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At Swim, Two Boys
By Jamie O'Neill
Scribner Press
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Jamie O'Neill has created a book that is too short at 572 pages. Although the arc of its narrative, a year in Ireland that climaxes with the Easter Rebellion of 1916, is satisfying, At Swim, Two Boys will leave readers with regret as they turn the last page. That's because the lure of its characters is so strong: Jim Mack, Doyler Doyle, and Anthony MacMurrough are at the center of the novel, but a host of others commands our attention whenever the story turns their way.

Jim is the son of a shopkeeper struggling mightily to enter the middle class; Mr. Mack sees in his bookish boy a valuable asset in his schemes for "getting the Macks on the up." Those best-laid-plans are challenged by Doyler, the desperately poor son of a drunken ex-soldier. Doyler rouses in Jim Mack feelings the naive scholar can't find an explanation for, either in his books or in the world around him.

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MacMurrough, the disgraced scion of the local landed gentry, newly returned from England and a prison term for sodomy, not only has the words to explain Jim's feelings­ he shares them. Taking advantage of his wealth and class, he first seduces Doyler, then falls in love with him and finally, with excruciating difficulty, befriends him. Even more than Doyler himself, the nascent relationship between Jim and Doyler kindles in MacMurrough a fascination that's both erotic and sentimental.

O'Neill provides a wealth of descriptive detail: Irish culture and history, life in the British army, the pleasure and practice of distance swimming, the love just beginning to dare to speak it's name, and much more. At Swim, Two Boys is a wonderful book with many and varied gifts for the reader.