Unraveling Oliver: a Novel

Starred review from June 12, 2017
The unfathomable motive behind a seemingly unprovoked attack by children’s book author Oliver Ryan on his wife, Alice, drives Irish author Nugent’s outstanding first novel. To most people, the handsome, charismatic Oliver and the plain, shy Alice appeared to have had a decent marriage for more than 20 years. The relationship was enhanced by Alice being the illustrator for Oliver’s world-renowned kids novels. Despite Oliver’s frequent affairs, he was discreet and the couple enjoyed a comfortable life in Dublin. The narrative alternates between those who knew Oliver and Alice at different times. Family members, friends, and acquaintances seek some clue to what caused Oliver’s brutality as Alice languishes in a coma. Even Oliver seems amazed at his actions because he was “fond of her, in my way,” and appreciative that Alice made no demands on him. The tension subtly rises as Oliver’s past unravels, revealing a loveless childhood rooted in religious hypocrisy. Nugent presents a fresh look at a man hiding his violent personality in this intense character study, which won the Irish Book Award’s Crime Novel of the Year. Agent: Marianne Gunn O’Connor, Marianne Gunn O’Connor Creative Agency.

June 15, 2017
This psychological thriller--a debut novel by an Irish TV and radio writer--is not a whodunit but a why'd-he-do-it.In a seemingly random burst of violence, Oliver Ryan--a children's author with an enviable career and a stable home life--assaults his wife, Alice, during dinner, nearly fatally. Oliver calmly relates his crime in the opening chapter, and then his back story is related by various people in his life, including his half-estranged brother, Philip; Barney, the childhood friend who secretly loves Alice; Michael, the brother of Oliver's now-dead girlfriend, Laura; Moya, the actress neighbor with whom Oliver had an affair; Eugene, Alice's mentally disabled brother; and Veronique, who employed Oliver during a fateful summer when he moved from Ireland to France. The story keeps returning to Oliver's relationship with his father, who banished his son from his life because of his illegitimate birth; and to that French trip, which scarred Oliver for reasons that aren't immediately apparent. While Oliver's story becomes more tragic with each flashback, the reasons for the violent outburst don't become clear until the very end. Despite all the different narrators, the voice doesn't change much except in Eugene's chapter, and because Alice doesn't speak, her relationship with Oliver feels underdeveloped. Though some of the scenes feel at first like digressions, the pieces all wind up fitting together. Unfortunately, the story's big revelation hinges on two characters meeting in a not-quite-plausible way and a piece of information that one of them just happens to blurt out. The book works as a page-turner, but it's surprising that a screenwriter couldn't populate her book with a few more vivid characters.

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July 1, 2017
Secrecy and sadness permeate this rich debut novel by Irish author Nugent, an award-winning radio and TV writer. Named Crime Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, the tale centers on the mysterious, lonely Oliver, an Irish boy and then man who is scarred by his father's rejection and visits that same rejection on all around him. Chapters that are narrated in turns by Oliver, his wife, friends who accompanied Oliver on a fateful working vacation in France when he was a teen, and a member of the French family that became his fixation. This is a successful device, as it allows a puzzle involving the trip to come slowly into view as readers are skillfully given glimpses of events and of the resulting devastation that Oliver so nonchalantly metes out. Catholic-clergy dysfunction and its effects on families feature strongly here, making the thriller a satisfying read-alike for John Boyne's A History of Loneliness (2015).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)