Girl on the Leeside

April 10, 2017
Playwright Kenney delves into Irish poetry and literature in her debut novel about a bartender who suddenly finds her isolated life opened up with the arrival of an unexpected guest at her quiet pub. Siobhan Doyle has lived with her Uncle Kee since the unexpected death of her mother 25 years earlier. She enjoys the quiet, picturesque life she and Kee have crafted at the Leeside, a centuries-old family pub they run together in a rural Irish town. But their routine is turned upside down when Professor Tim Ferris, an American who studies Irish literature and poetry, arrives for a few days stay. As she and Tim begin to bond, Siobhan considers the possibility of life beyond the Leeside—especially after it is revealed that her uncle lied about her father’s fate. Though rooted interestingly in a bond over literature, the novel lacks depth at times. Despite Siobhan being nearly 30 years old, she is characterized like a stereotypically Irish manic pixie dream girl: childish, ethereal, and lacking in realism. Alternately rushed and weighed down by wooden dialogue, Kenney’s novel sidesteps the most compelling parts of its own plot (including an IRA bombing) and themes (the place of literature in social identity) in favor of heavy-handed tropes. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary.

April 15, 2017
A bookish young woman must make decisions about her future in this novel set in Ireland.Kenney's debut begins with a prologue. We see the series of tragedies that has left a 2-year-old and her uncle alone at the Leeside Pub. By Chapter 1, Siobhan is in her late 20s, still living with her Uncle Kee, and now working at the Leeside. Siobhan and her uncle have a close relationship and share a passion for Irish folklore and poetry, but Siobhan is otherwise withdrawn. She serves meat pies and drinks to the regulars and spends her free time writing poems that she does not share with anyone. It quickly becomes clear that literature is nearly all she has known of life. When Tim Ferris, an American professor of Irish studies, arrives at the pub, he ushers in a wave of brand-new experiences. Siobhan's extreme naivete makes her a mystery even to herself. Through the course of the novel, she feels emotions like excitement and grief as if for the first time. Her small stature is frequently emphasized, and her one close friend wonders aloud if she may be a fairy from the myths she loves so much. But, despite the improbable confluence of circumstances, the novel stays grounded in reality. Siobhan learns the truth of the past her uncle has kept from her and experiences the pain of love and loss. She seems at least somewhat aware of her odd trajectory into adulthood, writing at one point, "I'm not sure if growing up all at once at 27 is easier or harder than doing it bit by bit." The other characters in Siobhan's life are rendered with a similar flatness that makes them identifiable and, at times, charming but still unrealistic. A late coming-of-age story with a far-fetched plot.

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May 1, 2017
To live on a leeside is to be sheltered from the wind, and Siobhan's life is on both a literal and figurative leeside. Sheltered by overprotective Uncle Kee in a tiny Irish village, Siobhan shares with him a deep love and understanding of Irish poetry, and they care for each other. Siobhan is content in her small, sealed world until an American scholar of Irish poetry comes to visit and begins to show her possibilities of life beyond. She tentatively shows him some of her own poetry but concocts a lie about its origins. Then, too, Uncle Kee holds secrets about her mother's death, in an IRA bombing. When Siobhan's father appears, a man she believed to have been killed in the same blast, she begins to see Uncle Kee in a new light. As events unfold, Siobhan slowly realizes that the safe comfort of the leeside may also have been a kind of prison that has kept her from a fuller experience of life. Lovers of Irish poetry will find this book a treat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)