The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes
Review by Rachel Farmer
‘The night the Chief died, I lost my father and the country lost a battle it wouldn’t confess to be fighting.’
If ever a first sentence were to encapsulate the feel of a novel, distilling it down into just a few words, the opening of The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes does just that. It is the story of Doharty (or Hart, as he is known to most people), his brother Cormac — and of their father’s failed investments, illness, shame and, ultimately, his death. Their father’s untimely fate mirrors that of Ireland during its swift economic boom and even swifter economic downturn in the early 21st century. Yet this story is so much more than that. It is a coming-of-age tale, of a kind, and a love story, of sorts. And it is a story imbued with pain and fury, yet with a bedrock of warmth and humanity in spite of it all.
Each character in this short novel is subtly yet richly painted, at times picked apart with unflinching frankness. Hart’s portrayal of his family and those around him is often intensely unflattering—especially that of his mother and brother—though his attitude towards them is multifaceted. But the most nuanced character of all is Hart himself, forced to deal with hugely complex and fraught emotions while still discovering who he is, rejecting the labels forced upon him, yet unable to assert anything in their place. He is a prisoner of apathy, pity, parental expectation, and prospects thwarted both by fate and by design.
The reader experiences all this through the prism of the novel’s voice, its sharp, scathing tongue and its lilting Irish rhythm. Hughes’s prose just sings with creativity and character, and Hart’s sardonic tone, his unique way of expressing himself, shines through. Each sentence is perfectly crafted and steeped in layers of meaning, just begging to be re-read—chewed upon until fully digested.
At its heart, this story is a stark, nuanced take on grief and compassion, the paradoxical coexistence of love and bitter resentment, and a caustic indictment of familial rivalry and cruelty. It is a punch in the gut. Yet, for all that, it leaves you craving anything and everything Caoilinn Hughes has ever written or will ever write.
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The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes is published by Oneworld Publications 18/6/20