Sophisticated Boom Boom
  • Published: 15 April 2004
  • ISBN: 9780099285960
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

Sophisticated Boom Boom

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Aug 2011
Paperback
15 Apr 2004
Buy from…
The Nile Mighty Ape BookHub Whitcoulls The Warehouse Paper Plus Fishpond Book Hero Unity Books University Book Shop Find Local Retailers

'John Kelly is an immensely gifted writer - he can do things with the spoken language that are rare to behold and behear' - Tom Paulin

In Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the seventies, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon and his trusted friend Spit Maguire stand under lampposts waiting to be overtaken by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black leather jacket...

Sophisticated Boom Boom is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders. Crucially, though, this is a love letter to the period and the place, and to the liberating, healing power of music that galvanises and transforms.
  • Published: 15 April 2004
  • ISBN: 9780099285960
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

About the author

John Kelly

John Kelly was born in 1965 in County Fermanagh. He works as a writer and broadcaster mainly for RTE and The Irish Times. He is the author of The Little Hammer (2000) and Sophisticated Boom Boom (2003). Married with one daughter, he lives in Dublin.

Also by John Kelly

A Healing Place
The Little Hammer
See all

Praise for Sophisticated Boom Boom

A witty, inventive, exhilarating novel

Guardian

Wonderful...Very Touching

Elvis Costello

A universally applicable evocation of male adolescence...and of the gifts that music brings

William Gibson

Witty and well observed and, on the subject of music, inspiring

Sunday Tribune

Kelly communicates a deep love for the simple and profound influence of music

Big Issue

Kelly has proved that he is one of Ireland's best emerging talents with a substantial gift for comic writing

Irish News

Rich in familiar horrors but full of weird surprises

Observer