Big Girl, Small Town

Starred review from September 21, 2020
Gallen’s sensational debut concerns Majella O’Neill, a 27-year-old on the autism spectrum who’s learned how to mimic social cues. Majella lives with her irresponsible mother, Nuala, in the tiny fictional town of Aghybogey in Northern Ireland. Situated near the border, Aghybogey was once the site of clashes between the IRA and British soldiers, and the violence continues to haunt Majella’s family in the present. Following the death of her IRA-affiliated uncle Bobby, Majella’s once-doting dad, Gerard, starts to spend more time away from home. When the book opens, he’s been missing for years, and everyone in town is talking about Majella’s grandmother Maggie, who died after being beaten in her own home during a break-in. Majella’s no stranger to having her family be the subject of gossip, as Nuala’s destructive behavior and craving for attention are often exacerbated by her drinking and Majella often ends up playing the mom. Gallen does a great job of teasing out the details surrounding Maggie’s death through Majella’s conversations with family members and her customers at the fish and chips shop where she works. Gallen’s also an expert at mixing moments of emotional intensity with mundane episodes. The plot unfolds in a series of vignettes that expand on a list of Majella’s likes (eating, Dallas DVDs, sex) and dislikes (noise, jokes, fashion), which make her outlook irresistible. Gallen’s effortless immersion into a gritty, endlessly bittersweet world packs a dizzying punch.

October 15, 2020
In a small town in post-conflict Northern Ireland, a young woman working in a chip shop observes the lives--and contemplates the secrets--of her regular customers as she attempts to make sense of her own. Majella O'Neill--who lives with her alcoholic mother, longs for her missing father, and mourns her recently murdered grandmother--is the cleareyed narrator of a novel that spans just one week, from workday Monday to pub-night Sunday, but that also returns intermittently to bittersweet scenes from childhood. The plot hinges, quite shakily, on the recent and brutal murder of Majella's grandmother, and its turning point is the reading of her will. But the novel's vitality resides in Majella's deadpan observations ("She got her timing from her da. He always caught glasses before they hit the floor, her ma before she passed out") and in the acutely replicated dialogue that constitutes much of the narrative ("What about ye, Iggy? Ah'm all right. What about you? Grand. Surviving"). Like a stage play, the novel unfolds in nightly scenes at a chip shop called A Salt and Battered! where Majella serves the drunks, waifs, and assorted locals that the reader comes to know as well as she does. The only disappointment is an abrupt ending that brings the curtain down too quickly. An irreverent portrait of small-town Northern Ireland that is both bleakly and uproariously funny.

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Starred review from November 1, 2020

DEBUT Majella O'Neill keeps a running list in her head of top 10 things she likes and dislikes. The dislikes list actually runs to a full 97 items, with subcategories, but she sometimes thinks it could be distilled to one item: other people. She lives in Aghybogey, a small village in Northern Ireland still feeling the effects of the Troubles. Working at the local chip shop, she regularly cleans up after her needy, alcoholic mother. Years have passed since the unexplained disappearance of Majella's father, and her grandmother's murder has just rattled the village. Majella finds comfort in her routines--wearing the same clothes, spending Sunday evenings at the pub, eating microwaved dinners from the chip shop while tucked into bed watching DVDs of Dallas, the greatest show ever--but is deeply shaken by the death of her grandmother. Majella is a compelling character caught in a fascinating slice of time, and her journey is exquisitely rendered. VERDICT With echoes of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine crossed with the 1990s-set British sitcom Derry Girls, this debut is recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Emma Donoghue, and Sally Rooney.--Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2020
There isn't much to do in the Northern Irish border town of Aghybogey, but there's plenty to talk about. Twentysomething Majella overhears more than her fair share by working at A Salt and Battered!, handing sausage suppers, fried fish, and vinegar-soaked chips to a regular stream of locals. While it's not a glamorous job, the greasy chaos of the chip shop is a welcome distraction from Majella's bleak and frustrating home life. Her grandmother was the recent victim of a brutal murder, and her alcoholic mother has been increasingly unsteady since Majella's dad disappeared during the Troubles. As friends, neighbors, and acquaintances filter in and out of the chip shop, the complexities of life in Aghybogey are revealed. Gallen has crafted a darkly comic novel about an isolated young woman struggling to find her place in a town still deeply divided in a post-Troubles world. Majella is a nuanced and complicated heroine, reliant on routines and largely dismissive of change. Infused with local diction, inflection, and slang, her voice envelops readers in the sounds of small-town Ireland. Fans of Sara Baume's novels and the Irish TV series Derry Girls will adore this complex, clever, and deeply moving debut novel.

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