Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Open-handed

Chris Binchy


Chris Binchy’s third novel, Open-handed, presents a gritty picture of Dublin as a city fast learning to adapt to the rapid changes of the last decade.
It is some years into the release of the Celtic Tiger, and there is a hardening, an edginess that wasn’t there in his first book, The Very Man.
The world created by Binchy is one of impressions, fleeting movements, snatches of dialogue. The book opens with a hotel scene, from the point of view of the porters and night workers, those who witness the hidden muck behind the glittering façade. This is what Binchy is good at, showing us the sordid backside of life, ‘places where these people washed and pissed and shat.’ He is attentive to his surroundings, to mood and atmosphere, to the pulse of a city, a moment in its history.
Four characters eventually emerge more distinctly: Victor, a bouncer who is ashamed of his origins and pretends to be Italian, Agnieska, a beautiful Polish bar worker whose boss senses her potential for other work, Marcin, another Polish arrival, who is an archaeologist, but settles for temporary shifts as a night worker, and Dessie, who gets caught up in the life of his dubious employer, Sylvester, for whom he works as a driver.
The novel hints at corruption at every level, giving us enough glimpses to imply that nothing is as it seems. There is a wariness in every exchange, and trust comes with great difficulty. Even in close relationships, there is a loneliness and sense of isolation.
The rhythm of Slyvester’s secret life undergoes a hiccup when a freelance journalist starts probing. The risk of exposure unsettles him just as he is about to make a significant development deal. And Dessie starts wondering if Sylvester will ever give him the contract his wife has been urging him to secure.
With a deftness that comes from knowing this world intimately, Binchy captures the emerging social fabric of an urban environment that has witnessed an influx of immigrants who arrive hopeful, and instead experience exploitation, dislocation, conflict over allegiances and miserable working conditions. It’s not a pretty sight, but it is a compelling story of four individuals who must resist the situation they find themselves in, or succumb to temptation and lose their integrity.
A revealing portrayal of the darker side of Dublin.

Afric McGlinchey
Reviewed in The Irish Examiner

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