Book Review: Montpelier Parade, Karl Geary

What a long, strange trip it’s been. Karl Geary – brother of musician Mark Geary – high-tailed it from Dublin in the 1980s. He got involved in music at the legendary Sin É cafe; was selected to appear in Madonna’s Sex book; and did stints as an actor, screenwriter and New York bar-owner. Montpelier Parade is his debut novel, set in the recessionary Dublin of the 1980s. It tells the story of an unlikely love affair between a teenager named Sonny and a mysterious older woman, Vera Hatton, whose home is on the titular Montpelier Parade.

Writing in the second person, Geary brilliantly captures both the grimness of the era and also the madness of teenage obsession. Sonny is in love for the first time. Casting off his lonely life for this intoxicating new encounter, he longs to know Vera, even to save her. But what isn’t she telling him?

Unfolding in the sea-bright, rain-soaked Dublin of early spring, Montpelier Parade is a beautiful cinematic novel about desire, longing, grief, hope and the things that remain unspoken. A hugely impressive debut.