Juno Loves Legs

Product Information

When misfit Juno, as handy with her fists as she is with her backchat, defends fellow outsider Legs against the school bullies, it spawns a fast friendship, giving both teenagers an escape from their troubled lives: Legs from his germophobic and homophobic mother, and Juno from a fractured family home where a working lightbulb travels from room to room, yet her da always finds money for the pub. In gorgeous, effortless prose, Karl Geary bears witness to those who, like his protagonists, are invisible and voiceless. They are the oddballs, misfits and outcasts, and your heart goes out to both of them as we learn of their imperfections and vulnerabilities due to poverty and difficult (near impossible) home lives.

Beautifully written by the Irish author, Karl Geary, with many poignant and alarming situations for such young children to live through and be subjected to…from caustic, horrific neighbors to strict and punishing Catholic religious leaders, which leads to their own overworked and underpaid strict parents (most likely uneducated), who barely sustain a living and survive their forced inertia and poverty. I’m with Legs,” Juno says throughout the novel, “I’m with him,” until their friendship, and the story, arrive at a deeply moving conclusion that will shatter even the hardest heart.That all changes one day when Legs, struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality, is harassed by the parish priest because of his sexual inclinations. Juno en Seán – Legs – zitten bij elkaar in de klas op een streng katholieke school in de armste wijk van de stad, en wanneer Juno voor hem opkomt, is dat de start van een hechte, onvoorwaardelijke vriendschap. He feels brave with her, she feels safe with him, and together they feel invincible, even if the world has other ideas.

While unsurprising in many ways, ticking all the boxes of Irish sadness - alcoholism, violence, and the abuses of the Catholic church an approach that could be viewed as a weakness.Juno finds work and tries to put her life back together even as it is apparent that perhaps Legs’ life is conversely falling apart. Geary finds beauty in the most unlikely places, and in an often brutal story, with more than its fair share of small tragedies, he offers balm along the way; a reminder that humanity is everywhere, if we take the time to look, and a clear demonstration that family is less about genetics and more about love. The Singer sewing machine her mam was forced to pawn before her untimely death becomes a symbol that beckons Juno toward a future of possibilities. It’s a story that grabs you from the beginning and keeps you cheering for two kids trapped by circumstance yet determined to live the lives they desire. This is an attempt at writing high literature at the small press level, as the book has a lingo of its own and can be difficult at times to truly understand.

That was what Legs showed in the game where he showed me his and I showed him mine and we told each other our stories. If this doesn't get a Booker nod itself, there is no justice - but it will certainly land as one of my top 3 reads of the year. The writing is excellent, the characters Juno and Legs are lifelike, very original and wonderful and the story is oh so sad and harsh and sometimes funny. It is a novel that reminds us that kindness, bravery, and love appear in places where they are not always expected and in forms not usually recognised, but with a potency that cannot be ignored.Taking this coming-of-age journey with these two hapless beings was like putting my fingers into a vise one by one. The characters are three-dimensional and sympathetic as they struggle to overcome the cruel circumstances of their lives . I was astounded at the writing of this empathic character, of how he was created out of pure love, "even horrible people can have their hearts broken" (Geary 241). Geary's writing is wonderfully revealing and beautiful, particularly when describing characters' clothing, which is often used to show or hide their emotions.