I heard a lot about Barry and was psyched to read something of his, but I'm a little underwhelmed by this and unsure how to review it. Is it Joyce in cahoots with the Fantastic? I never enjoyed Joyce much. Beatlebone is a multifaceted book about many things not least the complexities of unresolved trauma and like the rest of us, Barry is trying to reconcile the past. His vehicle here is the consciousness of John Lennon. Lennon purchased an island in Clew Bay in the 60s. In the book, he tries to reach it in order to scream out - a la Arthur Janov - his childhood angst. There are some beautifully descriptive passages and Barry is a great humorist, and a gifted and intuitive prosaist, which means he could have written this without the sexism, the vulgarity and the derogation of the people of the Western seaboard.