About the Book
Aidan Collins has always been an outsider, a weirdo, an oddball. But the arrival of his worldly, urbane cousin Dan, changes his life completely. Dan introduces Aidan to alcohol, to girls, to a life beyond the four walls of his bedroom, and eventually, to the night out to end all nights out in Dublin.
What he sees in the capital, what he’s exposed to, also changes Aidan’s life, but not in a good way. A scene behind a closed door haunts him, torments him, leaving behind scars which may never heal.
Format: ebook (518 pages) Publisher:
Publication date: 30th January 2024 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
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My Review
Simon Bourke’s first book, And The Birds Kept On Singing published in 2017, is one I frequently recommend as deserving more attention. It’s one of those books that only has a few reviews but those it has are overwhelmingly positive. So I was delighted when Simon got in touch to let me know he had published his second novel. You can read my Q&A with Simon about A Place Without Pain here.
The author really gets under the skin of the book’s narrator, Aidan Collins. It’s fair to say he’s a troubled soul, crippled with anxiety that means he hides away in his bedroom for much of the time, playing computer games, watching films or porn. It’s his way of escaping from a world which frankly frightens him, where he feels he doesn’t fit in. Although intelligent, he’s never had a job, relying instead on welfare payments. His solution to problems or challenging situations is to ignore them or run away from them. ‘Everyone hates you. You’d better not go out. Stay here where it’s safe.’ When opportunities do present themselves he often wastes them, leaving him filled with self-loathing at his own failures.
You’d think from this that Aidan is a pretty unlikeable character but, in the hands of the author, you can’t help rooting for him even if at times you’re left completely exasperated by his actions. My overriding feeling was one of sadness particularly when just as it seems things are looking up something happens to propel him back into misery. There were moments I wanted to cheer and others where I found myself thinking, ‘Oh, Aidan, Aidan, why are you doing that?’. Sadly, the latter were more frequent than the former.
The traumatic event Aidan witnesses on a rare night out is a psychological scar he carries throughout his life. He’s plagued with guilt about what he did, or rather didn’t do. He should have been a hero, instead he knows he was a coward. It sort of epitomises what his life has been like. In an effort to bury the memories of what he witnessed, to find the place without pain of the book’s title, he turns to alcohol and drugs. They welcome him with a warm embrace. ‘I was a child of the drink now’. For a long time his days are one long round of visits to the off-licence and drinking himself into a stupor. His parents are either passively complicit or unable to find a way to modify his behaviour. The drink doesn’t stop the pain or his feelings of despair and utter worthlessness. As he observes, ‘the booze was proving an abusive parent.’
Only a chance encounter stops him from taking an irrevocable step. It sets him on a new path, one which offers the promise of turning his life around if only he can break the cycle of self-destructive behaviour. But maybe believing yourself to be a hero is just as dangerous as believing yourself a failure.
Aidan’s story is an emotional rollercoaster with slow ascents followed by dizzying drops. It will take you to dark places and includes some scenes that are difficult to read. The epitome of a character-led book, A Place Without Pain is a hard-hitting story of loneliness and the struggle to overcome your demons.
My thanks to the author for my digital review copy.
In three words: Powerful, gritty, moving
About the Author
Simon is a journalist by day and an author by night (and occasionally on the weekends). If given the choice he would be an author by day, night, weekends, and everything in between, but he must persevere with the journalism while he waits for his books to become best-sellers. He currently lives in County Wexford. A Place Without Pain is his second novel.
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