Incestuousness of Small-Town Life
The setting of this novel is the type of small rural township that can be found in almost every country on the planet. The fact that this particular village is located in Ireland has quite a bit to do with the specifics but on a more generalized level this story could take place just about anywhere. The tight-knit community in which the events unfold offer insight into the kind of incestuous existence that often begins with a description like being a town where everybody knows everybody else and nobody locks their doors at night. That dynamic which is both comforting and stifling proves to be narratively significant while from a more distant perspective the thematic focus is how both those elements are inescapable aspects of life in such a socially incestuous environment where knowing everybody’s business can become either an easy path to success or an impossible hindrance. The very fact that many tangential characters get at least one small moment in the sun all their own is a testament to the significance of this neighborly way of life in such tightly woven communities.
Randomness and Chaos
At one point the narrator describes the members of one particular family in this village as the type of people possessing “the unreliability, but also the dangerous decisiveness, of creatures who did not understand their nature and did not care to understand it.” This is also an apt description of the nature of randomness and chaos which underlines the entire story, regardless of specific family members. The narrative is focused on an ill-conceived kidnapping plot constructed by two brothers operating far out of their depth. The plot then proceeds to unroll in a manner not unlike a classic dark comedy by the Coen Brothers in which a dearth of elevated intelligence ignites chaos through choices and decisions that at times seem utterly random and divorced from logic and strategic planning.
Societal Entrenchment
In addition to being a story thematically exploring the incestuous interrelationships between residents of a small town, the narrative also examines themes related to the difficulty of escaping from such an existence. Almost none of the characters express any sincere desire to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere of living conditions. This lack of ambition is directly related to the quality of comfort that daily life in the rarely surprising environment of a tight-knit community offers. What is lacking in diversity and experience is made up for in the expectation that regardless of the random chaos that may occasionally pass through town, things will wind up being exactly as one expects them to be. It is into this societal entrenchment that the random surprise of the kidnapping plot gone askew introduces the possibilities of escape. This thematic thread is centered, perhaps not surprisingly, on the story’s most intelligent and least incestuously bound character who also just happens to be the only major female character operating within the muck of incompetent testosterone which surrounds her.
