Kevin Barry
It takes only a few pages of Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry to begin hearing echoes of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
It is October 2018. Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond are two aging Irish gangsters waiting in a dreary ferry terminal at the Spanish port city of Algeciras. They’re looking for Maurice’s 23-year- old daughter, Dilly. They have heard she will be arriving at the terminal either on a boat from Tangier or heading to Tangier. So they wait. And they wait. They scrutinize the faces of young people at the terminal, hoping to recognize Dilly. They carry flyers of her image, asking people if they have seen her or know of her whereabouts. They descend upon a young man with threatening behaviors and menacing questions. They thwart his every attempt to leave until they doze off and he manages to escape their grasp. Meanwhile, they wait. And they talk. And here lies the beauty of this amazing novel.
The dialogue is remarkable. Maurice and Charlie have been friends—and temporary rivals—for decades. They know each other so well they can virtually complete each other’s thoughts and finish each other’s sentences. Their dialogue snaps and sizzles with shared references and half-formed thoughts. Interspersed throughout their conversations are flashbacks to an earlier time when the men smuggled drugs. Through the flashbacks, we learn of their history of violence, the cause of their rivalry, why Charlie limps, and why Maurice has a bad eye. The vignettes shed light on Maurice’s rocky past and his enterprising but ill-advised attempts to launder money. Above all, what emerges from their conversation is their unshakeable bond of friendship built on decades of shared history and fractured memories.
Kevin Barry can make language soar. He does it through lyrical diction, authentic dialogue, and brilliant metaphors. His prose is peppered with tones of nostalgia and dark humor. This is a riveting tale of two aging men reminiscing about their past loves and lives and many regrets. The toll their criminal past has taken on their lives unfolds with unflinching honesty in poignant, eloquent, and stunning prose. On the one hand, very little happens in this story; on the other hand, everything happens.
It is a testament to Kevin Barry’s remarkable skill as a writer that he is able to transform a lackluster situation—two former gangsters reminiscing on a bench in a ferry terminal—into something breathtaking.
Highly recommended.