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Colm Herron
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The Wake: And What Jeremiah Did Next Kindle Edition

by Colm Herron (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings
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The year is 1968. Jeremiah Coffey is a twenty-seven-year-old teacher -- Catholic, conservative and plagued by guilt on account of his relationship with a beautiful bisexual called Aisling O'Connor.

Aisling is everything that Jeremiah is not -- feisty and radical, angry and committed. She is a leading figure in the Irish civil rights movement and is planning to help organize a potentially explosive protest march inspired by the US black civil rights activists' Selma to Montgomery marches of three years before. The scene is set for a brutal confrontation to match the 1965 Bloody Sunday in Selma.




categories: Romance, Literary, Civil Rights, LGBT, Irish Troubles, Religion, Humor
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  1. Print length
    225 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    November 3, 2015
  5. File size
    1451 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Colm Herron's first writing career began at the age of seven when he sold his vampire stories to classmates. Two years later he was telling cliffhangers to the wasters in the local gambling hall. Colm's abiding memory is that these guys seemed to enjoy this weekly break from misspending their lives. When he was fifteen he had a play on BBC and later brought his short stories to Brian Friel, an emerging playwright. Friel said "Great. This stuff's better than what I wrote at your age." But Colm was unimpressed and thought "Friel's going nowhere. I don't know why I came to him at all." So Colm gave up writing, deciding to live instead. Meanwhile Friel took off and, while his plays were showing worldwide for the next thirty years, stories were kicking and turning in Colm's head. But they still weren't ready to come out. Till twelve years ago, that is, when he said to himself "OK, I've lived. Maybe it's time to do the other thing." And so began his second writing career...

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B017CCHRNG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (November 3, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 3, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1451 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1495299732
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings

About the author

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Colm Herron

Colm Herron

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Colm Herron was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland and is the author of six novels, including Further Adventures of James Joyce. His first novel, For I Have Sinned, proved to be a trailblazer for Channel 4’s instant sitcom classic Derry Girls, currently on Netflix. Colm's fiction has received stunning reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and he has been invited to read at festivals and bookstores far and wide, including Hammersmith Cultural Centre, London, James Joyce's Martello Tower in Sandycove, County Dublin, as well as at the world's largest arts festival The Edinburgh Fringe. One of his novels, The Wake (and What Jeremiah Did Next), recently won Bookoftheday.org's Summer Award for best drama, and his essays and columns have frequently appeared in online culture magazines The Wild Geese and Facts and Arts. Ever the enterprising storyteller, Colm got his start at the ripe age of seven, stitching and selling handwritten stories, a penny a piece, to his primary school classmates. Later he began honing his narrative skills telling cliffhangers at the local gambling hall -- a venture that proved somewhat less lucrative, but shaped him all the same. Colm lives and writes in his hometown of Derry.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
109 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jonathan McCreedy
5.0 out of 5 stars 'The Wake' (a nod to the nickname for Joyce's final ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2014
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'The Wake' (a nod to the nickname for Joyce's final novel 'Finnegans Wake' - cf. Herron's own 'Further Adventures of James Joyce) is a departure from his first three novels: the autobiografiction of 'For I Have Sinned'; the metatextual and experimental 'Further Adventures'; and the Realistic historical novel 'The Fabricator'. 'The Wake' is by far his most accessible and light read: the title stating tersely its two part structure. Part 1: 'The Wake' (the hero attends, and organises a Wake) and 'What Jeremiah Did Next' (which is, precisely that. What he did after the 'Wake'). Within the first section, Herron contributes to the Irish literary tradition of 'Wake' writing (cf. Anne Enright's 'The Gathering' - although Herron's work is far superior) but his work is unique, and defines and details the unique 'Derry' Wake. The dialect is heavy, (mind you, the 'Wile Big Derry Phrase Book' can be an effective translator) but Herron writes in a style not intended to confuse but to make his text as authentic and realistic as possible (with its aesthetic of making Irish speech poetic, the Hiberno-English in Synge's work is identical in style). The second section (in a brave authorial step by Herron) is a complete retelling of the 'Long March' section of 'The Fabricator'; a plotline that reveals itself to us slowly, and its experimental stylistic concept (basically , that it is a 'retread', albeit the famous historical event is now told from Jeremiah's perspective), lends itself well to Herron's highly amusing dialogue and dark "Troubles Literature" subject matter. Overall, it's highly commendable (like all of his novels) on both of its reading levels: swift accessible pure comic fiction and academic literature that deserves inclusion into the Irish contemporary 'canon'.
9 people found this helpful
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Uvi Poznansky
5.0 out of 5 stars This wake is a literary feast
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2016
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True to the morbid nature of its title, The Wake: And What Jeremiah Did Next is a book that uses wry, black humor for its storytelling. Paying homage to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (a book which earned its reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language) Colm Herron enlivens his stream of consciousness story with a signature conversational style. His character talks directly to you, using an authentic dialect and a down-to-earth Irish wit, all of which brought me to laughter and tears at many passages. The presence of death sharpens his pen, and allows it to accentuate the his attitude towards politics and social conventions of the living in Ireland 1968.

The contrasts are drawn as sharply as can be between the main characters: guilt-ridden, conservative Jeremiah Coffey, his bisexual girlfriend Aisling, who is a leading figure in the Irish civil rights movement. She is organizing a protest march, and the descriptions of it are shockingly real and gritty. “A girl was on the ground in front of us out for the count and this bullnecked man was still laying into her with something that looked like the leg of a chair.”

This wake is a literary feast. Five stars.
4 people found this helpful
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Flann O'Brien's Wife
4.0 out of 5 stars Three in a bed wakes and civil rights … oops, forgot a comma!
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2014
Look, it's November and the nights are fair drawing in. Do yourself a favour and get a copy of this book, curl up in a comfortable chair, pour yourself a glass of whatever you fancy and prepare to be entertained. Herron will transport you straight into the heart of a fake-wake in Derry in the early 70s, guide you through the hypocrisy of neigbours mourning for a woman none of them liked and twisting themselves out of shape in an attempt to present their best face to the self-obsessed priests who show up. Kavanagh told us in Tarry Flynn that 'a man's mother can be a terrible burden on him sometimes', but Jeremiah escapes his domestic torture for a much more pleasurable type of torture in the welcoming (and often bound) arms of Aisling, a beautiful, free-spirited, sexually-liberated Derry woman who is mixed up in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, and mixed-up in various other ways as well. As her re-instated boyfriend, Jeremiah accompanies Aisling and her girlfriend on the seminal civil rights march from Belfast to Derry, feet blisters conspiring to separate them just before the state-sponsored ambush at Burntollet. Herron's ear for the cadences of Derry speech is unmatched, and his obvious delight in setting down its patterns and using them to let his characters tell their stories will be shared by the reader who will probably consume the whole bottle of wine and this hilarious novel in one sitting.
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Alicia Britton
5.0 out of 5 stars The road to hell is paved with good intentions...
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2014
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Maud’s dead and the mixed bag of characters at her wake aren’t likely to miss her. They have their own “troubles.” In a world that’s modernizing and leaving God behind, Northern Ireland remains in a state of controversy and confusion. Premarital sex is bad, Catholic priests deserve reverence under any circumstances, drinking to excess is acceptable–sometimes, depending on who you ask–and bloodshed is welcome as long as God is the reason. Oh, and let’s not forget that homosexuality is for heathens. So what is Jeremiah to do? He may be outwardly polite and slow to anger, but his debilitating obsession is Aisling, his bisexual on-again, off-again girlfriend. He’d follow her to hell if he has to (and he almost does), and along the way he pours a wee bit of whiskey, has a few laughs, begrudgingly tolerates Audrey, Aisling’s lesbian lover, and then Frances’s know-it-all ways and massive derriere, all for pleasure he considers the closest thing to heaven.

Colm Herron’s “The Wake” is a hilarious reminder that even a devotion to God can’t negate the fact that we’re all human. And when our habits are scrutinized and discussed in detail by our bored friends, relatives, and neighbors, no one, not even the Father Swindells of the world will come out wearing a halo.
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Top reviews from other countries

Geoff Nelder
5.0 out of 5 stars Where James Joyce meets Father Ted
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2016
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A few quotes that tickled me but while remembering this novel is set in dire times. Black humour then, and we all need that.
“Somebody told me Maud died intestate,” Seamus was saying.
“Where’s that then?” said Willie Henry.
“I sit at home with Mammy and look at TV. A man could grow old this way. On Friday with watch the Late Late Show. Stupid name of course because it’s not late late, it’s not even late. It starts at half nine and ends at eleven or so when the night’s only starting.”
In among the hilarity is serious philosophy and historical angst re the Irish Troubles and religion: “...The absent presence of God’s supposed to be the thing keeps the churches going and it’s nothing but an absence of course, all it is is a pretense of a presence that isn’t there at all.” Love the wordplay.
The protest march, like all of them turns out to be a comedy / tragedy of errors. Brutes use such occasions as an excuse for brutality against the intellectual and passionate naiveté. Been on the blunt end myself at Orgreave in 1984. Me a radical young teacher supporting South Yorkshire miners on strike against Maggie Thatcher, the right wing Brit Prime Minister. I’d went to uni and taught in the area so had a kind of meeting of minds, or so I thought. Wrong but only in emphasis.
“Some girl... was calling Derry the capital of injustice. Clever that. Bit of an exaggeration but still, speechmaker’s license.” Love and the Church played their part in Derry – not obvious all the time – one with passion, the other delusion. Well played out in The Wake.
Not so much a road trip as a protest march as told from the in step. As the author says in the afterword, a writer sees more than what is happening and knows that a work of fiction is often needed to exemplify the truth. Quite fascinating.
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L.V. Lloyd
5.0 out of 5 stars An earthy yarn!
Reviewed in Australia on October 19, 2014
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From the moment Maud Harrigan drops dead at the kitchen table - in the first sentence - you want to find out what happens next. Full of tears, sweat and other bodily fluids, The Wake (And What Jeremiah Did Next) is an earthy yarn about ordinary people trying to live their lives amongst the protests and violence of Northern Ireland in the 1960s.
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Richard Cox
5.0 out of 5 stars Farce and love intermingle during The Troubles
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2018
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A line of people sit facing the open coffin of the woman who lived next door. A silent, noxious fart fills the air with a miasma of rotting abdominal gas. The mourners lean forward: is it true what they say about dead people relaxing all their muscles some time after their last breath?
That is not a ‘spoiler’: it is a précis of a passage that has all the mesmeric style of Irish literature. It captures a moment and paints a three-dimensional work of sublime art.
The Wake is a beautifully penned, laugh out loud, literally masterful book. It’s a cross between the lightest James Joyce, and the genius’s wonderful way with descriptions, and Eric Morecambe’s bitingly incisive comic wit, which hurt no-one and targeted everyone. Colm Herron is light years ahead of the mallet-bashing Irish ‘comedy’ infecting our TV screens: his intelligence, observation and literary skills are ideally suited to the written page.
The neighbour’s wake is just the start of a madly euphoric dash through Northern Ireland’s troublesome ‘The Troubles’, with a constant thread of farce. His obsessive relationship with one character leads to threesomes and twosomes, but, like a formation of clouds covering the land and blocking the blazing honesty of the sun’s rays is the church, and neither Catholic nor Protestant escape unscathed.
The Wake is a great read. The use of language is tight and direct and while the story begins with death and involves raw violence, there is always the hope that life will get back to normal.
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K Magee
4.0 out of 5 stars It's a shame that someone has to die...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2014
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Irish folk enjoy a good wake, it's just a shame that someone has to die... although sometimes the death isn't actually such a bad thing.

The story, set in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 70s immerses us in a wake (a sandwich-powered, craic-filled, drink-fuelled funeral party) and introduces us to a wide variety of engaging characters who remind us of times long-past... discussions about politics, religion and sex abound. The tale is told by Jeremiah, a young man who has already been smitten by love... but Aisling, his love interest, has other things on her mind!

I'm not a great fan of the vernacular, but Colm Herron hits the dialect nail on the head. His writing style drags you into the story... by the end of it I felt I'd been to the wake myself and I think I had a bit of a Derry accent to go along with my hangover.

I loved The Wake; the characters are immense and humour bubbles out of every fractured relationship. This is a memorable book, although some of the memories weren't particularly pleasant... a kissing incident early on in the story imprinted itself in my mind and I wish it hadn't. It's as well there were plenty of laugh out loud moments all through the book to push that particular memory to the back of my brain.
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Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars The Wake - a seriously funny book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2014
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Colm Herron is a master of the building joke - that is, one that gradually adds layers until the final, explosive punchline. This book is splattered with laugh-out-loud gems that stay with you, and this in a novel split into two halves, the first about a Wake, the second about a political march. Funny material? Only in the right hands.
It is also, for all its political erudition, seriously Rabelaisian, filled with sexual and toilet humour. And herein lies its genius - the subtleties of the troubled period in which it's set are woven so beautifully into the fabric of the book so that it's easy to read and gain a flavour of the times. My grasp of the era is far less informed than poor old Jeremiah's, but I came away feeling enlightened with a sense of empathy, but still chortling.
Herron also has an acute ear for the sounds of his countrymen and women. It's no easy task to make authentic dialect accessible to those not used to it. And through this crackling dialogue comes a critique of the Catholic church that only an insider would be able to portray. Let them condemn themselves, is his approach - hold a mirror up and let all those who care to look see the reality.
Any novel that can move you from tears of sympathy to those of humour in a paragraph has to be worth a read.
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