At Swim, Two Boys

Jamie O'Neill

2001 • 576 pages

Ratings14

Average rating4.3

Set during the year preceding the Easter Uprising of 1916—Ireland’s brave but fractured revolt against British rule—*At Swim, Two Boys* is a tender, tragic love story and a brilliant depiction of people caught in the tide of history. Powerful and artful, and ten years in the writing, it is a masterwork from Jamie O’Neill.

Jim Mack is a naïve young scholar and the son of a foolish, aspiring shopkeeper. Doyler Doyle is the rough-diamond son—revolutionary and blasphemous—of Mr. Mack’s old army pal. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the nude, the two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter of 1916, they will swim to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves. All the while Mr. Mack, who has grand plans for a corner shop empire, remains unaware of the depth of the boys’ burgeoning friendship and of the changing landscape of a nation.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Lucas

i'm still unable to write a review for this book. i think i love it so much that i'm not sure how to express my thoughts on it without sounding like a lovefool. a couple of months ago i instigated a friend into reading it - and a couple of weeks later i decided to read it again. this review will be our stupid thoughts (not necessarily on the book itself) compiled. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

ramiel ??? 21/06/2023 13:52
GONNA GET AROUND AT SWIM TWO BOYS FIRST LET'S GO
spepp ??? 21/06/2023 15:47

December 4, 2021

Gabriela

BEAUTIFUL. EXQUISITE. PURE. HAPPINESS. SADNESS. BITTERSWEET. LOVABLE. CHARMING. REAL. PERFECT.

February 28, 2014

Simon

I hate DNFing books. I read the first 30 pages of this last night and I'm not sure if this book had anything to do with it, but I had the most fitfull of sleeps, I woke at unimaginable o'clock, tangled in shirt and duvet, pillow damp from the night sweats. Yes I am ill, or maybe hallucinating, the result of eating a whole chocolate orange to myself the night before. I may return to this another day but my mind and body just isn't ready at the moment. To the person who has given me this plague, I wish upon you an eternal itchy anus.

December 29, 2022

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