The Irish Literary Times

...at first glance, as far removed from Richard Ford and my intoxication with American minimalism as I could imagine and yet… strangely similar – minimalist yes, the landscapes harsh, the narrative...

Douglas Glover: "This is from Gerard Beirne‘s new novel Charlie Tallulah, out imminently with Oberon Press in Ottawa. The language is sharp and precise, the dialogue is punctuated à la Joyce using em-dashes instead of quotation marks (see also Robert Day’s serial novel on NC). Two things to note especially: 1) Having lived in the Canadian north by a native reserve for  several years, the Irish-born author knows whereof he speaks; and 2) the author’s way of patterning his text with luminous phrases that reach out of their context toward some larger and more mysterious meaning.

He saw her eyes drift towards the open door. John Lee stood there watching them. -Sorry. I was just passing. But he did not go anywhere. – What is it you can’t see? Cindy asked. – A way out, John Lee replied.

And there is a great scene with a girl and a bear skin (as you all know, this is right up my alley)