Shortlisted for the 2008 Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.
The novel's prologue won the biggest prize in the world for a single short story - the BBC National Short Story Prize.
"Sheer comic brilliance" - The Times
"The best comic novel I've ever read" - Tommy Tiernan
"Could be the finest comic novel since Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman" - The Sunday Tribune
My first novel, of which I am very fond. The adventures of teenage twin sisters Juno & Juliet, in their first year away from home. Life, love and literature, in Galway and Tipperary.
"Like Roddy Doyle in an extremely good mood" - The Washington Post
"A modern, at times brilliantly ironic reworking of the classical fairytale, with nods to Shakespeare, Austen and Beckett." - Literary Review
"Hugely entertaining" - Vogue
Julian Gough
You see, it's Juno & Juliet that is the problem... or rather it isn't the problem. The expression 'I couldn't put it down' has stopped applying in a good way and has started to seriously affect my life. It's got to the point where i'm considering buying a second copy for the bathroom.
You see I read it, then I read it again. And again. And again... Then I read all my favourite bits, then I read it all again. Are you starting to sense a pattern? And I can't stop reading it. I don't know what to do! Everytime I think i'm free I remember something (like Shakespeare having Marlowe test his food) and i have to go back and read it again just to check.
So I come humbly prostrate upon my knees (and that's very brave in itself, you must of seen the carpets in student digs) to ask for your help. Surely this is a common syndrome, what do you do for people who actually can't stop reading it?
I need help quickly, you see I'm in the final year of a classics degree, and having the book in the room whilst I'm trying to do my Latin and/or Ancient Greek translations inevitably ends in said translations being neglected in favour of the book! And somehow I don't see my lecturers seeing this as a valid excuse... Classics professors may spend most of their time in the ancient past, but when it comes to botched translations they're scarily perceptive. It's like a spidey-sense for lack of completed homework.
Perhaps you could write a novel that in some way uses the story of Oedipus? Or Antigone? Or any in fact any Greek or Roman play/myth of your choosing. Then at least I could pass my reading off as research.
So, what advice can you offer me? How do I break the cycle?
Or can you just recommend something else for me to read before I've learnt the entire thing off by heart?
Many many gracious thanks, not only for your fabulous book, but in anticipation of your degree-saving advice. (Not even a hint of a guilt-trip there... promise)
Briony