Review of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

“The detail is intimate, accurate, even, almost as if the cast had been moulded over his body. The neat ball of fat in his middle. The slight raise of his right shoulder. A doughiness about the jaw. She looks at his face, afraid she will see fear or pain, but he looks just as he did when he was sleeping. ”

— Louise Kennedy

Ever since I saw Belfast in a movie theater when it first came out, I’ve been interested in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

I feel like I’ve never learned Irish history formally, so when I saw Belfast for the first time, I was utterly fascinated with the historical context juxtaposed against the autobiographical elements that Branaugh had inserted from his own experiences.

I've never had the time these days, being a busy graduate student who works multiple jobs, to sit down with a book and expose myself to the complex reasons behind it and their origins, but I do like to read fiction for fun. So one day when I was with a friend at a bookstore nearby, I saw this cover and was compelled by it immediately.

Then I read the book jacket and knew I wanted to read it. But, being the master procrastinator I am, I ended up reading it months after that experience, when I got off the waitlist at the library. I sat down one Saturday as a form of self-care and just read all day, and this book was one of the books I finished in one sitting. With that said, onwards with this review!

In the midst of the Troubles, a young woman begins an affair that could be deadly.

Our protagonist in Trespasses is Cushla, a young woman who teaches at the school in the day.

As mentioned before, the novel takes place during the Troubles of Ireland, so many of the chapters start with talking about who’s died that day and what caused their death. Cushla lives with her mother outside of Belfast, and her family owns a small pub.

She sometimes works there during the evenings to help out, but it is there when she runs into Michael Agnew, a barrister who has become involved with the politics behind the Troubles. He’s married with kids, and his job particularly runs with defending members of the IRA, making him a potential target for those involved against those politics.

Despite her better judgement, Cushla finds a lot of excitement in the prospect of dating him, despite knowing he’s married, and the two end up engaging in a very steamy affair throughout the book.

This is juxtaposed against Cushla’s life as a teacher, where she helps out a kid who’s isolated from the rest of the class and comes from a poorer background, her life with her family, and just generally what’s going on in the background. Her relationship with Davy, one of her students, is particularly compelling, as he comes from a mixed Catholic and Protestant family and is a target because of it.

At the beginning of the novel, it seems like what’s happening is just some for the television, but by the end, the consequences are very real and impact everyone who was watching before.

Trespasses does end on a particularly sad note, and while I don’t want to completely spoil the ending for those who haven’t read it, Cushla begins to feel like she is the source of many problems for people, leading to death and the child protection services coming in because her attempt at helping didn’t actually help.

Even when we skip to the present day at the end of the novel, when Cushla is much older and the children she once taught full-grown adults with their own kids, one can never forget the events that happened to them in their youth.

This isn’t a novel where one is supposed to agree with the main character at all times I think. You can disagree with her actions and see how the consequences unfold for her, but then the novel is really intending to capture the mood of a period as well.

One can see how the fallout from her actions can completely destroy her life and the people around her, and there’s a lot of pain and sadness tucked into this little novel. This isn’t intended to be an easy read at all because of the difficult nature of the subject.

Overall Thoughts

I think this is a novel if you think you’re vaguely interested in this topics that one should read.

There are definitely some trigger warnings attached to it due to the sheer nature of some of what’s going on in the background, so be mindful of your mental health when reading these kinds of books.

But the prose in this one is really good—I found it to be crisp, full of life. I imagined these characters could be very real people living in Northern Ireland at the time, and there are some details and prose that will make you go wow if you’re paying attention to the writing. I enjoyed the novel overall, but might not find myself rereading it again.

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