Juno Loves Legs

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This story takes place in Dublin, under the tutelage of Catholic priests and nuns - extremely harsh and unkind. Juno and Legs will break your heart in the very best way and leave you laughing in spite of yourself. Undeniably bleak but with rays of light and hope from human kindness, this book is an emotional investment, but it's worth it. The Singer sewing machine her mam was forced to pawn before her untimely death becomes a symbol that beckons Juno toward a future of possibilities.

I lay there as long as I could, before shooting up and shaking myself and running through the trees, out onto the main road, breathless towards the library”. It feels derivative to make comments like ‘shades of Shuggie Bain’, and unfair to Geary who I think is really doing his own thing here.If this doesn't get a Booker nod itself, there is no justice - but it will certainly land as one of my top 3 reads of the year. After he is committed to a reform school, Juno moves out and becomes a street walker, sex worker, wandering aimlessly in a Dublin that seems to be out of a Dickens and Joyce novel, its image at odds with anything green or beautiful that Ireland seems to offer.

I immediately got sucked into the wonderful audiobook by Dreamscape Media and narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, who has a lovely, Northern Irish accent.I was astounded at the writing of this empathic character, of how he was created out of pure love, "even horrible people can have their hearts broken" (Geary 241). But their bond grows even closer as they are the only ones who seem to truly know and care for each other, until they are forced apart after an incident, and lose contact for some time, but eventually find each other. Geary finds beauty in the most unlikely places, and in an often brutal story, with more than its fair share of small tragedies, he offers balm along the way; a reminder that humanity is everywhere, if we take the time to look, and a clear demonstration that family is less about genetics and more about love. That all changes one day when Legs, struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality, is harassed by the parish priest because of his sexual inclinations.

Severed from their families by mutual agreement, in a new life littered with sordid squats and deep prejudice, transient figures and seedy bars, they rely on each other to survive. I liked Juno as a bit of a feisty character, and the friendship she has with a gay man is certainly unconventional given the story’s setting and period. His widely acclaimed debut Montpelier Parade was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It is a novel that reminds us that kindness, bravery, and love appear in places where they are not always expected and in forms not usually recognised, but with a potency that cannot be ignored.I do appreciate how the author showed readers two individuals who didn't quite fit in yet fit so perfectly for each other. He brings a place and a time to life in a way that feels authentic, without apologising for its shortcomings but littering the story with glimmers of hope and connection. Poignant to the nth degree; these two luckless souls give in to the magnetic pull of mutual exclusion to find a sense of place and peace in the company of the other. However, the book can be unrelentingly bleak at times, and it can be a bit of a chore to parse given all of the slang that’s used.