Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

Published 2024 · 352 pages · 89,630 words · about 8 hours at an average pace

How hard is Evenings and Weekends to read?

Evenings and Weekends scores 64 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
The vocabulary is contemporary and literary, but avoids obscurity. There are occasional instances of British slang ('AWOL,' 'banger') and some references to cultural figures (Theresa May, Stevie Nicks) that might require some context for non-British readers. Overall, the language is accessible and doesn't present a significant barrier to understanding, placing it slightly above *Pedro Paramo* in complexity.
Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
The sentences vary in length and structure, with a mix of short, declarative statements and longer, more descriptive passages. While there are some instances of complex sentences with multiple clauses, they are generally navigable and don't reach the level of hypotaxis found in *The Golden Bowl*. The writing style is more complex than *The Great Gatsby*, but less demanding than *2666*.
Abstraction: 68 out of 100
The narrative is grounded in the everyday lives of the characters, but it frequently delves into their internal thoughts, anxieties, and desires. The text explores themes of love, loss, identity, and the search for meaning in a modern urban environment. This blend of concrete narrative and introspective reflection places it above *The Great Gatsby* but below *Brothers Karamazov* in terms of abstraction.
Information density: 68 out of 100
The text is rich in detail, both in terms of character development and setting. The narrative explores multiple plotlines and relationships, requiring the reader to keep track of various characters and their motivations. While not as dense as *War and Peace*, the book demands more attention than *The Great Gatsby* due to its multiple perspectives and interwoven storylines.
Narrative indirection: 70 out of 100
The narrative relies heavily on implication and inference, particularly regarding the characters' inner lives and motivations. The reader must piece together the unspoken tensions and desires that drive their actions. This approach is similar to *Lolita*, where the reader must read against the narrator's biases to understand the full picture.
Symbolic density: 60 out of 100
The text employs recurring motifs and symbols, such as the whale in the Thames, the earth beneath London, and the image of the city itself. These symbols carry meaning beyond their literal representation, adding layers of interpretation to the narrative. While not as overtly symbolic as *Moby-Dick*, the book invites the reader to consider the deeper significance of these recurring elements, placing it above *To Kill a Mockingbird*.
Ironic distance: 65 out of 100
The narrative maintains a degree of ironic distance, particularly in its portrayal of the characters' aspirations and anxieties. The text invites the reader to both sympathize with and critique their choices and behaviors. This balance of sympathy and critique is similar to *The Great Gatsby*, where the narrator's perspective shapes the reader's understanding of the characters and their world.
Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
The narrative leaves several questions unanswered, particularly regarding the characters' futures and the ultimate outcome of their relationships. The ending is open to interpretation, inviting the reader to consider the unresolved tensions and ambiguities that permeate their lives. This withholding of resolution is similar to *Lolita*, where the aftermath is known, but the meaning remains open.
Structural complexity: 60 out of 100
The narrative employs multiple points of view and shifts in time, requiring the reader to navigate a fragmented chronology. The story unfolds through the perspectives of several characters, each with their own unique voice and perspective. While not as structurally complex as *Midnight's Children*, the book demands more attention than *The Great Gatsby* due to its multiple perspectives and interwoven storylines.

How Evenings and Weekends is regarded

Evenings and Weekends holds a literary regard score of 15 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Evenings and Weekends sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (165 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Evenings and Weekends scores 72 out of 100. A second mythos, comedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.25. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
Ed Seymour, a good man, a normal man, a man with a pregnant girlfriend, is certain that he’s hallucinating.
Symbol: Formal
Everywhere Ed looks, someone is having the best day of their life. Everywhere he looks, there’s someone in terrible agony.
Mythos: Irony and Satire iv (tragic pathos) (irony iv)
It all ends the same: the road gets built.
Genre: Novel + Anatomy
Up and down the street, people buy hair extensions, phone chargers, SIM cards, baklawa, cheap houseplants from the Chinese supermarket, diamante mirrors, fibre-optic Big Bens, and sparkling silver tigers from the glistening homeware emporiums.

Where the story of Evenings and Weekends takes place

  • A summer weekend in London, 2018, the main setting
  • Dublin, Rosaleen and Pauline, to Pauline's death (1970 to 1981)
  • East London, Rosaleen as a young Irish migrant and Steve's family (1979)
  • Basildon schooldays: Kent trip, the laneway, the eggs (2006 to 2009)
  • London heatwave, June 2019, with Basildon and a Dublin trip to follow

5 things that are true of Evenings and Weekends, with the passage for each

  1. The whale is a northern bottlenose, five metres long and twelve tonnes in weight.

    a northern bottlenose whale to be precise. Five metres in length, twelve tonnes of shuddering blubber and bone

  2. Maggie's Dalston flat costs five hundred pounds a month.

    I only pay five-hundred pounds a month!

  3. The marine biologist tells a boy the whale died from its own weight.

    She was crushed by the weight of her own body.

  4. Rosaleen's prognosis, after treatment, is no more than six months.

    Even at that, she might have no more than six months.

  5. Pauline's headstone gives her dates as 1959 to 1981.

    Pauline, beloved sister and daughter, 1959–1981.

Scenes in Evenings and Weekends that Frye would name

26 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Pharmakos, untitled
It points its finger in accusation. No one is innocent in the whale’s unblinking eyes. The stranded whale is the city's scapegoat and accuser at once.
Pathos, untitled
That’s what killed her – the weight of her own body. The whale's death on the barge off Margate is the book's sacrificial scene.
Anagnorisis, untitled
Phil almost laughs: he and Ed had been pursuing the same man. The station toilet recognition turns the weekend toward concealment.
Hamartia, untitled
and then he took an egg from the box, and he walked up to Phil, and he didn’t just throw the egg at him, he mashed it into the top of his head with a thump. Ed's betrayal of Phil to protect himself is the fatal misstep that shadows his life.
Anagnorisis, untitled
We did stuff. When we were younger. Before I knew you. Ed's confession gives Maggie the pivotal revelation and drives the breakup.
Lyric, untitled
She sings as if Cher herself was wailing from deep down inside of her belly. An embedded song moment: Rosaleen's karaoke of 'Believe'.

Books that share these scenes with Evenings and Weekends

About the author

Oisín McKenna