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The time: the late 1960s. The place: a semi-D in a north Dublin suburb where Hilary Fannin, known as Billy, lives with her family. The characters: her artist father, talented, unhappy, unworldly, ironic, hobbled by domesticity; her actress mother, baffled, stylish, thwarted, miserable, hobbled by domesticity; and her older sisters and brother, exotic but distant figures. The story's elements: booze, penury, infidelity (her father's) and, ultimately, eviction. Written in a lucid, crystalline and intoxicating style, Fannin's memoir presents a complex adult world filtered through a child's consciousness. At the centre of this complexity is her father, who takes Billy on visits to his mistress and leaves her playing in one room while he and the woman "work" in another, and thenmakes her promise not to tell. But her father is also the exemplar who helps his daughter become a writer. Hopscotch tells a private story with candour and exactitude, love and understanding, artfulness and wit. Though troubling and disquieting, it is highly recommended.
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