For the Good Times
David Keenan
Time Out Bookstore is thrilled to introduce you to our Book of the Month for February For the Good Times by David Keenan, a harshly brutal but also romantic and sometimes comic insider’s account of The Troubles in 1970s Belfast.
It follows a sharp-suited, Perry Como and family-loving Provisional IRA gang and is told as a compelling oral history by Sammy, a Republican foot soldier as he looks back on what he ironically calls his “happy days.” The novel charts the lads as they carry out business in a Mickey Mouse decorated van and take over a comics shop amongst a backdrop of violence, arms raids and explosions.
Exhilarating and phantasmagorical, this cold-eyed novel with a wild and loyal heart is volatile and vividly realised.