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As someone who grew up surrounded by music and, with a brother who was steeped in the local band scene, I loved the attention to detail with all its rawness and grit. Annie Macmanus breathes life into all her characters placing the reader right in the middle of the, at times, almost anarchic life of Orla Quinn. This is a book full of passion and life, a book that beats to its own drum, an exhilarating reading experience. Annie Macmanus knows the music industry well, adding a real authentic and trusted layer to this tale.
In lucid prose, Keane discusses all these malaises, and attempts to place them all in an historical perspective which is both illuminating and educative. If nothing else this book will clarify some of the underlying reasons we have given ourselves in the past, and within which we now find ourselves floundering in a stomach-churning sea of unease and disquiet.s highly trusting nature and seeing the best in people, being a bit oblivious and how the relationship with her room mate develops were spot on as a portrait of Irish people.
Men are unfortunately the undoing of Neema and Orla’s close friendship. As Orla experiences and experiments with sexual freedom (Moses, Vinnie etc) Neema struggles with watching her friend be so free when she is having to live under such conservative boundaries depicted by her Indian family. And also, Orla is really really messy, which drives Neema crazy.I feel like this book is aimed at a very particular person - in theory, I was in a similar position to Orla around the same time, having moved away from home for the first time in 2001. There's where the similarities ended - all the characters seemed to do was take drugs while living in squalor. Their flat sounded disgusting, and they were all struggling to make ends meet yet were out every night getting absolutely mangled. They just all really irritated me (except maybe Neema, who was the only one taking anything seriously) - Orla was in no position to judge her mother or sister for drinking when she was off her head daily. Ditto her father's relationship - she was horrible to his new partner and came off like a bratty teenager instead of a supposed independent woman trying to have a career in music. The much-anticipated second novel from author Annie Macmanus, The Mess We’re In is a vibrant, unforgettable tale of a chaotic young woman finding her feet and her sound at such a memorable point in London’s cultural and musical history. Orla has moved to London from Ireland in pursuit of a career in the music industry- Orla sings, produces and plays guitar, so music is a huge part of her existence. A powerful and occasionally polemical appeal to reason in politics; if you're despairing in search of an antidote to the poison of "alternative facts", here's your book. Like any good political text, there's something here to offend everyone. You'll want to cheer, high-five and occasionally shout your disagreement, but what you won't want to do is put it down.' Active Hope shows us how to strengthen our capacity to face this crisis so that we can respond with unexpected resilience and creative power. Drawing on decades of teaching an empowerment approach know as the Work that Reconnects, the authors guide us through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we’re in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
It’s 2000, and she makes the more with her best friend Neema who she met at uni in Cheltenham. Neema’s brother Kesh is in a band - Shiva, along with Richie and Frank, and they have a spare room that Neema and Orla can move into. The dialogue in this feels so real, witty and funny that it feels like you’re reading a script from a BAFTA winning telly show. At the end of the book Keane offers ten apparently sensible suggestions for countering these negative drives, which are intended to help us see through what might otherwise seem to be insurmountable impasses. Whether one agrees with them or not, they will at least offer some hope that all is not quite lost. Gerry blinks, looking at his pint, and says, - we don’t all get the luxury of belonging where we’re born. What [Macmanus has] managed to do with London, and what London means to different generations of Irish people, is terrific, and deeply moving' RODDY DOYLE
After moving to Cheltneham via Dublin for uni, Orla is ready to take on the big smoke and moves in with an up and coming band, Shiva in Kilburn. (Or County Kilburn if you will 😂). Orla juggles trying to achieve a career within music for herself all while balancing two jobs and a headonistic lifestyle. While Orla's own dreams seem to be going nowhere, Shiva are on the brink of something big. But as the hype around the band intensifies, so does the hedonism, and relationships in the house are growing strained. Coming of age book which anyone who has left home to try to find themselves/leave a mess behind will identify with. I laughed out loud in some parts. So vivid . . . What [Macmanus has] managed to do with London, and what London means to different generations of Irish people, is terrific, and deeply moving’ RODDY DOYLE
The revised tenth anniversary edition is published on 14 June 2022 in the US, and 15 July 2022 in many other countries.
I just finished listening to this. Firstly, I loved the fact that Annie Mac read this. She has such a nice voice and clearly had a vision for how she wanted the story to get across.
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