Why this book: Recommended to me by my son Brad

Summary in 3 Sentences: Colin Broderick recounts his life grwoing up in Northern Ireland from his earliest memories as a child to about age 20 when he decides to leave Nortern Ireland and emigrate to America.  His story is infused with the humor of growing up in a very Catholic small town in Ireland, going to strict Irish-Catholic schools led by narrow minded and very traditional teachers, into puberty and the rebelliousness of adolescence and young adulthood. Throughout the book there is the constant backdrop of “the troubles” between the British supported Protestants and the Catholics who were treated as a subversive underclass in Northern Ireland – and this tension grew in importance in Broderick’s life as he became a teenager and young adult. 

My Impressions: An interesting and very personal account of what life was like in the 1980s and early 1990s in Northern Ireland for a high energy young man – with the ever present sense of being discriminated against as a second class citizen in one’s own county. It is a coming of age story which includes many of the awkward instances I and most young men in the West can identify with, but in a world that is hard for many of us to relate to – very Catholic family and community, very strict Catholic schooling, and the bitter violence between the Protestant British Northern Ireland government and the Catholic minority.

The first third of the book reminded me of Angela’s Ashes.  Colin Broderick is a young boy growing up in a small town in Ireland, but whereas Angela’s Ashes has the ever-presenst negative backdrop of poverty and alcoholism, in That’s That,  this negative backdrop is the violence between Protestants and Catholics in a Protestant dominated country. The middle third of the book focuses on his sexual awakening, dealing with puberty in a very traditional Catholic household, in which his parents – especially his mother – were very restrictive on his freedom to become part of the adolescent culture of partying and dancing and dating. 

In the final third of the book Broderick is now an older teenager and young adult, and actively rebelling against his parents’ restrictions on his social life.  As soon as he can, he leaves home, connects with other angry young men,  and like them, over indulges in the vices of alcohol and drugs and rebellious behavior.  He eventually leaves home, goes to work in London and gets involved in petty crime and dealing drugs to wealthy Englishmen.    During his youth, he had passively absorbed the rage of his community against the discrimination and violence of Protestants against Catholics; as he got older it was natural for him to suport and slowly become engaged with those active in insurgent activity in Northern Ireland.  His secret associations with petty crime and life in the underground took him deeper and deeper into the dangerous territory of becoming an insurrectionist and terrorist himself. 

This is also a morality tale.  Broderick clearly has a sense of humanity, but his mother’s efforts to shape him into a good, well behaved Catholic boy backfired, as he thoroughly rebelled against her efforts to make him a well behaved young man.    But her efforts left in their wake a strong sense of guilt at anything that smacked of sin in a traditional Catholic culture.  “No! and that’s that” was how his mother routinely responded when he argued against her denial of his requests to join his friends at a party or dance, or go see a girl he wanted to see.   As soon as he could, he sought the freedom to experience the forbidden fruit of adolescent fun, but he couldn’t quite shake the guilt and sense of sin that he acquired during his strict Catholic upbringing. He tries to suppress the guilt but it is always there, along with his basic sense of goodness and humanity.  But he continues to rebel, and his split identity is difficult for him to reconcile.  That said, he is naturally drawn to the excitement and sense of purpose and community that he experiences when joining those fighting the Protestant system..  

This is a book about growing up, and is an example of how many young men and women over-react in rebelling against strict parenting.   And we learn much about the deeply ingrained anger and bitterness between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.  This book inspired me to go online and investigate the current state of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Apparently progress has been made in the last 25 years to bring these two communities closer together, but ALOT of distrust continues to exist. The good news is that violence between the two has largely abated and “the Troubles” as such are a thing of the70s, 80s, and 90s.  

This book is  followed by a sequel, Orangutan,  in which Broderick describes his life after moving to NYC. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve been told that in NYC, he continues his self-destructive behavior – but survives until he finally gains some wisdom.