Summary

Charlie, 29, is a lost and frustrated creative woman. She has been lonely and depressed for most of her 20s. To overcome bleak job prospects in the British film industry she has turned to amateur pornography (thus, the title). On top of that, she has to cope with a sick father, an anxious mother and a strained relationship with her best friend Laura, who is living the life she expected she would be living at 30.

Over the last years, she allied her professional aspirations as a scriptwriter to her dad’s story, to create a documentary inspired by his childhood in the Irish island of Clipim. During its promotion, Charlie and Laura get a chance to visit the almost mythical ancestral Irish home. Whilst she expected this trip would be a final chance to bond with her father, the experience turns out to be very different. Charlie’s investigation into her Irish roots leads her to troubling revelations as she and Laura unbury the demons of a seemingly charming and unremarkable island.

My take on this book

This is an addictive and immersive story, although much darker than I expected. Narrated from Charlie’s perspective, we learn that in Clipim nothing is as it seems, as its dark history unfolds.

All along, there is an underlying tone of tragedy and urgency, which resulted in a sense of unease and anxiety for me. In fact, the book felt like a thriller most of the time! This was exacerbated by the Irish landscape and the shifting attitudes of a wide cast of islanders. Charlie’s self-doubt and her difficult relationship with Laura and her father’s version of the facts deepen the dark aspects of this story.

On the other hand, the dark humor surrounding this eerily atmosphere certainly worked for me, and O’Donoghe’s sharp eye and witty language is probably my favourite aspect of an otherwise unsettling novel.

Another of my favourite aspects of this novel was the setting. O’Donoghe’s masterfully captured the essence of the Irish countryside, from its shades of greens to the violence of the ocean hitting the rocks. Rather than stopping there, she uses it to shape the characters, to power conflict between them, and through Charlie’s eyes manages to make the reader fascinated with Clipim.

O’Donoghe draws on multiple themes such as family relationships and friendship, early adulthood, love, loneliness, social class and second-generation immigrants trying to belong. I particularly liked the treatment of the theme of identity, both self-identity and national identity. Whilst Charlie is also in a quest to find herself, the book was also an exploration of Irish identity and the conflict with a multitude of clichés and traumas affecting the islanders.

There is a depth to the story and to Charlie, the main character, which makes this novel worth reading. The array of emotions and experiences she goes through, including a re-acquaintance with love and physical pleasure, are touching. Beautiful writing made the intimacy of romantic scenes exciting, powerful and meaningful, a real delight to read. All of Charlie’s humanity unfolds in those scenes, sprinkled with lust, loss, envy, vulnerability and longing.

Whilst Scenes of Graphic Nature is a thought provoking and immersive novel, it is not a perfect piece of work.

The most disappointing aspect of this book is its rushed ending. After describing with minute details a few days of Charlie’s stay in the Irish island of Clipim with a minutiae of details, the truth is finally hurried which results in some loose ends. I would have stayed a little longer with the hostile yet warm and humorous islanders. However, the epilogue is satisfying enough and partly compensates for it.

My verdict

The cover of this book is fantastic, combining clever design, vibrant colors and sharp contrast. To me, it condenses what I really enjoyed in this book: O’Donoghe’s natural, original voice and the crafty way she weaved the intriguing, mystery thread of a buried tragedy into Charlie’s collapsing world. I totally recommend this intriguing and compelling novel, and can’t wait to read what O’Donoghe writes next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group UK, for an advance copy.