens with a terminally ill man known as the Chief, taken care of by his wife, the chilly ex-nun Nóra, and handsome, loyal narrator Doharty, called Hart, stuck on the family farm while his older brother, book-smart, arrogant Cormac, lives in Dublin. The Chief got caught up in the “height of the country’s delirium” during the days of the Celtic Tiger and got deeply involved in real estate speculation, but has now lost everything. The brothers share little except a determination to fulfill the Chief’s wish to end his life (euthanasia is illegal in Ireland) and, it turns out, the affection of a woman, Dolly. Dolly is technically Cormac’s girlfriend, but she soon falls for Hart. Hughes’s taut, voice-driven work balances colorful dialogue with wry commentary, which extends from the characters to the shifting values of their country away from privileging the working class, where the battle for “right of entry from the field into the garden” has been lost, a good man like the Chief can die bankrupt, and sly Cormac does better than the rougher, kinder Hart. This solid family drama stands out by doubling as a poignant state-of-the-nation novel.