The Anatomy School

by Bernard MacLaverty

Book Overview

Set in Belfast in the late sixties, Bernard MacLaverty's new novel takes us into Martin Brennan's last semester of high school, when he finds old friendships tested and is forced to face the unknown.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393050521
• ISBN13: 9780393050523
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Fast paced novel

I picked up this book and I was surprised how fast paced it was. This novel takes place in a catholic community surrounding three teenage boys. The author was great at defining how kids in that type of community grow up.I would reccomend this book.

"Good" Catholic boy... an oxymoron?

This pitch-perfect foray into a young man's agonizing adolescence is made vivid by the small details of his daily life. Living at home with a devout Catholic mother, 1960's Belfast is a tough arena for a young man on the path toward manhood, especially when rigid Catholic school ethics stand sentinel over natural self-expression. Strict Irish priests are rigorous in their training of young men, using corporal punishment, coupled with the occasional spiritual retreat: three days of silence, prayer and soul-searching. The most effective and lasting discipline is mental, constant drumming lectures concerning the nature of sin, especially when entertained as lascivious thoughts, where a boy's chastity is threatened by self-will. Martin Brennan and his friends survive just such an environment, their sexuality a driving force, as they bond in friendship defined by four-letter words and innuendo. Driven by hormones, conscience runs a close second, carefully nurtured through years of training. To his shame, Brennan is repeating his last year of high school before seeking employment. Kavanagh, a star basketball player, is Martin's best pal and co-conspirator. When the more sophisticated Blaise Foley boards at their school, the paradigm changes, the three boys forming a lopsided triumvirate, as Blaise challenges Martin to question everything he has been taught. The free-floating anxiety common to boys on the verge of manhood tempers Martin and Kavanagh's natural hubris and enthusiasm.The iconoclastic Blaise is a perfect foil to the more conscientious Brennan and Kavanagh, pricking holes in their beliefs and expectations. It is Blaise who suggests a scheme for passing exams, critical to each young man's future. Blaise is an antagonist whose best work is done while skating on the thin edge of risk, a practiced con man with a deep distrust of conformity. But ill-conceived interference by a disciplinarian begins a cycle of violence that leaves one boy fighting for his life and shocking the others into adulthood overnight. This injudicious incident changes the course of their futures.Some harsh lessons burn a hole in the soul, a black mark that cannot be removed, possibly requiring a sojourn in Purgatory. But youthful experience denies the pull of grief and shame, where hope bravely shimmers, a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a notable scene where Brennan loses his virginity, perfectly capturing the tortuous journey from exploration to intimacy. Unaware of his own charms, Brennan is an attractive young man to the opposite sex. His first foray into sexual adventure is tender and touching. MacLaverty skillfully portrays the difficult terrain of youthful maturity, when young boys perform age-old rituals that mark such significant events.In a familiar and humorous rendition, MacLaverty's Martin Brennan, carefully tended by a religious mother who surrounds her son with moral values, is the essence of a boy's transition into the next phase of life, his strug

simply put, he's one of the best fiction writers out there.

MacLaverty has a great feel for working class life. His characters feel very true, and the rhythms of his writing are incredibly seductive. You can feel his clear-eyed yet forgiving nature hovering over all his characters. Simply put, he's one of the best fiction writers out there. That said, The Anatomy School doesn't delve as deeply as you want it to. I prefer his short stories (see his "Walking the Dog" collection) which, with less words, achieve far richer, more suggestive results. Still, MacLaverty is always worth reading. His best themes are the failures of the church, and the sympathies between males. Both are treated excellently here. In fact, no one deals with maleness exactly the way MacLaverty does, allowing his male characters to express intense need, love and attraction for each other, without ever crossing over into the sexual. He defines an area of affection between straight men that few have ever explored before.

Growing up Catholic in working-class Belfast.

Confronting the usual thorny, coming-of-age issues of sex, religion, and morality, Belfast teenager Martin Brennan and his friends, with their hormones in high gear, are stunningly naïve, their primary concern, sex, remaining a mysterious, dark realm into which they must feel their own way. Unable to gain much needed knowledge of basic biology from home or school, they try to sublimate their urges, exploring the mysteries of faith, the example of Christ, the meaning of sin, and the importance of family and friends, while privately garnering as much information as they can about the Big Secret. Brilliantly creating the jokey banter, braggadocio, and innuendoes of teenage conversations, MacLaverty introduces a main character who, while a bit more serious and naive than some of his friends, is still a typical teenager facing typical teenage problems. And that, to me, is both the attraction and limitation of this novel. Many readers will chuckle out loud as they relive their own pasts through Martin, but at the conclusion, some may also ask, "Is that all there is?" The superficial resolution of normal teenage predicaments, no matter how well presented here, may not be satisfying for readers who expect a broader treatment of themes and a deeper exploration of inner conflicts. The author's introduction of the Catholic/Protestant violence at the end of the novel seems gratuitous, an overly strong element used to make a generalized point about morality and religion--Martin is almost untouched by The Troubles. The book pulses with the drama of teenage life, kooky characters, a wonderful feel for the tenuous relationships between teens and adults, and often hilarious repartee--especially with the "dotery coterie" of Martin's mother, the local priest, and her two friends. These individual delights are not fully integrated into a thematic whole, however, and the reader may be left feeling a bit short-changed at the end--thoroughly entertained, but no wiser. Mary Whipple