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Ordinary Human Failings
When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about their past in this haunting, propulsive, psychologically keen story about class, trauma, and family secrets from “huge literary talent” (Karl Ove Knausgaard).
FINALIST FOR THE FALLON BOOK CLUB SELECTION
When we look beyond the headlines, everyone has a story to tell
It's 1990 in London and Tom Hargreaves has it all: a burgeoning career as a reporter, fierce ambition and a brisk disregard for the "peasants" - ordinary people, his readers, easy tabloid fodder. His star looks set to rise when he stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and 'bad apples': the Greens.
At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, otherworldly, broken, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life - and love - got in her way. Crushed by failure and surrounded by disappointment, there's nowhere for her to go and no chance of escape. Now, with the police closing in on a suspect and the tabloids hunting their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.
FINALIST FOR THE FALLON BOOK CLUB SELECTION
When we look beyond the headlines, everyone has a story to tell
It's 1990 in London and Tom Hargreaves has it all: a burgeoning career as a reporter, fierce ambition and a brisk disregard for the "peasants" - ordinary people, his readers, easy tabloid fodder. His star looks set to rise when he stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and 'bad apples': the Greens.
At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, otherworldly, broken, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life - and love - got in her way. Crushed by failure and surrounded by disappointment, there's nowhere for her to go and no chance of escape. Now, with the police closing in on a suspect and the tabloids hunting their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 2023
About the author
Megan Nolan
3 books652 followersMegan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in London. Her essays and reviews have been published by the New York Times, White Review, Guardian and Frieze amongst others. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021 and was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Her second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, will be published by Jonathan Cape in July 2023.
Her second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, will be published by Jonathan Cape in July 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 950 reviews
March 15, 2024
this one's for all my true crime haters out there.
and also for my general haters out there. because i didn't like this book.
like s'mores, or the kind of chocolate chip cookie that's currently popular where it's essentially grainy dough in the middle, this is a great concept that does not achieve what it sets out to. in the first two cases, it's to be yummy. in this case, it's to remind us that behind every garish crime headline, there are real people trying their best.
we are presented with a potential crime and some of the people that surround it: lucy, a lonely child who may have committed a murder; carmel, her distant onetime teen mom; richie, carmel's alcoholic brother; john, their withholding father; the specters of john's first and second wives; and tom, the journalist who's set out to write about all of them.
the goal of this book is to humanize this cast. and much like the outer bites of the aforementioned chocolate chip cookies, or the part of the s'mores process where you're toasting the marshmallow and you haven't yet undergone the gunky sticky textural nightmare eating of it, there are moments where it's very effective.
this is true of carmel's case. richie has moments of searing sympathy, too. but i felt equally left outside of lucy, john, rose, and tom by the conclusion as i did at the outset. we never get much insight into the first three, and what we do hear from tom happens early and contradicts itself often.
i like the intention here, which it shares with penance, a book i was very impressed by. but like the author's first novel, i think it fell a bit short.
bottom line: the disappointing cookie of books.
and also for my general haters out there. because i didn't like this book.
like s'mores, or the kind of chocolate chip cookie that's currently popular where it's essentially grainy dough in the middle, this is a great concept that does not achieve what it sets out to. in the first two cases, it's to be yummy. in this case, it's to remind us that behind every garish crime headline, there are real people trying their best.
we are presented with a potential crime and some of the people that surround it: lucy, a lonely child who may have committed a murder; carmel, her distant onetime teen mom; richie, carmel's alcoholic brother; john, their withholding father; the specters of john's first and second wives; and tom, the journalist who's set out to write about all of them.
the goal of this book is to humanize this cast. and much like the outer bites of the aforementioned chocolate chip cookies, or the part of the s'mores process where you're toasting the marshmallow and you haven't yet undergone the gunky sticky textural nightmare eating of it, there are moments where it's very effective.
this is true of carmel's case. richie has moments of searing sympathy, too. but i felt equally left outside of lucy, john, rose, and tom by the conclusion as i did at the outset. we never get much insight into the first three, and what we do hear from tom happens early and contradicts itself often.
i like the intention here, which it shares with penance, a book i was very impressed by. but like the author's first novel, i think it fell a bit short.
bottom line: the disappointing cookie of books.
March 5, 2024
Update : Now longlisted for 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction - Did I already read the winner? I'm so happy to see this on the list.
We must refuse to let art and life be treated as news headlines or any other media product.
This novel begins with the possible murder of a child by another child, a possibility so horrific that it is made even more so by the impulse of a character to exploit this tragedy for their own benefit.
"He had forgotten how easy it is to offer something to people who had nothing."
Tom is a reporter in search of that one story that will make him famous and sees this event as his big chance, so he finds a way to isolate this family in order to find the source of the evil. However, he only finds broken people ... ordinary human failings.
The greatest achievement of 'Ordinary Human Failings' is that it also refuses oversimplification. There is a section about abortion, another about alcoholism, but I didn't find them exploitative or reduced to the "complexity" of a slogan. They are part of a feeling.
For me, that's a sign of great literature.
There must be a way to search for some answers without the obligation to give verdicts.
My favorite moment of the novel is about the healing powers of art. One love story starts in a cinema, and this is what the characters tell us they search for in movies or books.
"...this is the only place anything goes on. I've no life. It helps me get it out of my system, do you know what I mean?
I know what you mean. I'm the same with my books sometimes, I have a cry at a character dying, but it's one I've been saving up a long time."
Megan Nolan is one to watch.
We must refuse to let art and life be treated as news headlines or any other media product.
This novel begins with the possible murder of a child by another child, a possibility so horrific that it is made even more so by the impulse of a character to exploit this tragedy for their own benefit.
"He had forgotten how easy it is to offer something to people who had nothing."
Tom is a reporter in search of that one story that will make him famous and sees this event as his big chance, so he finds a way to isolate this family in order to find the source of the evil. However, he only finds broken people ... ordinary human failings.
The greatest achievement of 'Ordinary Human Failings' is that it also refuses oversimplification. There is a section about abortion, another about alcoholism, but I didn't find them exploitative or reduced to the "complexity" of a slogan. They are part of a feeling.
For me, that's a sign of great literature.
There must be a way to search for some answers without the obligation to give verdicts.
My favorite moment of the novel is about the healing powers of art. One love story starts in a cinema, and this is what the characters tell us they search for in movies or books.
"...this is the only place anything goes on. I've no life. It helps me get it out of my system, do you know what I mean?
I know what you mean. I'm the same with my books sometimes, I have a cry at a character dying, but it's one I've been saving up a long time."
Megan Nolan is one to watch.
November 20, 2023
in case her debut acts of desperation wasn’t enough, megan nolan's sophomore novel ordinary human failings definitely cements her as one of the most exciting new novelists today.
ordinary human failings follows the greens, a family of irish immigrants who moved to england in the late 1970s after their teenage daughter, carmel, fell pregnant. the family are rather reclusive on their london estate and have been labelled as the ‘bad apples’, so when a tragedy befalls one of the estate children, fingers are quickly pointed at them.
albeit set up like a murder mystery or thriller - with the unsolved murder, a journalist digging around, the police asking questions - in execution the novel is actually made up of much more depth. ordinary human failings is a propulsive character study of an ordinary working class family with ordinary problems, told through snapshots of the different character’s perspectives spanning the decades.
the greens are a family haunted by intergenerational trauma, wounded by loss, the alienation of wage labour, and the lack of opportunity in their hometown and in london, a contributing factor leading one of the characters, richie, to spiral into alcoholism. similarly to her debut, nolan’s writing shines when exploring a character’s state of despair, her words a scalpel as she digs in deep to the flesh of her characters, reflecting their most human vulnerabilities back to us.
nolan also examines the ethics of journalism through tom, the reporter zeroing in on the green family in the hopes of squeezing out some dark secrets for a juicy headline. tom’s character and attitude perfectly exemplifies the spectacle of the tabloid press in the 90s; a rabid desire to write a good story at any cost, simultaneous with the derision for the ‘peasants’ who will read it.
the novel is compelling throughout, perhaps partly due to the lingering expectation of a big reveal or a shocking secret as you turn the pages. but nolan deprives the reader, and hungry journalist tom, of this sensationalist twist - because after all, these are just ordinary human failings.
4.5
ordinary human failings follows the greens, a family of irish immigrants who moved to england in the late 1970s after their teenage daughter, carmel, fell pregnant. the family are rather reclusive on their london estate and have been labelled as the ‘bad apples’, so when a tragedy befalls one of the estate children, fingers are quickly pointed at them.
albeit set up like a murder mystery or thriller - with the unsolved murder, a journalist digging around, the police asking questions - in execution the novel is actually made up of much more depth. ordinary human failings is a propulsive character study of an ordinary working class family with ordinary problems, told through snapshots of the different character’s perspectives spanning the decades.
the greens are a family haunted by intergenerational trauma, wounded by loss, the alienation of wage labour, and the lack of opportunity in their hometown and in london, a contributing factor leading one of the characters, richie, to spiral into alcoholism. similarly to her debut, nolan’s writing shines when exploring a character’s state of despair, her words a scalpel as she digs in deep to the flesh of her characters, reflecting their most human vulnerabilities back to us.
nolan also examines the ethics of journalism through tom, the reporter zeroing in on the green family in the hopes of squeezing out some dark secrets for a juicy headline. tom’s character and attitude perfectly exemplifies the spectacle of the tabloid press in the 90s; a rabid desire to write a good story at any cost, simultaneous with the derision for the ‘peasants’ who will read it.
the novel is compelling throughout, perhaps partly due to the lingering expectation of a big reveal or a shocking secret as you turn the pages. but nolan deprives the reader, and hungry journalist tom, of this sensationalist twist - because after all, these are just ordinary human failings.
4.5
April 26, 2024
*Longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction*
“Really, who would care about a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note.”
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan is an evocative character-driven novel that revolves around an Irish immigrant family in a public housing estate in 1990s London. The novel follows the members of the Green family after ten-year-old Lucy Green is suspected of being responsible for the death of three-year-old Mia Enright. Ten years ago, Lucy’s family – her grandmother Rose who was the only person who displayed any affection toward Lucy and has since passed on; her reclusive grandfather John; her alcoholic uncle Ritchie; and her then pregnant teenage mother Carmel who is distant and never shown any concern for her daughter- relocated to London to avoid scandal. Lucy, who is described as having behavioral issues, is taken into custody and her family is subject to scrutiny from their neighbors, the press and law enforcement. The scrutiny and Lucy’s plight compel each of the family members to reflect on their own lives and the dysfunction within their family. unscrupulous tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to ingratiate himself with this disgraced working-class family of “bad apples” even resorting to isolating them from other reporters, hoping for exclusive content – their secrets, the scandals and any other juicy detail - that would help further his interest.
“There was darkness beneath or inside everything, and even beautiful things were irredeemable because they only acted to obscure but never to transform.”
Despite the short length, this novel is an immersive and emotionally heavy read. The bulk of the novel is presented through flashbacks from the perspectives of each of the family members - allowing us to explore the characters, their emotions, their personal tragedies and their regrets. Written in powerful prose, the novel explores several dark and sensitive themes with brutal honesty and insight – addiction and alcoholism, parental neglect and complex family dynamics and the death of a minor – to name a few. The characters are flawed and realistic, each with distinct trajectories. The focus of this novel is on the family members in the aftermath of the tragedy and the “mystery” behind Mia’s death and Lucy’s alleged involvement in the same might appear to be relegated to the background as we follow the characters’ individual journeys but the author eventually draws us back to present events and how the same impacts the each of the family members.
Needless to say, this is not an easy read. I did feel that the different threads of the story were not quite cohesively woven and rendered the narrative a tad disjointed but overall, I found this novel to be a compelling read that I would not hesitate to recommend to those who enjoy character- driven fiction.
I paired my reading with the audio narration by Jessica Regan whose outstanding narration enhanced my overall experience with this novel.
“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.”
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
“Really, who would care about a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note.”
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan is an evocative character-driven novel that revolves around an Irish immigrant family in a public housing estate in 1990s London. The novel follows the members of the Green family after ten-year-old Lucy Green is suspected of being responsible for the death of three-year-old Mia Enright. Ten years ago, Lucy’s family – her grandmother Rose who was the only person who displayed any affection toward Lucy and has since passed on; her reclusive grandfather John; her alcoholic uncle Ritchie; and her then pregnant teenage mother Carmel who is distant and never shown any concern for her daughter- relocated to London to avoid scandal. Lucy, who is described as having behavioral issues, is taken into custody and her family is subject to scrutiny from their neighbors, the press and law enforcement. The scrutiny and Lucy’s plight compel each of the family members to reflect on their own lives and the dysfunction within their family. unscrupulous tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to ingratiate himself with this disgraced working-class family of “bad apples” even resorting to isolating them from other reporters, hoping for exclusive content – their secrets, the scandals and any other juicy detail - that would help further his interest.
“There was darkness beneath or inside everything, and even beautiful things were irredeemable because they only acted to obscure but never to transform.”
Despite the short length, this novel is an immersive and emotionally heavy read. The bulk of the novel is presented through flashbacks from the perspectives of each of the family members - allowing us to explore the characters, their emotions, their personal tragedies and their regrets. Written in powerful prose, the novel explores several dark and sensitive themes with brutal honesty and insight – addiction and alcoholism, parental neglect and complex family dynamics and the death of a minor – to name a few. The characters are flawed and realistic, each with distinct trajectories. The focus of this novel is on the family members in the aftermath of the tragedy and the “mystery” behind Mia’s death and Lucy’s alleged involvement in the same might appear to be relegated to the background as we follow the characters’ individual journeys but the author eventually draws us back to present events and how the same impacts the each of the family members.
Needless to say, this is not an easy read. I did feel that the different threads of the story were not quite cohesively woven and rendered the narrative a tad disjointed but overall, I found this novel to be a compelling read that I would not hesitate to recommend to those who enjoy character- driven fiction.
I paired my reading with the audio narration by Jessica Regan whose outstanding narration enhanced my overall experience with this novel.
“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.”
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
April 18, 2024
Nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024
Irish social realism at its best: While the description of the plot - ten-year-old girl is suspected to have killed another child - suggests some thriller, crime or even true crime novel, this set-up only serves as a framing device for an intense, psychologically stellar family portrait. Meet the Greens, an Irish family who, after the teenage daughter fell pregnant, has moved from rural Ireland to London. When the youngest family member, already born as a living sign of shame, is taken into police custody because she was the last person seen with the dead girl, ambitious young reporter Tom tries to get the family to speak. It's the 1990's, the heyday of the unregulated yellow press, and Tom wants to sell copies by unraveling the dark family secret that explains it all...
...which, no spoiler, does not exist: The Greens are just an unhappy working-class family, haunted by, as the title suggests, their ordinary human failings that amount to personal tragedies of the kind that the public (and hence the papers) usually don't care about. We learn about the silent, emotionally stifled father, the alcoholic son he had with his first wife, the destiny of the second wife and how the daughter became a young mother. We also hear about Lucy, the ten-year-old now suspected of murder. Nothing is spectacular per se, but as Nolan is an excellent writer, she writes about the lives of average people in a way that gives them dignity and illustrates the might of their inner lives.
It's a bleak, painful, hard to stomach book, because the little vignettes taken from the lives of the Green family are so effectively rendered and intense. All of the characters are vivid and plausible, even in their more indefensible decisions. The claustrophobia and pain is contained in every page, and even Tom, who could easily be shown as a stock character, is a complex villain, pathetic in his misguided ambition.
Great writing that renders silent, unspectacular human experiences that Tom would never publish, into a striking, exciting literary gem. Nolan belongs on some prize lists, so well done, Women's Prize.
Irish social realism at its best: While the description of the plot - ten-year-old girl is suspected to have killed another child - suggests some thriller, crime or even true crime novel, this set-up only serves as a framing device for an intense, psychologically stellar family portrait. Meet the Greens, an Irish family who, after the teenage daughter fell pregnant, has moved from rural Ireland to London. When the youngest family member, already born as a living sign of shame, is taken into police custody because she was the last person seen with the dead girl, ambitious young reporter Tom tries to get the family to speak. It's the 1990's, the heyday of the unregulated yellow press, and Tom wants to sell copies by unraveling the dark family secret that explains it all...
...which, no spoiler, does not exist: The Greens are just an unhappy working-class family, haunted by, as the title suggests, their ordinary human failings that amount to personal tragedies of the kind that the public (and hence the papers) usually don't care about. We learn about the silent, emotionally stifled father, the alcoholic son he had with his first wife, the destiny of the second wife and how the daughter became a young mother. We also hear about Lucy, the ten-year-old now suspected of murder. Nothing is spectacular per se, but as Nolan is an excellent writer, she writes about the lives of average people in a way that gives them dignity and illustrates the might of their inner lives.
It's a bleak, painful, hard to stomach book, because the little vignettes taken from the lives of the Green family are so effectively rendered and intense. All of the characters are vivid and plausible, even in their more indefensible decisions. The claustrophobia and pain is contained in every page, and even Tom, who could easily be shown as a stock character, is a complex villain, pathetic in his misguided ambition.
Great writing that renders silent, unspectacular human experiences that Tom would never publish, into a striking, exciting literary gem. Nolan belongs on some prize lists, so well done, Women's Prize.
July 11, 2024
Not the book I was expecting, but that's a me problem.
Check out my Women's Prize Deep Dive on BookTube at Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛
"Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note."
What I thought this book would be: A twisty literary thriller in which an ambitious reporter investigates a child's murder by interrogating a family with many dark and surprising secrets.
What this book actually is: A quiet meditation on human fallibility, explored through character background stories that reveal their ordinary human failings: alcoholism, teen pregnancy, etc.
It's all there in the title. This is not A Murder in London or Who Killed Mia? This is a story about regular, flawed people.
While the blurb suggests this story will center on Tom, a fierce reporter who thinks himself superior to his readers, Tom is merely the lens through which we meet the Greens, the family of Irish immigrants that includes ten-year-old Lucy, who is named a suspect in the murder investigation.
Do not pick this up if you're in the mood for a thrilling murder investigation full of twists and shocking revelations. Do pick it up if you enjoy quiet portraits of ordinary people living their mundane, if flawed, lives.
If you're struggling to finish the book, here's what happens:
Ordinary Human Failings has no secrets, but it's characters do.
Check out my Women's Prize Deep Dive on BookTube at Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛
"Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note."
What I thought this book would be: A twisty literary thriller in which an ambitious reporter investigates a child's murder by interrogating a family with many dark and surprising secrets.
What this book actually is: A quiet meditation on human fallibility, explored through character background stories that reveal their ordinary human failings: alcoholism, teen pregnancy, etc.
It's all there in the title. This is not A Murder in London or Who Killed Mia? This is a story about regular, flawed people.
While the blurb suggests this story will center on Tom, a fierce reporter who thinks himself superior to his readers, Tom is merely the lens through which we meet the Greens, the family of Irish immigrants that includes ten-year-old Lucy, who is named a suspect in the murder investigation.
Do not pick this up if you're in the mood for a thrilling murder investigation full of twists and shocking revelations. Do pick it up if you enjoy quiet portraits of ordinary people living their mundane, if flawed, lives.
If you're struggling to finish the book, here's what happens:
Ordinary Human Failings has no secrets, but it's characters do.
August 2, 2024
I was disappointed in this. Maybe because it was sold to me as a more efficiently edited Bee Sting? I loved The Bee Sting, it was one of the most immersive books I’ve recently read. My interest level here waxed and waned with the chosen character POV. I loved it at first — there were 5-star perspectives. I often love stories told from multiple characters, each given their own chapter. And within each chapter were golden nuggets. Don’t get me wrong, this is literary fiction, the writing is good and original. I am curious to read another of hers. But I barely remember what I read in these pages and it wasn’t that long ago that I finished it.
July 10, 2024
I haven’t been writing much in the way of reviews these past few months, but I must say something about Ordinary Human Failings because it’s beyond me how Megan Nolan paints such an insightful portrait of a family in such a slim, spare book.
Centered around the death of a child, the novel is the story of the no-good Green family, now living in London after immigrating from Ireland. Hard times have hit the Greens after the passing of their matriarch, and when a member of the family is accused of murder and they are hounded by a reporter out to write a career-making story, they find it's time to face the secrets they’ve buried for far too long.
The Green family makes nothing but poor choices. It’s one bad decision after another. And though you would expect to feel frustration with the characters, because of Nolan’s intimate and sharp writing, it’s hard not to feel empathy for their lives. You’ll understand why the Greens have done what they’ve done, and you’ll see past it all, to find yourself caring for a broken family in need of healing.
Yes, it’s a tough read, but there is hope at the end. Ordinary Human Failings is so worth its despair.
My sincerest appreciation to Megan Nolan, Little, Brown and Company, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.
Centered around the death of a child, the novel is the story of the no-good Green family, now living in London after immigrating from Ireland. Hard times have hit the Greens after the passing of their matriarch, and when a member of the family is accused of murder and they are hounded by a reporter out to write a career-making story, they find it's time to face the secrets they’ve buried for far too long.
The Green family makes nothing but poor choices. It’s one bad decision after another. And though you would expect to feel frustration with the characters, because of Nolan’s intimate and sharp writing, it’s hard not to feel empathy for their lives. You’ll understand why the Greens have done what they’ve done, and you’ll see past it all, to find yourself caring for a broken family in need of healing.
Yes, it’s a tough read, but there is hope at the end. Ordinary Human Failings is so worth its despair.
My sincerest appreciation to Megan Nolan, Little, Brown and Company, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.
August 3, 2024
There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.
Depois da mãe com o filho recém-nascido, da mãe que perde o filho, da mãe que mata os filhos, da mãe reticente, das mães com os filhos que lhe calharam em sorte, chega a vez da mãe que se recusou a sê-lo durante 10 anos.
She felt something like fondness or a grudging admiration, not toward her daughter but toward life itself, how persistent and absurd and reckless a force it could be.
Ao ler “Ordinary Human Failings” senti-me transportada para os filmes de realismo social britânicos que tanto apreciei nos anos 90. O grosso deste livro decorre exactamente no início dessa década, não obstante alguns flashbacks das personagens, dividindo-se a narrativa entre Waterford, na Irlanda, e Londres, e transmitiu-me a mesma sensação de desespero e desencanto. E é admirável a capacidade de Megan Nolan em deprimir-me com esta história de uma família disfuncional para qual convergem as circunstâncias ideais para a tempestade perfeita: abandono do lar, desemprego, alcoolismo, gravidez na adolescência, morte e falta de diálogo, em que as grandes vítimas são sempre aquelas que não têm maturidade para processar a falta de estrutura e de atenção, ou seja, as crianças.
Quando a jovem Carmel descobre que está grávida de um namorado que acabou de deixá-la, passa tanto tempo em negação que, quando chega a Inglaterra para fazer um aborto, visto que na Irlanda é ilegal, já é tarde de mais. Mortificada, recusa regressar à sua cidade, obrigando toda a família a deslocar-se para Londres, não aceitando sequer dar o bebé para adopção.
It felt that Carmel had not only conceived something unwanted but then had suppressed it with such hideous madness that it could only feel something like evil to now. It would not be right to pass on such malevolence to an innocent family.
Profecia autorrealizada. Dez anos depois, dá-se um crime no bairro onde vive a família Green e a pequena Lucy é acusada, o que põe a comunicação social em polvorosa, especialmente Tom, repórter pouco escrupuloso de um jornal sensacionalista, que vê ali um furo imperdível.
The girl belonged to a family of misanthropic Irish degenerates who, it was fair to assume lived at least partially off the welfare state and had offered nothing but parasitic consumption (and now a horrific crime) to the great nation of Britain.
Para além da criança e da jovem mãe, a família é formada por um avô ensimesmado e macambúzio e por um tio alcoólico.
A feeling of contentment and buoyancy came over him and he felt proud of himself for not having a drink, and this clean good feeling made him want a drink.
Afastados do bairro por temerem represálias enquanto Lucy é interrogada, a família é instalada num hotel às expensas do pasquim, na tentativa de lhes arrancar todos os potenciais podres dignos de primeira página.
There is rot in us. I don’t know what caused it.
Tenho a perfeita noção de que “Ordinary Human Failings” não será um livro de 5* para muitos, mas uma obra que me faz sentir o desalento como se estivesse na pele de um desempregado traído pela mulher, de uma adolescente grávida, de um falhado alcoólico, de uma criança alienada, tudo facetas que nunca vivi, merece de facto a classificação máxima.
The apology she could not voice eloquently, the one she would never end (…), each morning she woke thinking I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Thinking the mantra Richie had once told her he used to lull himself to sleep: I’m a good person and other people think so too.
Depois da mãe com o filho recém-nascido, da mãe que perde o filho, da mãe que mata os filhos, da mãe reticente, das mães com os filhos que lhe calharam em sorte, chega a vez da mãe que se recusou a sê-lo durante 10 anos.
She felt something like fondness or a grudging admiration, not toward her daughter but toward life itself, how persistent and absurd and reckless a force it could be.
Ao ler “Ordinary Human Failings” senti-me transportada para os filmes de realismo social britânicos que tanto apreciei nos anos 90. O grosso deste livro decorre exactamente no início dessa década, não obstante alguns flashbacks das personagens, dividindo-se a narrativa entre Waterford, na Irlanda, e Londres, e transmitiu-me a mesma sensação de desespero e desencanto. E é admirável a capacidade de Megan Nolan em deprimir-me com esta história de uma família disfuncional para qual convergem as circunstâncias ideais para a tempestade perfeita: abandono do lar, desemprego, alcoolismo, gravidez na adolescência, morte e falta de diálogo, em que as grandes vítimas são sempre aquelas que não têm maturidade para processar a falta de estrutura e de atenção, ou seja, as crianças.
Quando a jovem Carmel descobre que está grávida de um namorado que acabou de deixá-la, passa tanto tempo em negação que, quando chega a Inglaterra para fazer um aborto, visto que na Irlanda é ilegal, já é tarde de mais. Mortificada, recusa regressar à sua cidade, obrigando toda a família a deslocar-se para Londres, não aceitando sequer dar o bebé para adopção.
It felt that Carmel had not only conceived something unwanted but then had suppressed it with such hideous madness that it could only feel something like evil to now. It would not be right to pass on such malevolence to an innocent family.
Profecia autorrealizada. Dez anos depois, dá-se um crime no bairro onde vive a família Green e a pequena Lucy é acusada, o que põe a comunicação social em polvorosa, especialmente Tom, repórter pouco escrupuloso de um jornal sensacionalista, que vê ali um furo imperdível.
The girl belonged to a family of misanthropic Irish degenerates who, it was fair to assume lived at least partially off the welfare state and had offered nothing but parasitic consumption (and now a horrific crime) to the great nation of Britain.
Para além da criança e da jovem mãe, a família é formada por um avô ensimesmado e macambúzio e por um tio alcoólico.
A feeling of contentment and buoyancy came over him and he felt proud of himself for not having a drink, and this clean good feeling made him want a drink.
Afastados do bairro por temerem represálias enquanto Lucy é interrogada, a família é instalada num hotel às expensas do pasquim, na tentativa de lhes arrancar todos os potenciais podres dignos de primeira página.
There is rot in us. I don’t know what caused it.
Tenho a perfeita noção de que “Ordinary Human Failings” não será um livro de 5* para muitos, mas uma obra que me faz sentir o desalento como se estivesse na pele de um desempregado traído pela mulher, de uma adolescente grávida, de um falhado alcoólico, de uma criança alienada, tudo facetas que nunca vivi, merece de facto a classificação máxima.
The apology she could not voice eloquently, the one she would never end (…), each morning she woke thinking I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Thinking the mantra Richie had once told her he used to lull himself to sleep: I’m a good person and other people think so too.
February 11, 2024
A rich portrait of a family deep in a downward spiral and the tabloid reporter who sees an opportunity. The inciting event of the book is the death of a small child, likely brought about by another child. It's one of those awful stories you can imagine seeing all over a tabloid for weeks where it plays more as gossip than tragedy for all involved. Nolan approaches it with care, not interested in exploiting it herself but in how this kind of exploitation happens, what makes you vulnerable and what makes you willing to do the exploiting.
It's a short book but it felt so full, certainly more than many other books 100+ pages longer. Nolan is somehow both economical with her storytelling and deeply immersive. We learn so much about who the Greens are, how they have found themselves in this situation, and how a family that was once perfectly normal could now be barely functional. We see this through several of their different points of view and how what was once an escape from Ireland to England becomes no escape at all but a new kind of misery.
I make this sound quite bleak, I know, but it didn't feel bleak to me while I read it. Nolan is so tapped in to her characters' lives and emotions, it feels invigorating to read this kind of writing even if the subject is so dark. I read it on audio, which also has a tendency to give a kind of life to a story (and in this case has beautifully done Irish accents as well).
It also, miraculously, ends better than it started for the Greens and this kind of hope and healing for these characters was much needed.
It's a short book but it felt so full, certainly more than many other books 100+ pages longer. Nolan is somehow both economical with her storytelling and deeply immersive. We learn so much about who the Greens are, how they have found themselves in this situation, and how a family that was once perfectly normal could now be barely functional. We see this through several of their different points of view and how what was once an escape from Ireland to England becomes no escape at all but a new kind of misery.
I make this sound quite bleak, I know, but it didn't feel bleak to me while I read it. Nolan is so tapped in to her characters' lives and emotions, it feels invigorating to read this kind of writing even if the subject is so dark. I read it on audio, which also has a tendency to give a kind of life to a story (and in this case has beautifully done Irish accents as well).
It also, miraculously, ends better than it started for the Greens and this kind of hope and healing for these characters was much needed.
July 16, 2023
What an unexpected sophomore novel from Megan Nolan. From the deeply personal, visceral, can’t-look-away-but-can’t-stop-reading Acts of Desperation, to this quiet, claustrophobic but compelling book.
Ordinary Human Failings is a third person narrative about an ordinary family damaged by a series of very mundane, personal tragedies. The same quality of writing is there but this is a very different, more mature type of book to Acts of Desperation.
When a child goes missing on a London estate in 1990, the finger of blame is pointed by residents at Lucy, the young child of a reclusive Irish immigrant family. Tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves happens upon the scene and attempts to turn it to his advantage by exploiting the family for his own journalistic gain.
We get the POV of Carmel (Lucy’s mother), Richie (Carmel’s brother) and Tom (Carmel’s father) as they pull apart the threads of their lives that brought the family to this point, from their origins in Waterford. This is a family story but also a commentary on social inequality and how the smallest of events can can tip an ordinary family into decline out of which it becomes nigh on impossible to claw.
If I had a criticism, it’s that I didn’t love the inclusion of Tom’s character. While I appreciate the perspective offered by the tabloid media angle, Tom felt somewhat shoehorned into what was already a very strong family story. A gloomy, oppressive story, definitely not a poolside read, but with hints of hope and shades of Claire Keegan. 3.5-4/5⭐️
*Many thanks to the author, publisher @vintagebooksuk and @netgalley for the early copy. Ordinary Human Failings was published on Thursday. As always, this is an honest review.*
Ordinary Human Failings is a third person narrative about an ordinary family damaged by a series of very mundane, personal tragedies. The same quality of writing is there but this is a very different, more mature type of book to Acts of Desperation.
When a child goes missing on a London estate in 1990, the finger of blame is pointed by residents at Lucy, the young child of a reclusive Irish immigrant family. Tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves happens upon the scene and attempts to turn it to his advantage by exploiting the family for his own journalistic gain.
We get the POV of Carmel (Lucy’s mother), Richie (Carmel’s brother) and Tom (Carmel’s father) as they pull apart the threads of their lives that brought the family to this point, from their origins in Waterford. This is a family story but also a commentary on social inequality and how the smallest of events can can tip an ordinary family into decline out of which it becomes nigh on impossible to claw.
If I had a criticism, it’s that I didn’t love the inclusion of Tom’s character. While I appreciate the perspective offered by the tabloid media angle, Tom felt somewhat shoehorned into what was already a very strong family story. A gloomy, oppressive story, definitely not a poolside read, but with hints of hope and shades of Claire Keegan. 3.5-4/5⭐️
*Many thanks to the author, publisher @vintagebooksuk and @netgalley for the early copy. Ordinary Human Failings was published on Thursday. As always, this is an honest review.*
June 15, 2023
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan*, her much anticipated sophomore novel, is a vastly different book to Acts of Desperation. Where I found the latter frustratingly angsty, Ordinary Human Failings is, by comparison, a book full of the deep complexities of socio-economic inequality, abuses of power and myriad traumas.
The Green family emigrated from Ireland to the UK amid a scandal but their quiet, reclusive existence is interrupted when a child goes missing on a council estate and the Green’s are instantly suspected. As Tom Hargreaves, a determined tabloid reporter who is trying to make a name for himself, happens upon the story as it is unfolding, he sweeps the naïve and impressionable family up and sequesters them away at the expense of the paper, all to ensure he gets the exclusive.
You think the book is going to be a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery but it unfolds so beautifully into a story exploring the shackles of poverty, the control of 80s Ireland on its people, and the impact of generational trauma. I LOVED how the story is told through many different third-person POVs. It is such a nice narrative technique and worked really well to emulate the remove and callousness often associated with tabloid media reporting on horrific subjects. It was almost as if these ordinary humans, with their ordinary failings, were observing their lives from a far and reporting emotions, abuses and fears with utter detachment and resignation.
The Green family emigrated from Ireland to the UK amid a scandal but their quiet, reclusive existence is interrupted when a child goes missing on a council estate and the Green’s are instantly suspected. As Tom Hargreaves, a determined tabloid reporter who is trying to make a name for himself, happens upon the story as it is unfolding, he sweeps the naïve and impressionable family up and sequesters them away at the expense of the paper, all to ensure he gets the exclusive.
You think the book is going to be a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery but it unfolds so beautifully into a story exploring the shackles of poverty, the control of 80s Ireland on its people, and the impact of generational trauma. I LOVED how the story is told through many different third-person POVs. It is such a nice narrative technique and worked really well to emulate the remove and callousness often associated with tabloid media reporting on horrific subjects. It was almost as if these ordinary humans, with their ordinary failings, were observing their lives from a far and reporting emotions, abuses and fears with utter detachment and resignation.
August 15, 2023
In my experience authors tend to dislike questions about their fiction novels where the interviewer asks how much is autobiographical. Rachel Cusk and Knausgaard openly embrace the idea, but it seems to me that Megan Nolan is conflicted on the extent to which she both wants, and manages, to write about a world and lives which are outside her personal experiences.
Nolan’s debut novel Acts of Desperation was unequivocally a self portrait and I heard Nolan say so on stage at the Irish Writers weekend in London in November 2022. The debut novel was something of a purging for the author.
Ordinary Human Failings is a better novel in my opinion, but I would be lying to say that the work was not identifiable as that of the author of Acts of Desperation.
This second novel has a larger cast of leading characters, and this is welcome. The extended Green family provide a context for the main protagonist, Carmel, who would otherwise have been a straightforward extension of the nameless narrator in Acts of Desperation. Then there’s tabloid reporter Tom Hargreaves whose journalism career provides a well worked adjunct to the family drama unfolding.
The character that I most enjoyed is Richie. It’s not easy to write a character who has been so totally overwhelmed by alcohol dependency, and retain some reader empathy. Nolan manages to do this. His primary fear is of loneliness and isolation:
“I’ve been afraid to be alone since the day I was born, and it’s all I ever am” (115)
“the fear of ever being a burden on others and the dread of nobody ever paying attention to him” (125)
It was interesting to me that Nolan continued the theme of loneliness in the reflections of a seemingly very different character, journalist, Tom.
“I’m the loneliest man in the world! ” (8)
“how small and alone he was almost all of the time” (98)
Its not the first time I had become aware of this theme in Nolan’s book since the (unnamed) narrator in Acts of Desperation reflected ”I could not be alone happily”
Nolan in her very open interviews. Each review in the UK national press reveals different elements of Nolan’s personal battles.
Growing up on an “estate”(a term often suppressed these days because of negative connotations); unwanted pregnancy and the constraints on freedom to decide in Ireland; mental health. Nolan speaks from the heart. The journalism, and focus on minors committing the most awful crimes is a subject that fascinated Nolan, and is given real tabloid newspaper authenticity by her own experiences in a paper in London.
The subject matter is tough and none of it is exactly a bundle of laughs. Megan Nolan doesn’t go in for fairy story endings for either her characters or the novel itself. The main theme of the book was well conveyed, and it is that devoting love, and time, to a child does not come easily to everybody.
There is redemption though for some characters (not all) and it’s of a believable and measured sort.
Waterstones Brighton 24.07.2023 In conversation with Maddie Mortimer.
• Her character Tom. Editor cut out 10,000 words. MN had originally expected him to be a bigger part of the story
• Publishing contract. MN had 12 months to produce second book.
• State of the nation novel was the original intent. . Jonathan Coe What a Carve Up was an influence.
• Close psychological work is what MN is most confident with. She is most comfortable drawing on her own life experiences rather than trying to create a fantasy.
• Killer children. From MN’s research, the absence of emotionally warm home life is a leading causation. Unwanted nature of a pregnancy is often the reason for the mother’s disconnect from the child.
I’ve now read Megan Nolan’s two novels and I think the progress from a self-immersed reckoning to a third person imagination is welcome. I hope the next novel branches out into new territory.
Nolan’s debut novel Acts of Desperation was unequivocally a self portrait and I heard Nolan say so on stage at the Irish Writers weekend in London in November 2022. The debut novel was something of a purging for the author.
Ordinary Human Failings is a better novel in my opinion, but I would be lying to say that the work was not identifiable as that of the author of Acts of Desperation.
This second novel has a larger cast of leading characters, and this is welcome. The extended Green family provide a context for the main protagonist, Carmel, who would otherwise have been a straightforward extension of the nameless narrator in Acts of Desperation. Then there’s tabloid reporter Tom Hargreaves whose journalism career provides a well worked adjunct to the family drama unfolding.
The character that I most enjoyed is Richie. It’s not easy to write a character who has been so totally overwhelmed by alcohol dependency, and retain some reader empathy. Nolan manages to do this. His primary fear is of loneliness and isolation:
“I’ve been afraid to be alone since the day I was born, and it’s all I ever am” (115)
“the fear of ever being a burden on others and the dread of nobody ever paying attention to him” (125)
It was interesting to me that Nolan continued the theme of loneliness in the reflections of a seemingly very different character, journalist, Tom.
“I’m the loneliest man in the world! ” (8)
“how small and alone he was almost all of the time” (98)
Its not the first time I had become aware of this theme in Nolan’s book since the (unnamed) narrator in Acts of Desperation reflected ”I could not be alone happily”
Nolan in her very open interviews. Each review in the UK national press reveals different elements of Nolan’s personal battles.
Growing up on an “estate”(a term often suppressed these days because of negative connotations); unwanted pregnancy and the constraints on freedom to decide in Ireland; mental health. Nolan speaks from the heart. The journalism, and focus on minors committing the most awful crimes is a subject that fascinated Nolan, and is given real tabloid newspaper authenticity by her own experiences in a paper in London.
The subject matter is tough and none of it is exactly a bundle of laughs. Megan Nolan doesn’t go in for fairy story endings for either her characters or the novel itself. The main theme of the book was well conveyed, and it is that devoting love, and time, to a child does not come easily to everybody.
There is redemption though for some characters (not all) and it’s of a believable and measured sort.
Waterstones Brighton 24.07.2023 In conversation with Maddie Mortimer.
• Her character Tom. Editor cut out 10,000 words. MN had originally expected him to be a bigger part of the story
• Publishing contract. MN had 12 months to produce second book.
• State of the nation novel was the original intent. . Jonathan Coe What a Carve Up was an influence.
• Close psychological work is what MN is most confident with. She is most comfortable drawing on her own life experiences rather than trying to create a fantasy.
• Killer children. From MN’s research, the absence of emotionally warm home life is a leading causation. Unwanted nature of a pregnancy is often the reason for the mother’s disconnect from the child.
I’ve now read Megan Nolan’s two novels and I think the progress from a self-immersed reckoning to a third person imagination is welcome. I hope the next novel branches out into new territory.
April 7, 2024
I enjoyed this. It's well written and I loved the deep dives into the family's background, but it's such a weird structure. I don't even mean that in a negative way, really. There's a crime, and then a tabloid journalist sequesters the family in a hotel to try and get something lurid out of them. He's hoping for incest, domestic violence, anything scandalous that will move papers. But theirs are--wait for it--ordinary human failings. He doesn't even seem really to get them to talk. My impression is that the recollections mostly happen internally, with very little being shared out loud. Something only a novel could do. The crime that happens is tragic but not implausible (child dies while playing with friends) and so is the aftermath (another child wrongly accused and taken from family). The author just seems to use these events to launch into the family's past, which is compelling in its own right but not as immediate as a possible murder. And yet it's the family's past that's ultimately more interesting. In a way the death isn't necessary at all. What could have been (and still partly is) an examination of the sleazy side of 'true crime' and British tabloid culture instead becomes a compelling examination of a family. Weird but definitely not bad, I enjoyed every page of this short novel and will check out the author's previous novel at some point too.
March 2, 2024
3.5 stars. The fact that this novel opens with a suspected murder of a toddler by a 10-year old child, may lead you to think that you're starting a mystery. You would be wrong though, as this book falls fully into the literary fiction genre. Through 3rd person POV's of each of the suspected child's family members the author explores their history and psychological issues. The writing is beautiful and thought provoking, I thought the sections on addiction were especially well done.
The reason I didn't rate this higher is because each family members' character study almost felt like a separate short story loosely tied together by Lucy's possible crime.
The audio narration by Jessica Regan was very well done.
The reason I didn't rate this higher is because each family members' character study almost felt like a separate short story loosely tied together by Lucy's possible crime.
The audio narration by Jessica Regan was very well done.
February 9, 2024
Really, who would care about a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note.
Ordinary Human Failings is a character-driven literary drama in which a 10-year-old girl is accused of a violent crime -- an event which serves as a catalyst for deeply-held resentments to surface and will have lasting repercussions for her entire family.
This is not an easy book to read, both due to its heavy subject matter and its dense literary prose. It engages with dark themes like parental death, parental neglect, child abuse and abandonment, and addiction. Megan Nolan's writing is deeply psychological and packed with brilliant observations about family, class, and trauma, and I often found myself re-reading a sentence to be sure I'd gleaned every last insight. The portrait she paints of this ordinary, damaged family is vivid and heartbreaking, and it left me in awe of her talent. I loved the perspective of a tabloid journalist trying to exploit the family for his own personal gain, giving us a glimpse behind the curtain of a sensational news story at the people truly affected by it.
Ordinary Human Failings is just so relentlessly depressing, which made it difficult for me to engage with the book for long periods. I needed to step out of the Green family's darkness so I didn't drown in it. That means Nolan did exactly what she was supposed to do, but potential readers should be prepared for nearly 300 pages of melancholic, devastating human insights. I'm not sure I was in the right mindset for Ordinary Human Failings but I certainly appreciate it for the literary achievement it is. 3.5 stars.
December 30, 2023
I adored Megan Nolan's first book - so much so, I read it twice. I was so excited to read her new offering and was delighted to receive an early copy.
Ordinary Human Failings is a mature and considered sophomore novel, brimming with the same rich and insightful language as Nolan's debut. While Acts of Desperation felt quite interior (which I loved), this book really broadens its perspective, focusing on a number of well-realised characters.
The story follows an Irish family in early 90s London who become tabloid scapegoats after tragedy strikes in their neighbourhood. The Greens fled Ireland in the wake of daughter Carmel’s teenage pregnancy and her brother Ritchie’s escalating alcoholism. When a young child is mysteriously murdered, their London neighbours point the blame at them, while an ambitious journalist tries to get his big break.
What follows is a quiet portrait of a family in despair and the repercussions of intergenerational trauma. It's wonderfully astute, examining the forces that form a family: the habits, the sadness, the resentment, the resignation. Despite the emotional and melancholy tone, the overall effect is dazzling. Nolan's writing is powerful and nuanced, full of light and shade, and incredible insight.
Nolan is an expert at writing the complicated and tender feelings of people. She writes with such humanity and empathy, that it's impossible not to surrender to the utter beauty of her words. Ordinary Human Failings has cemented Megan Nolan as one of my favourite authors, and I can't wait to read what she comes up with next. All of the stars!
Ordinary Human Failings is a mature and considered sophomore novel, brimming with the same rich and insightful language as Nolan's debut. While Acts of Desperation felt quite interior (which I loved), this book really broadens its perspective, focusing on a number of well-realised characters.
The story follows an Irish family in early 90s London who become tabloid scapegoats after tragedy strikes in their neighbourhood. The Greens fled Ireland in the wake of daughter Carmel’s teenage pregnancy and her brother Ritchie’s escalating alcoholism. When a young child is mysteriously murdered, their London neighbours point the blame at them, while an ambitious journalist tries to get his big break.
What follows is a quiet portrait of a family in despair and the repercussions of intergenerational trauma. It's wonderfully astute, examining the forces that form a family: the habits, the sadness, the resentment, the resignation. Despite the emotional and melancholy tone, the overall effect is dazzling. Nolan's writing is powerful and nuanced, full of light and shade, and incredible insight.
Nolan is an expert at writing the complicated and tender feelings of people. She writes with such humanity and empathy, that it's impossible not to surrender to the utter beauty of her words. Ordinary Human Failings has cemented Megan Nolan as one of my favourite authors, and I can't wait to read what she comes up with next. All of the stars!
February 21, 2024
Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Jessica Regan
Content: 5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
In the novel, we follow the case of 10-year-old Lucy, who is suspected of murdering a small child. Tom is a tabloid journalist. He intends to learn as much as possible from Lucy’s family. So, he pays for the hotel for the family and a limitless supply of alcohol. Of course, with the hidden motive of getting exclusive newsworthy information. A story from the past then unfolds. We learn the story of the family and the stories of individual members: Carmel (Lucy’s mother), Richie (Lucy’s uncle and Carmel’s brother), and John (Carmel’s father). Problems, weaknesses, and failings of ordinary people.
Inspired by some true crime cases. Ordinary Human Failings is a shocking story but sounds realistic and ordinary enough that it really could be a true crime story. I read Megan Nolan for the first time, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the novel.
Thanks to Hachette Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
Content: 5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
In the novel, we follow the case of 10-year-old Lucy, who is suspected of murdering a small child. Tom is a tabloid journalist. He intends to learn as much as possible from Lucy’s family. So, he pays for the hotel for the family and a limitless supply of alcohol. Of course, with the hidden motive of getting exclusive newsworthy information. A story from the past then unfolds. We learn the story of the family and the stories of individual members: Carmel (Lucy’s mother), Richie (Lucy’s uncle and Carmel’s brother), and John (Carmel’s father). Problems, weaknesses, and failings of ordinary people.
Inspired by some true crime cases. Ordinary Human Failings is a shocking story but sounds realistic and ordinary enough that it really could be a true crime story. I read Megan Nolan for the first time, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the novel.
Thanks to Hachette Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
January 19, 2024
4,5 bardzo różni się od debiutu, a jednocześnie jest tak mocno Nolanowa? Megan Nolan ma niesamowitą umiejętność pisania o ludzkich emocjach, o złożoności bycia człowiekiem, jest w niej tyle zrozumienia i empatii, jakby potrafiła zajrzeć w każdego.
„Akty desperacji” były boleśnie intymne, „Ordinary human failings” oferują szerszy obraz. Nolan przygląda się tutaj irlandzkiej imigranckiej rodzinie w Londynie na początku lat 90, międzypokoleniowej traumie, klasowości i nierównościom, „marginesowi społeczeństwa”, który tworzy tak naprawdę system, problemom statystycznie przeciętnym, wcale nie spektakularnym, za którymi stoją ludzie — w obliczu tragedii każdy z członków rodziny dostaje głos i może opowiedzieć swoją historię, co daje powieści konstrukcję nietypowej murder mystery.
Ale, jak to w życiu, nie o takie mystery tutaj chodzi.
A głos daje im szukający sensacji dziennikarz, poprzez którego Nolan pokazała, co myśli o etyce tabloidowego światka.
Na dodatkowy plus bardzo ciekawy wątek macierzyństwa, a raczej relacji matki z własnym instynktem macierzyńskim.
„Akty desperacji” były boleśnie intymne, „Ordinary human failings” oferują szerszy obraz. Nolan przygląda się tutaj irlandzkiej imigranckiej rodzinie w Londynie na początku lat 90, międzypokoleniowej traumie, klasowości i nierównościom, „marginesowi społeczeństwa”, który tworzy tak naprawdę system, problemom statystycznie przeciętnym, wcale nie spektakularnym, za którymi stoją ludzie — w obliczu tragedii każdy z członków rodziny dostaje głos i może opowiedzieć swoją historię, co daje powieści konstrukcję nietypowej murder mystery.
Ale, jak to w życiu, nie o takie mystery tutaj chodzi.
A głos daje im szukający sensacji dziennikarz, poprzez którego Nolan pokazała, co myśli o etyce tabloidowego światka.
Na dodatkowy plus bardzo ciekawy wątek macierzyństwa, a raczej relacji matki z własnym instynktem macierzyńskim.
March 24, 2024
As it stands, this novel felt aimless and uninspiring to me. There were sections of this novel that appealed to me, but on the whole, I found it rather dull. I believe the blurb unfairly misrepresents the book, leading readers to form vastly different expectations from what the book actually delivers, and this significantly impacted my overall enjoyment of it.
July 25, 2024
Ordinary Human Failings - Megan Nolan
"إخفاقات بشريّة عاديّة"...
رواية بدأت بداية قوية وتقشعر لها الأبدان وتميّزت بأصواتها المتعددة لكنها في النهاية كانت إخفاقًا بشريًا عاديًا آخر ..
"إخفاقات بشريّة عاديّة"...
رواية بدأت بداية قوية وتقشعر لها الأبدان وتميّزت بأصواتها المتعددة لكنها في النهاية كانت إخفاقًا بشريًا عاديًا آخر ..
February 12, 2024
An Irish family flees their Waterford home for an English (social housing) estate to avoid having their Catholic community learn about the too utterly shameful (yes, as late as 1980) pregnancy of the beauteous 16-year-old Carmel. It’s 1990 as events open in this novel, and when a three-year-old girl from the estate first goes missing, then is found strangled, evidence points to the lonely, neglected 10-year-old misfit girl of that immigrant family. Community outrage flares at the family of ne’er-do-wells, who are whisked into hiding by a tabloid journalist angling for a scoop. We learn in flashback more about this sad collection of individuals, all of whom have been damaged by events in their past, none of whom are guilty of any sin greater than the “ordinary human failings” of the title, and who are now forced to come to grips with the secrets and lies of the past.
Want to read
January 6, 2023i am SCREAMING and CRYING
June 11, 2024
Made the Womens prize Long list which is what brought it on my radar. The audio was narrated by Jessica Regan and she did an excellent job. At first I was a little confused by what the story was about. It is an Irish story that takes place mostly in England about a teenage girl, Carmel, and a short love affair that ends just about the time she realizes she is pregnant. Then her 10 year old daughter is accused of hurting another young girl. This story is primarily about what happens to Carmel when she initially refuses to accept the reality of the pregnancy and how this refusal effects her family through the following years. It is labeled a psychological thriller but there is more to it than that. I was drawn in and had to find out how it would ultimately play out and mostly the lessons learned. Excellent listen, and such a wonderful take on a problem that has discussed in so many previous Irish stories but this dug deeper.
September 2, 2023
Megan Nolan might just be one of my new favourite authors. It's always a bit scary reading the follow-up to an author's incredible debut, as was the case here. Acts of Desperation was tender and raw and so intense that I thought it would be hard to measure-up to that, but Ordinary Human Failings certainly did. Maybe measure-up isn't the right word though, because the two books do very different things. Whereas Acts of Desperation feels like an outpouring of vulnerable, overwhelming emotion focusing on the anguish of a woman desperately in love with an unavailable, manipulative man, Ordinary Human Failings felt detached, observant, and empathetic. A large part of that is due to Ordinary Human Failings' third person POV compared to the intense 'I' and 'me' of Acts of Desperation. Ordinary Human Failings also follows a family rather than an individual, giving us long sections where we dive into each family member's separate experience.
In this book, a young girl is murdered at a London housing estate, and another young girl in the complex, Lucy, is suspected of having committed the crime. Lucy is taken into questioning, and her family members - her young mother Carmel, her alcoholic uncle Richie, and her detached grandfather John - wait over a stretch of 24 hours in a hotel while she's being detained. During this time, Tom, a reporter, is on a mission to break this story, and speaks with the family members one-on-one to learn more about the events that unfolded, but also about the dynamics of their family. What we get, then, are long sections in the past, giving us pieces to understand how this poor, Irish family ended up in this situation in London.
Megan Nolan is incredible at painting portraits of characters that are fully fleshed out. Within just a short 200 pages, she presents a family who we understand with depth and complexity; we don't particularly like them nor do we particularly dislike them, but we're able to empathize with them as we acknowledge their flaws and their ordinary human failings.
Everything about this novel was so vivid, not only the characters but the setting, the emotion, and the storyline too. This reminded me of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: I pictured the same gray landscapes and understood characters who, at their core, wanted to love and be loved, but were challenged by hurdles like alcohol abuse and poverty. Anything Megan Nolan writes I'll be racing to get my hands on, because I'm so excited to see what she comes up with next.
In this book, a young girl is murdered at a London housing estate, and another young girl in the complex, Lucy, is suspected of having committed the crime. Lucy is taken into questioning, and her family members - her young mother Carmel, her alcoholic uncle Richie, and her detached grandfather John - wait over a stretch of 24 hours in a hotel while she's being detained. During this time, Tom, a reporter, is on a mission to break this story, and speaks with the family members one-on-one to learn more about the events that unfolded, but also about the dynamics of their family. What we get, then, are long sections in the past, giving us pieces to understand how this poor, Irish family ended up in this situation in London.
Megan Nolan is incredible at painting portraits of characters that are fully fleshed out. Within just a short 200 pages, she presents a family who we understand with depth and complexity; we don't particularly like them nor do we particularly dislike them, but we're able to empathize with them as we acknowledge their flaws and their ordinary human failings.
Everything about this novel was so vivid, not only the characters but the setting, the emotion, and the storyline too. This reminded me of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: I pictured the same gray landscapes and understood characters who, at their core, wanted to love and be loved, but were challenged by hurdles like alcohol abuse and poverty. Anything Megan Nolan writes I'll be racing to get my hands on, because I'm so excited to see what she comes up with next.
February 19, 2024
4.5/5 - absolutely stunning, a brutally honest history of an Irish family and the ghosts they keep with them.
May 16, 2024
Ordinary Human Failings is seemingly a thriller, mystery.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decades, it has at its centre the Greens, an Irish family who moved to London. This is a novel about disenfranchisement, mistakes that affect one’s once promising future, lack of opportunities, depression, alcoholism, loneliness to name just a few of the themes. Nolan does a great job humanising all the individuals, even the very flawed.
Ordinary Human Failings is worth checking out – the writing is masterful, the narrator, Jessica Regan, was top notch.
Nolan's writing shines when it comes to characterisations. Told via multiple POVs, over decades, it has at its centre the Greens, an Irish family who moved to London. This is a novel about disenfranchisement, mistakes that affect one’s once promising future, lack of opportunities, depression, alcoholism, loneliness to name just a few of the themes. Nolan does a great job humanising all the individuals, even the very flawed.
Ordinary Human Failings is worth checking out – the writing is masterful, the narrator, Jessica Regan, was top notch.
July 13, 2023
I will start off by saying that when I first read ‘Acts of Desperation’, I was not a fan yet I could not stop thinking about it. Nolan’s prose twisted at my skin, crawling into my subconscious with its brutal rendition of love. Because of this, I said I’d try her new novel, hoping for a better experience. While I will say it was better, this novel didn’t really grab me in the same way that Acts of Desperation did.
Ordinary Human Failings follows a tabloid reporter Tom who commits himself to the tragic case of the death of a 3 year old girl in an estate. News and speculation follows the case leading Tom to investigate allegations against an Irish family who live in the estate- the Greens. This novel, set in the 1990s adds pressure to the Irish diaspora that settled in the London landscape at this time. The Greens are seen as outsiders, with Carmel, Richie, John and Carmel’s daughter Lucy all being marked for their unusual quirks of alcoholism and denialism.
This novel had me hooked from the start. Nolan’s entrance for Tom allowed you to see a sneaky character, building on his desperation to be above the common people (or ‘peasants’ as he refers to his readers). The atmosphere that builds when we follow the case leaves you tethering, wanting more. This is where we the reader are immediately drawn to tropes of crime novels- of tragic pasts and insular seclusion amongst the characters. However, as we follow the novel we learn about each character and their lives which leads to the title standing out- these characters are not wicked. They have all faced everyday struggles and ‘ordinary human failings’
I don’t want to spoil the novel but I will say the length given to each character makes the novel feel a little bit flat in terms of plot suspension. While I did enjoy the insight to each character, I don’t think it connected in a way that made the story feel set. Perhaps this was Nolan’s intention, but I just found it rather jarring that certain aspects became brushed away in order to achieve more insight to the character’s background.
Overall, I do think Nolan’s characterisation is brilliant. I would definitely love to see more of this in future novels. However, I just found in the end there was a certain element of meaning lacking in the text to make the ending (and overall plot) feel satisfying. I think this novel will divide people in terms of how Nolan places specific focus on the characters’ lives rather than the event in question. Still, it was a read that does contain great character study that is definitely worth reading (particularly Carmel and Ritchie) but the rest remained somewhat lifeless to me which is a shame.
Ordinary Human Failings follows a tabloid reporter Tom who commits himself to the tragic case of the death of a 3 year old girl in an estate. News and speculation follows the case leading Tom to investigate allegations against an Irish family who live in the estate- the Greens. This novel, set in the 1990s adds pressure to the Irish diaspora that settled in the London landscape at this time. The Greens are seen as outsiders, with Carmel, Richie, John and Carmel’s daughter Lucy all being marked for their unusual quirks of alcoholism and denialism.
This novel had me hooked from the start. Nolan’s entrance for Tom allowed you to see a sneaky character, building on his desperation to be above the common people (or ‘peasants’ as he refers to his readers). The atmosphere that builds when we follow the case leaves you tethering, wanting more. This is where we the reader are immediately drawn to tropes of crime novels- of tragic pasts and insular seclusion amongst the characters. However, as we follow the novel we learn about each character and their lives which leads to the title standing out- these characters are not wicked. They have all faced everyday struggles and ‘ordinary human failings’
I don’t want to spoil the novel but I will say the length given to each character makes the novel feel a little bit flat in terms of plot suspension. While I did enjoy the insight to each character, I don’t think it connected in a way that made the story feel set. Perhaps this was Nolan’s intention, but I just found it rather jarring that certain aspects became brushed away in order to achieve more insight to the character’s background.
Overall, I do think Nolan’s characterisation is brilliant. I would definitely love to see more of this in future novels. However, I just found in the end there was a certain element of meaning lacking in the text to make the ending (and overall plot) feel satisfying. I think this novel will divide people in terms of how Nolan places specific focus on the characters’ lives rather than the event in question. Still, it was a read that does contain great character study that is definitely worth reading (particularly Carmel and Ritchie) but the rest remained somewhat lifeless to me which is a shame.
July 13, 2023
“Instead she suspected that Eloise was in far worse pain than had ever been known, suffering in the recesses of a privacy so total that it was almost evil. She had never fully lost this terror of the private suffering of other people, nor the shame of wanting not to see it.” This calm and heavy view of the world belongs to a character who appears for a few pages, incidentally, never to return to the narrative, and yet sums up so much of what Megan Nolan’s masterful second novel Ordinary Human Failings is about: private suffering, the depths of it, and the shame both of looking away and of desiring not to be looked upon. If Nolan’s debut, Acts of Desperation, was a ‘millennial novel’ (as others have argued), its follow-up resists such blasé categorisation, a stark departure, although still cleverly informed by the same sensibilities. Nolan’s psychological touch and philosophical inclination, however, is not only still intact but so sharply honed as to be, at times, painfully perceptive. She has also succeeded at that rare feat, of writing a clearly contemporary novel that is instantly timeless, one in which the novel form is a vehicle for the journey of the individual(s) moving within wider sociopolitical frameworks, but not overbearingly so — the humanity leads, and carries all of the intellectualisation with it. These are some of the hallmarks of my favourite novels: so too Nolan’s narrative belief in grace and redemption, even in the face of what is truly monstrous, unbearably awful (not just through the resolution, but also the irresolution of one key strand, which fades into unaddressed irrelevance at the end). Herein is what it means to sit with, and to face, all our hardest human failings, ordinary and otherwise.
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