"But as he stood and brushed his hands against his trousers, I had the feeling I'd taken something very big from him. Like he'd seen I was missing a leg, so he'd lopped his own one off and gave it to me."
" 'F***ing Americans,' I said quietly.
Why did they always have to go reviving everything? Martin looked at me distastefully, which I knew was probably because any curse on the Americans was really a blaspheme against Elvis. He shook his head at me slowly."
Behold the genius of The Outside Boy. From the point of view of an adolescent boy-Irish Traveller (gypsy) in the late 1950's, you get beautifully seriousness metaphors about his complicated relationship with his dad, and hilariously serious narration about the most important things to boys his age: girls and Elvis. Christy, as the boy is called, is also searching for the truth about his mother, who apparently died in childbirth, and trying to fit into a town for the first time in his life. It's classic coming of age, but in a different setting than I've ever imagined.
I think it's interesting that there is so much, well, interest, in all manner of gypsies these days. The TV reality series"My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" on TLC was kind of horrifying, but it marks a renewed curiosity about this way of life. This book, published in 2010, piggybacks on that. It treats the Travelling culture (really, with two l's, I checked) carefully, portraying it as wonderful for its freedom and pitiable for its poverty and subsequent "need" for thievery. I don't really know enough about the recent or modern gypsy culture to have an opinion, but I do want to find out more now.
I liked this book. Christy is a very appealing character, and there's a bit of a mystery, accents (my favorite!), and anthropology. And no wonder--this was actually recommended to me, rather than picked at random off the library shelves. I will pay it forward and recommend it to you!
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