Panenka
Rónán Hession
BlueMoose Books
You know that feeling when you’re sitting down in the outdoors and there’s a serenity about the place? That contentment that says things can be ok? If so then you are one of the lucky ones as we travel this journey of life. Along the way we pick up friendships, relationships, commitments as the journey takes us on many different routes. Sometimes people find their obstacles too hard to overcome and they give up while their friends wonder could they have helped in some way. Sometimes the obstacles leave us in the streets wondering what happened. Depending on the road you are born into the journey can be so much more difficult but again it’s all relative. What we call first world problems are exactly that. Problems that people face in their journey.
I picked up this second novel from Rónán Hession expecting a story of love and faith and calm and humanity. I wasn’t disappointed but throughout there is a sense of sadness. Living is beautiful but it’s not all beauty and Hession’s words in here reminds us of frailty. That’s what is great about his work.
As a trade union activist and elected officer at one stage I used to recoil when the term “ordinary” union member was used. It wasn’t meant in a derogatory manner but it’s intention was to differentiate between groups. My feeling is that no one is ordinary, we are all extraordinary in our ways. We need to celebrate this and encourage resilience. Panenka does such a thing. People living life. Its just the roads they travel on that make the difference.
During this book I took to listening to independent Irish music in the background. This is the creative community that mumblin deaf Ro was part of. This is where the public spark originated and I went back to that community. There is something even more fulfilling that this book is independently published and comes from that do it yourself ethos. A more rewarding journey for sure.
Beautifully written in a manner that makes me want to go back almost immediately and start all over again.
niallhope
