Having been deeply impressed by The Bee Sting, I began Prophet Song thinking that I'd already read the winner. But, from the start this book captured an urgent sense of a developing ugly reality that was too recognisable unfortunately. I could not put it down, reading the second half in one go. I have worked with people coming from such situations, and this was as true to understanding how life had been for them as could be achieved. Imelda
I have not read any Paul Lynch, until I started reading Red Sky in Morning yesterday. He is a wonderful writer, his phrases and Rythm and the choice of words were instantly captivating. I am looking forward to reading Prophet Song once I finish this earlier novel.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is the story of Eilish Stark. As her country - a thinly veiled modern day Ireland, descends into a totalitarian police state, Eilish, married mother of 4, with an aged father, descends through the levels of hell. First her husband is arrested, then her oldest son joins the rebels, then her father disappears, then her second son is tragically murdered by the police. Finally clutching her teenage daughter and baby son, Eilish flees the country in a harrowing refugee flight.
Prophet Song is the 2023 Booker prize winner. It is a very depressing, very important, and very compelling story. It is of its time - the piercing portrayal of the consequences of authoritarian government is relevant and recognizable to anyone. Despite the very grim and horrific events experienced by Eilish, it contains beautiful only-the-Irish-can-do prose passages.
I don’t like it for 2 reasons. One problem is that it is a one-sided tale. No context is given for the issues and complaints that caused people to vote for the NAP, the authoritarian hardliner party in power. The story concentrates on the humdrum daily chores of grocery shopping, getting to school on time, picking up kids from sports practice, preparing dinner, doing the dishes, garbage pick-up, caring for an aging parent, etc. This portrayal of the “everyday toing and froing” is one of the superpowers of the story and a deliberate choice by the author. He handles it brilliantly- “Happiness hides in the humdrum, it abides in the everyday toing and froing as though happiness were a thing that should not be seen, as though it were a note that cannot be heard until it sounds from the past.”
People are more than the humdrum daily routines of life. And if you are a PhD microbiologist as is the main protagonist - Eilish, wouldn’t you have thoughts about politics, the economy, social dynamics? Presumably before the current troubles, this was a democratic country with popular elections. How did this authoritarian hardline government arise? Who voted them in? Was there high unemployment? Was there spiraling inflation? How did the elite manipulate popular opinion? Were large sectors of the population cut off from healthcare, education, opportunity, home ownership? How concentrated were the resources among the elite. An authoritarian government does not pop-up overnight.
The other problem is that Elish has a monstrous naivete. This is grounded in her elite privileged status. She is trapped by her prejudice of other people. Waiting in line at a government customs office, she despises the people around her, saying “the common run of mankind, what are they all but animals in docile servitude to the needs of the body, tribe, and state.” She is a highly educated scientist, her father was a scientist, her husband is a teacher and trade unionist Maybe because of that she lacks empathy for the experience of people outside her narrow upper class strata. As the story descends the levels of hell, Eilish cannot understand why her privileged rank doesn’t isolate her and her family from the evil that men do. Her identity, previously powerful and respected - “I was in senior management in biotech until now, I am a molecular biologist by training. I have a PhD in cellular and molecular biology,” carries no weight with the new regime.
The only hint of a deeper structural analysis comes from Eilish’s father Simon who, ironically, has partial dementia. He tries to explain the cause of the current state “…if you change ownership of the institutions then you can change ownership of the facts, you can alter the structure of belief…the NAP is trying to change what you and I call reality…if you say one thing is another thing and you say it enough times, then it must be so.” Even this analysis stops short of considering why the change occurred. Somehow the previous owners of those institutions pissed off enough people that they were booted out of office. And they were booted out in such a way that it wasn’t just ‘under new management’, it was under new reality.
One of the most annoying and telling aspects of Eilish and other characters is the repeated claim that this doesn’t happen in my country. “It can’t happen here” is a consistent refrain throughout the story.
After the teachers’ union march is attacked by police, Eilish thinks “it seems as though the day has come to be under some foreign sky” (31). Eilish can’t believe the arrests and disappearances are happening in her country - “this sense now she is living in another country.”(36). “What she sees before her is an idea of order coming undone, the world slewing into a dark and foreign sea.”(45). Her father Simon, in a panicked moment at the grocery store, says that voting in the NAP is “unthinkable in a country like ours.”(58). Eilish willfully ignores the reality- “we don’t live in some dark corner of the world, you know, the international community will broker a solution.”(169).
“It can’t happen here” implies it only happens in predominantly black and brown “third world” countries. Who does she think supports and benefits from dictatorial regimes in black and brown countries?
“It can’t happen here” is a common enough motif. I bet 10 out of 10 people said it or some variation, when Trump was elected U.S. president, including those who voted for him (albeit for different reasons). People just cannot believe bad things will happen to them. It’s a useful defense mechanism. You can’t go around petrified that the sky is falling. You have to live your life, and sometimes that requires a defense of willful ignorance. Eilish does a superhero job at living her life while the sky is in fact falling. She says “keeping the family together because right now that is the hardest thing to do in a world that seems designed on tearing us apart.” (77)
But it is a defense that relies on someone else’s misfortune. It’s as though there is an inevitable measure of bad in the world and as long as someone else gets it, you are safe. In fact no one is safe when anyone is unsafe. Eilish never learns this.
I want Paul Lynch to write another book or to give us a spectrum of experiences. And I have a suggestion for what book number two is about. The second book should be a profile of Detective Inspector John Stamp’s wife. We meet the detective in the opening of the story when he and his partner arrive at Eilish’s house looking for her husband Larry to question him about some seditious material he and his union published. In a short time Larry has been arrested. Desperate to find out what happened to her husband, Eilish discovers the detective’s home address and goes there to see his wife. (63-64). She pleads her case but the wife is unsympathetic and feels insulted. Pushed to the limit of hospitality by Eilish’s pleas, she looks at Eilish with rancour, calls her scum, tells her “you people have no idea what’s happening in the outside world” and tells her to get out. Lets hear her story.
This book had some powerful moments, but I found the plot shallow and incomplete, and finally tedious. It probably needed another 100 pages to add substance to the plot. Also, in my opinion, Lynch did not know how to end the novel, so he just dumped it into the sea.
In my experience, (and I don't think I'm ever going to be winning any prizes) the most difficult places in novels are the beginning and the ending. Of these two, the most important is the latter. A book that ends poorly leaves the reader wondering, even with a book is powerful in pain circumstance and emotion as this one... Why did I bother?
It seems possible that this novel won the prize because of the current conflict in Gaza. And if that was the reason, it would have been better had the Booker gone to some Palestinian fiction instead, created a special prize for ethnic cleansing and genocide prose this year. I would have extended this special prize to novels written in the last 20 years, and awarded it to the 2006 novel, Gates of the Sun, by the Lebanese author Richard Khoury.
Having been deeply impressed by The Bee Sting, I began Prophet Song thinking that I'd already read the winner. But, from the start this book captured an urgent sense of a developing ugly reality that was too recognisable unfortunately. I could not put it down, reading the second half in one go. I have worked with people coming from such situations, and this was as true to understanding how life had been for them as could be achieved. Imelda
Thanks Imeda - it's such a powerful book, isn't it? We are so glad it resonated with you as a reader.
I have not read any Paul Lynch, until I started reading Red Sky in Morning yesterday. He is a wonderful writer, his phrases and Rythm and the choice of words were instantly captivating. I am looking forward to reading Prophet Song once I finish this earlier novel.
That sounds a great place to start - we hope you find a new favourite among his work!
Why I Don’t Like Prophet Song
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is the story of Eilish Stark. As her country - a thinly veiled modern day Ireland, descends into a totalitarian police state, Eilish, married mother of 4, with an aged father, descends through the levels of hell. First her husband is arrested, then her oldest son joins the rebels, then her father disappears, then her second son is tragically murdered by the police. Finally clutching her teenage daughter and baby son, Eilish flees the country in a harrowing refugee flight.
Prophet Song is the 2023 Booker prize winner. It is a very depressing, very important, and very compelling story. It is of its time - the piercing portrayal of the consequences of authoritarian government is relevant and recognizable to anyone. Despite the very grim and horrific events experienced by Eilish, it contains beautiful only-the-Irish-can-do prose passages.
I don’t like it for 2 reasons. One problem is that it is a one-sided tale. No context is given for the issues and complaints that caused people to vote for the NAP, the authoritarian hardliner party in power. The story concentrates on the humdrum daily chores of grocery shopping, getting to school on time, picking up kids from sports practice, preparing dinner, doing the dishes, garbage pick-up, caring for an aging parent, etc. This portrayal of the “everyday toing and froing” is one of the superpowers of the story and a deliberate choice by the author. He handles it brilliantly- “Happiness hides in the humdrum, it abides in the everyday toing and froing as though happiness were a thing that should not be seen, as though it were a note that cannot be heard until it sounds from the past.”
People are more than the humdrum daily routines of life. And if you are a PhD microbiologist as is the main protagonist - Eilish, wouldn’t you have thoughts about politics, the economy, social dynamics? Presumably before the current troubles, this was a democratic country with popular elections. How did this authoritarian hardline government arise? Who voted them in? Was there high unemployment? Was there spiraling inflation? How did the elite manipulate popular opinion? Were large sectors of the population cut off from healthcare, education, opportunity, home ownership? How concentrated were the resources among the elite. An authoritarian government does not pop-up overnight.
The other problem is that Elish has a monstrous naivete. This is grounded in her elite privileged status. She is trapped by her prejudice of other people. Waiting in line at a government customs office, she despises the people around her, saying “the common run of mankind, what are they all but animals in docile servitude to the needs of the body, tribe, and state.” She is a highly educated scientist, her father was a scientist, her husband is a teacher and trade unionist Maybe because of that she lacks empathy for the experience of people outside her narrow upper class strata. As the story descends the levels of hell, Eilish cannot understand why her privileged rank doesn’t isolate her and her family from the evil that men do. Her identity, previously powerful and respected - “I was in senior management in biotech until now, I am a molecular biologist by training. I have a PhD in cellular and molecular biology,” carries no weight with the new regime.
The only hint of a deeper structural analysis comes from Eilish’s father Simon who, ironically, has partial dementia. He tries to explain the cause of the current state “…if you change ownership of the institutions then you can change ownership of the facts, you can alter the structure of belief…the NAP is trying to change what you and I call reality…if you say one thing is another thing and you say it enough times, then it must be so.” Even this analysis stops short of considering why the change occurred. Somehow the previous owners of those institutions pissed off enough people that they were booted out of office. And they were booted out in such a way that it wasn’t just ‘under new management’, it was under new reality.
One of the most annoying and telling aspects of Eilish and other characters is the repeated claim that this doesn’t happen in my country. “It can’t happen here” is a consistent refrain throughout the story.
After the teachers’ union march is attacked by police, Eilish thinks “it seems as though the day has come to be under some foreign sky” (31). Eilish can’t believe the arrests and disappearances are happening in her country - “this sense now she is living in another country.”(36). “What she sees before her is an idea of order coming undone, the world slewing into a dark and foreign sea.”(45). Her father Simon, in a panicked moment at the grocery store, says that voting in the NAP is “unthinkable in a country like ours.”(58). Eilish willfully ignores the reality- “we don’t live in some dark corner of the world, you know, the international community will broker a solution.”(169).
“It can’t happen here” implies it only happens in predominantly black and brown “third world” countries. Who does she think supports and benefits from dictatorial regimes in black and brown countries?
“It can’t happen here” is a common enough motif. I bet 10 out of 10 people said it or some variation, when Trump was elected U.S. president, including those who voted for him (albeit for different reasons). People just cannot believe bad things will happen to them. It’s a useful defense mechanism. You can’t go around petrified that the sky is falling. You have to live your life, and sometimes that requires a defense of willful ignorance. Eilish does a superhero job at living her life while the sky is in fact falling. She says “keeping the family together because right now that is the hardest thing to do in a world that seems designed on tearing us apart.” (77)
But it is a defense that relies on someone else’s misfortune. It’s as though there is an inevitable measure of bad in the world and as long as someone else gets it, you are safe. In fact no one is safe when anyone is unsafe. Eilish never learns this.
I want Paul Lynch to write another book or to give us a spectrum of experiences. And I have a suggestion for what book number two is about. The second book should be a profile of Detective Inspector John Stamp’s wife. We meet the detective in the opening of the story when he and his partner arrive at Eilish’s house looking for her husband Larry to question him about some seditious material he and his union published. In a short time Larry has been arrested. Desperate to find out what happened to her husband, Eilish discovers the detective’s home address and goes there to see his wife. (63-64). She pleads her case but the wife is unsympathetic and feels insulted. Pushed to the limit of hospitality by Eilish’s pleas, she looks at Eilish with rancour, calls her scum, tells her “you people have no idea what’s happening in the outside world” and tells her to get out. Lets hear her story.
This book had some powerful moments, but I found the plot shallow and incomplete, and finally tedious. It probably needed another 100 pages to add substance to the plot. Also, in my opinion, Lynch did not know how to end the novel, so he just dumped it into the sea.
In my experience, (and I don't think I'm ever going to be winning any prizes) the most difficult places in novels are the beginning and the ending. Of these two, the most important is the latter. A book that ends poorly leaves the reader wondering, even with a book is powerful in pain circumstance and emotion as this one... Why did I bother?
It seems possible that this novel won the prize because of the current conflict in Gaza. And if that was the reason, it would have been better had the Booker gone to some Palestinian fiction instead, created a special prize for ethnic cleansing and genocide prose this year. I would have extended this special prize to novels written in the last 20 years, and awarded it to the 2006 novel, Gates of the Sun, by the Lebanese author Richard Khoury.
https://readkutub.wordpress.com/2006/12/01/gate-of-the-sun-by-elias-khoury/