Books

Travelling in a Strange Land, David Park: Johnny Ruin, Dan Dalton

David Park has written a troubled tale about haunted families which will leave its print on modern Irish literature

Snow is a recurring leitmotif in Irish literature. Its ability to turn the familiar into foreign, to beautify the ugly and silence the noisy, is a gift to all poets; but as Northern Irish writer David Park points out in his new novel, Travelling in a Strange Land, it is particularly effective when writing about a newly branded city with a dark past. Snow in Belfast becomes a kind of dream-catching fairy dust in Park’s tale, creating a near mythical landscape where memory is as crucial as a sat nav, though far less comforting.

1300_booksreview_travellingstrange_embed

The situation however, is a standard human one. Tom’s son is stranded, sick, in Sunderland, and it’s his dad’s job is to pick him up and bring him home to Belfast for Christmas. Tom stocks the car with flasks, a torch, a spade, a sleeping bag – the average survival kit for a sole driver undertaking a long drive over treacherous terrain. ‘We have to get him home’ his wife repeats, over and over. There is an opportunity for paternal heroism in his mission.

Belfast is a palimpsest rich with allegory

So off we go, keeping Tom company as his brief encounters with fellow travellers are increasingly punctuated with tugging old memories – family holidays, audits of his children’s messy bedrooms, the day he met his wife – which spark fleeting crescendos of optimism and rushes of love. 

For the most part though, Tom’s mood is one of guilt, grief and fear. Park slowly reveals the details of the harrowing event which has thrown his once happy family off course, but from early on there’s an inevitability about what we’re about to learn, and how the story will end. Perhaps that’s the point, to signpost the destination so that what becomes interesting is the emotional diversions. It doesn’t matter that we know what’s going to happen; it’s the act of retracing the steps, the pain of wondering what might have changed the outcome, which haunts Tom, and the reader as well.

The prose is strewn with metaphors and allusions, perhaps too many for the novel to entirely escape accusations of occasionally laying it on a bit thick. It’s also true however that Belfast is a palimpsest rich with allegory. The water waiting to reclaim the land, the re-fashioned murals, the grimy, terraced ‘Holy Land’ – these might seem like over-stretched contrivances to the uninitiated but they’re all there, for real, in the day to day of that unique little city.

Tom regularly reminds us he has no religious faith, but his inner monologue reads increasingly like a redemptive prayer, a plea for help in figuring out how to keep things close, and let things go. That this father and son odyssey should come to rest under an angel’s wings is just one of its great emotional and artistic rewards. This is possibly Park’s best yet, and shines like a beacon among the host of exceptional literature to come out of Ireland in recent years.

1300_booksreview_johnnyruin_embed

Just room to mention a strange and rather lovely debut novel from former Buzzfeed journalist Dan Dalton. Mournful beat-up kid Johnny Ruin is also on a formative journey, this one through his chastising memories. He is accompanied by an unlikely spirit guide, the plain-speaking, wise and brotherly Jon Bon Jovi.

What begins as a witty, playful idea grows into a convincing and touching salutary tale of broken love, self-harm, and what Dalton describes perfectly as a kind of ‘fetishisation of sadness’. Omniscient companion Jon is a solid, lucid, empathetic dude, and one senses Dan Dalton might be too. If this is how he rolls, I’m rocking up for his next book.

Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park (Bloomsbury, £12.99)

Johnny Ruin by Dan Dalton (Unbound, £16.99)

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé review – behind the scenes of a musical comedy classic
Books

The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé review – behind the scenes of a musical comedy classic

Pulp's This Is Hardcore (33 1/3) by Jane Savidge review – warmth, candour and insight
Books

Pulp's This Is Hardcore (33 1/3) by Jane Savidge review – warmth, candour and insight

Top 5 books inspired by folklore, chosen by Scottish novelist LA MacRae
Books

Top 5 books inspired by folklore, chosen by Scottish novelist LA MacRae

Did you know the Irish language has at least 20 words for 'hole'?
Language

Did you know the Irish language has at least 20 words for 'hole'?

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know