The Lesser Bohemians

The Lesser Bohemians is the second novel by Eimear McBride. It was published on 1 September 2016.^[1] McBride discussed the book on Woman's Hour a week later.^[2]

Synopsis

Eilis, an 18-year-old Irish student, travels to London to take up a place at a drama school. She becomes passionately involved with Stephen, a 39-year-old professional actor. However, they both have troubled pasts.

Critical reception

Writing in the London Evening Standard, Johanna Thomas-Corr began by noting, "Set in mid-Nineties London (whose pre-internet intimacy feels wonderfully alien), McBride’s second novel is as fearless and febrile as her debut. But at its heart is a swoonily old-fashioned romance of two damaged people learning how to take pleasure in each other". She went on, "McBride has said that the techniques of method acting have informed the way she writes, breaking down a character’s experiences of the body and the mind and then finding a language that expresses them simultaneously. You might call it stream of preconsciousness. She coins new words […] It can take a while to puzzle out some choices[…]. And McBride’s fractured syntax is well tuned to the body’s complex desires", before concluding, "It broke my heart several times over and on each occasion I had to stop to cry. McBride has made something strange and beautiful — well worth its difficulties".^[3]

Reviewing the book in the Financial Times Jonathan Lee recalled that McBride's debut novel A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing "famously ended up being released by the tiny Galley Beggar Press and winning, among many other awards, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Unlike the sponsor's drinks, there was nothing syrupy about McBride's writing. […] What's immediately clear when one picks up The Lesser Bohemians is that, this time around, there's a lot more sugar in the mix". He judged that, "The fractured sentences that felt so appropriate in The Girl are still here, but the style somehow feels less suited to the story" although he found "images that remind us of the fact McBride is one of the most exciting literary talents to emerge in the last few years". In the end, he decided "This may not be Eimear McBride’s strongest book, but such moments of highly specific, deeply felt experience remind us what she can do".^[4]

In The Independent, Max Liu began by writing: "McBride writes in a stream of consciousness style that's as accessible as it is startling. It can make the world new at the same time as evoking its timeless fundamentals". However, he was less impressed with a "60-odd page monologue of abuse, addiction and betrayal, which Stephen narrates with a combination of melodrama and platitudes that makes him sound like he's auditioning for a part in a soap opera", which he found had a "capsizing effect […] on the whole novel".^[5]

The Lesser Bohemians was reviewed on BBC Radio 4's programme Saturday Review on 17 September 2016.^[6]

Awards

On 28 September 2016, it was announced that the book was on the shortlist of the Goldsmiths Prize.^[7][8]

References

1. ↑ McBride, Eimear (1 September 2016). The Lesser Bohemians. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571327850. 
2. ↑ Presenter: Jenni Murray, Producer: Emma Wallace (8 September 2016). "Olympic boxer Nicola Adams, Novelist Eimear McBride". Woman's Hour. 33:15 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4. 
3. ↑ Thomas-Corr, Johanna (8 September 2016). "The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride - review". London Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 17 September 2016. 
4. ↑ Lee, Jonathan (9 September 2016). "The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride review — mind the gap". Financial Times. London. Retrieved 17 September 2016. 
5. ↑ Liu, Max (1 September 2016). "The Lesser Bohemians, Eimear McBride, review: 'as accessible as it is startling'". The Independent. London. Retrieved 29 September 2016. 
6. ↑ Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe, Producer: Oliver Jones (17 September 2016). "BBC-TV Presents: ... Hunt for The Wilderpeople, Eimear McBride, Bedlam, National Treasure, Dr Faustus". Saturday Review. 12:10 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4. 
7. ↑ Morgan, Tom (28 September 2016). "Goldsmiths Prize 2016 shortlist - six works of fiction at its most novel". Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved 29 September 2016. 
8. ↑ Flood, Alison (28 September 2016). "Goldsmiths prize shortlists novels 'that break the mould'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 September 2016.