I think I found Skippy Dies (2010), Paul Murray‘s second novel, through an interview with Marlon James.
The title describes the action of the opening chapter, which is an interesting structure: we know, immediately, that Skippy–the erstwhile protagonist–does indeed die. But we don’t know why or what led up to it, and the rest of the novel traces the intertwined narratives leading up to and following Skippy’s demise.
Skippy is a boarder at a moderately wealthy private school in Dublin; other major characters include his fellow classmates, a few teachers, and some young women from the neighboring girls’ school.
The themes are fairly predictable from the setting: the competitive, aggressive, and occasionally surprisingly sweet relationships of teenagers; moments when high school debauchery threatens to spill over into more serious criminality; the confusions and manipulations between love and lust; the disillusions of some teachers and the passions of others.
The story is all well done, and occasionally quite memorable. The cadre of teenage boys are especially well managed, as is the initial relationship between the lead teacher and his American girlfriend. Ultimately, though, what sets the novel apart is the revealed structure. This is not Dead Poets Society: there is no conquering moment here, no teenage triumphalism, no endearing life lesson. After all, Skippy dies.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
Murray pulls together a lot of themes related to courage, truth, and conviction, ranging from moments of individual bravery and cowardice to the relationship of the generations in the novel to those that came before to the importance of the sins of the past for characters in the present. It’s all skillfully presented, without being overly obvious or didactic.