The journalist Rachel Connolly’s incisive debut novel conveys the quiet desperation of a generation facing economic instability and career uncertainty, compounded by the climate crisis. Erin returns home to Belfast after the death of her best friend, Kate. She suspends her degree and accepts a position as an au pair to avoid staying with her mother. At first she finds solace with her old friend Declan – an artist working as a barman – and former boyfriend Mikey, a junior doctor. Then she meets Matt, an American academic with impossibly white teeth. Over a few months, we follow Erin as she numbs herself with drink and drugs. We learn of the physical abuse she endured as a child and also how Kate died.
Lazy City is written in wry, sometimes repetitive prose, reflecting the level of Erin’s intoxication. The bar scenes are fun; each pub has its own ambience. We are given fleeting glimpses of other lives through various drunken encounters and “afters”. Connolly adds immediacy by writing dialogue in italics, tightly woven into the narration.
