Evenings and Weekends
McKenna’s language is intensely sensory. Prone to lists and poetic repetitions, he prioritises rhythm and flow over the avoidance of cliche ... Yet his intimate prose plunges you into his characters’ psyches as each confronts a turning point ... Even as it utters a howl of rage at broken, late-capitalist Britain, Evenings and Weekends is a love letter to the city – the chance it offers to forge your own identity, and the interconnectedness of urban life.
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It’s to Oisín McKenna’s credit that, in his debut, he manages to deliver such a compelling narrative ... Maggie and Ed... perhaps betray the novelist’s rawness in that they’re less well drawn ... One can imagine the author reading these sentences aloud, driven by their rhythm and repetition. They’re hypnotic and beautifully cadenced ... An impressive debut, pulsating with energy, humour and an agreeable amount of erotic charge.
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Sparkling ... In another pair of hands, the compressed timeline and the size of the cast could have made for a disjointed reading experience, but McKenna toggles among the different characters and storylines with aplomb. What emerges is an empathetic portrait of millennials trying to build lives for themselves amid social, political, and ecological change.
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