Juno Loves Legs

Product Information

It is about a young girl named Juno who is whip-smart and brave and the relationship she has with a bullied boy named Seán (who she has nicknamed “Legs”) who is, from the start, branded as different in his sexuality. It also helps if you know something of the Irish lingo as there is a lot of slang used in the book that may confuse non-British readers. Juno is a girl from a poor family in Dublin, growing up in the 1970s and coming of age in the 1980s, in a country that was very much under strict Catholic rule. Taking this coming-of-age journey with these two hapless beings was like putting my fingers into a vise one by one.

The two find their way from the backstreets and city's pubs to its underground parties and squats, where, on the verge of adulthood, they find a breathing space to begin their real lives. And although I DO much prefer this UK cover - that looks suspiciously like American actress Kristy McNichol on the cover, circa 1980! As Legs alludes to that his impending death from AIDS is near, through insight, wisdom and unflinching self awareness, Juno quietly declares their understanding with devastating pragmatism, with an acceptance that touched me, “like the silence of reading, or reading about people who love and must part, I thought it perfect” (Geary 273). I will always have a soft spot for the misfit toys of this world, and it has set out a cushion for Juno and Legs. Juno and Legs meet at a school where (as usual) the nuns are awful old tyrants and the priests are no better.

Een verhaal over vallen en opstaan, geheimen en ondanks je eigen ellende alle knelpunten in het leven van de ander willen oplossen. While unsurprising in many ways, ticking all the boxes of Irish sadness - alcoholism, violence, and the abuses of the Catholic church an approach that could be viewed as a weakness. As the teenagers move beyond the quiet cruelties of a Catholic education, and into an even darker and seemingly crueller world, against the odds their friendship endures. A few weeks ago in our free Book Club newsletter, I asked for examples of curious differences between U. This is a volume about resilience and getting through tough times in the best way possible, and perhaps with a bit of craftiness.

The book will, I think, have an extra special resonance for Irish people, and Dubliners in particular. I love books about two people who love each other, who are against the world, that I often relate to stories like this, wishing I had a Juno in my life. His widely acclaimed debut Montpelier Parade was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. In one of the most moving sections, Juno finds herself sleeping rough and begging for money on a Dublin street, after walking out of the family home and being turned away by her estranged sister.

Juno and the friend she nicknames Legs encounter poverty and cruelty aplenty, but also moments of grace, and Geary’s writing is lovely. Set in Dublin during the 1980s, with eerie, dark landscapes of tawdry bars, alcoholics on the street, with poverty rampant everywhere, Juno is one of the pluckiest and most resilient narrators I’ve read in a while. I concur with Douglas Stuart, the Shuggie Bain author who provides the cover endorsement - it broke my heart and I didn’t want it to end. One day, Legs decides he has had enough of the abuse and gets into the kind of trouble that they send youngsters away to juvenile detention for.

The Catholic church rules their world, constantly reminding the children of their sinfulness and the church’s authority given by God.

Het verhaal wordt voornamelijk verteld vanuit het perspectief van Juno, en terwijl kleine scènes uit haar leven laten zien hoe ze opgroeit in een harde omgeving, hoe haar weinig kansen en mogelijkheden worden geboden om op te klimmen, merk je dat ze dolgraag gezien en geaccepteerd wil worden. Blurbed by Douglas Stuart this shares some "sad childhood" DNA with his novels but Geary has a style all his own. Severed from their families by mutual agreement, in a new life littered with sordid squats and deep prejudice, transient figures and seedy bars, they rely on each other to survive. And still each evening, the [prison] chaplain would come to him; the chaplain believed that burning Father was an accident and Legs felt free to tell almost all of himself. This skirts a fine line between touching and misery fest particularly early on but sticking with it pays dividends as the poignancy of the relationship develops into early adulthood.

Juno Loves Legs will make your heart ache as you turn each page and wonder if the characters will ever become whole. Zij is slim, kwetsbaar, dapper, heeft een opvliegend karakter, bijt regelmatig van zich af en probeert het beste van haar leven te maken, hij is rustig, ingetogen en vindt moeilijk aansluiting. A poignant portrait of two people caught in poverty and an intolerant society, this one will break your heart.As Juno reunites with Legs at the final act of the novel, we see Legs, like Juno, has gotten himself into sex work as well. After losing her mother to a bus accident, Juno finds herself witnessing Legs committing a crime against Father that would change their friendship forever. Undeniably bleak but with rays of light and hope from human kindness, this book is an emotional investment, but it's worth it. Geary uses gorgeous prose, full of Irish lilt and hard-edged slang, to describe bleak childhoods as harsh as any found in a Dickens novel . Karl Geary’s sophomore novel flirts with and then darkly subverts the marriage plot, killing off the nuclear family in an attempt to remake it, with a difference.