WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE AWARD 2020
From the author of This Is Memorial Device.
'A gasp-inducing thrill of a ride.' i Independent
'An exhilarating novel, burning with rage, danger and dark humour.' Literary Review
'Remarkable . . . demented brilliance.' Scotland on Sunday
Belfast, 1970s: Sammy and his three friends live in an impoverished area of the city that has become the epicentre of a country seemingly intent on cannibalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a good drink, and the songs of Perry Como, whose commitment to clean living holds up a dissonant mirror to their own attempts to rise above their circumstances. They dream of a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising.
But For the Good Times is not just a novel about the IRA. It is about the heartbreak and devastation that commitment to 'the cause' can bring; of violence and betrayal, breakdown and rebirth.
Sammy and his three friends are country boys from Armagh, the disputed borderlands of a country cannbalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a drink, and a night on the town singing Perry Como's classics. Their dream is a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising.
Heading for Belfast - ground zero of the Troubles - they find themselves in the incongruous position of running a comic book shop by day. Their clandestine activities belong in the x-rated pages of graphic fiction: burglary, blackmail, extortion, torture, and murder. No criminal act is too taboo for these boys.
But when punk rock arrives and the hard edge of the decade starts to reveal its true paranoid colours, Sammy finds himself increasingly isolated. Camaraderie and loyalty is the fuel of a terrorist cell. When those virtues prove faulty, the game is up - and Sammy's world starts to radically shrink.
For the Good Times shouts and sings with visionary intensity and gallows humour. It is not just a book about the IRA, but an exploration of what it means to 'go rogue', and the heartbreak and devastation that commitment to 'the cause' can engender. It unpacks any dewy-eyed romance associated with the Troubles, and establishes David Keenan as one of our generation's most fearless and entertaining literary stylists.
