The Parts
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The beat of a city's heart
REVIEW BY DEBORAH DONOVAN Novelist Keith Ridgway is inspired by Dublin, his home. It was the setting for his acclaimed debut, The Falling, and in his second novel, The Parts, the city plays an even larger role, stepping in as the novel's seventh character, throbbing with a life of its own. The six human characters are also meticulously crafted; related in various ways, they meld only in the final chapters. Delly Roche, the wealthy widow of a pharmaceuticals manufacturer, is dying. Hoping for "a painless lingering, and a quick get out," she has returned to the mansion outside Dublin where her husband met his tragic death. Delly is accompanied by Kitty Flood, a novelist, friend, and companion with more than a passing interest in Delly's huge inheritance. Also in attendance is Dr. George Addison-Blake, an American with a fake M.D. whose main talent is keeping Delly in a nearly comatose state. Joe Kavanagh, a radio talk-show host, lives in Dublin's "minor suburbs." The divorced father of a six-year-old daughter, he doesn't know his neighbors, and has no friends. Trying to jumpstart his stagnating career, Joe sends his producer, Barry, on a mission to find "the hopeless and the damned" to come on his talk show. Barry, younger than Joe and gay, first delivers him a junkie, then visits the riverside "rent boy" district where young male prostitutes go to attract middle-aged cruisers. There Barry meets Kevin, and, though trying to keep their relationship on a professional level, becomes deeply attracted to him. These six characters gradually meet and merge in bizarre and at the same time poignant ways, with the ever-present Dublin injected into every page. In stream-of-consciousness ramblings, the author focuses in on the city's underbelly—the "working Dublin, queer Dublin, junkie Dublin . . . homeless Dublin . . . mother Dublin . . . hungry Dublin . . . Bono's Dublin." Ridgway masterfully draws his characters with a perceptive and cutting edge, bringing them face-to-face with the reader. We know his characters so well we wince at their foibles and empathize with their insecurities. And hovering over all of them like a fog is a portrait of Dublin impossible to forget.
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