Jul 27

Jul 27 The Lesser Bohemians

About the book

Author: Eimear McBride
Publisher: Hogarth

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

I have loved Eimear McBride since I read A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, which won the Women’s Prize in 2014 and was one of the most singular reading experiences of my life. I finally picked up The Lesser Bohemians because its sequel is due out later this month, and unsurprisingly, McBride delivered again.

If you haven’t read McBride before, her style is unique and takes some adjustment. It’s almost stream of subconscious, written in fragments with lots of nouns used as verbs and an unexpected syntax. It’s best experienced as a tandem read (print and audio simultaneously), as McBride reads her own audiobooks and the immersive experience really helps you sink into her style. But once you do, you’ll be surprised by how quickly it moves.

This book is about an Irish girl in her first year of acting school in London who crashes into an electric love affair with an older man. Check the trigger warnings: It’s not a light read (although thankfully not as heavy as A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, which might be the heaviest book I’ve ever read). There’s also a lot of sex. But holy smokes, what a reading experience. I was so immersed and felt so in sync with the main character, I felt like I had to take some big deep breaths after I finished.

What a moving exploration of youth, love, desire, and recovery from trauma. I’m intrigued to see what the sequel holds for these characters!