{"id":343764,"date":"2025-12-14T02:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T02:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/343764\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T02:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T02:13:17","slug":"survival-struggle-and-the-shadows-of-our-times-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/343764\/","title":{"rendered":"Survival, struggle and the shadows of our times \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saints  <\/p>\n<p>Author: Tim MacGabhann <\/p>\n<p>ISBN-13: 978-1068355516<\/p>\n<p>Publisher: Scratch Books<\/p>\n<p>Guideline Price: \u00a310.99<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Tim MacGabhann\u2019s Saints is a walk on the wild side through modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/mexico\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/mexico\/\">Mexico<\/a>. Nine stories  trace the fragile rhythms of survival, the tenderness of human connection and the gestures of courage that keep us going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In the opening story, Chair, an addict hauls sandbags across a soaked Mexico city rooftop. Neon-lit sex shops and pulquer\u00edas blur in the downpour as he confesses: \u201cI am just always trying to make less stuff happen all the time.\u201d Less resignation than prayer, it is his bid to hold the world together. Inside, mismatched chairs, doughnuts and coffee create a sanctuary for lost souls, Depeche Mode humming next door \u2013 ordinary holiness in vivid detail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/culture\/books\/2025\/06\/15\/tim-macgabhann-i-had-a-fairly-mad-recurrence-of-withdrawal-symptoms\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tim MacGabhann: \u2018I had a fairly mad recurrence of withdrawal symptoms\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cleaner unfolds with cinematic attention, evoking the movie Heat: \u201cStooping at Diego\u2019s side, he remembers De Niro &#8230; all careful, frowning precision.\u201d From Lucio\u2019s cleaning routines to administering naloxone, MacGabhann captures the delicate dance of addiction and care with quiet empathy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In Satellite, Alejandro, a retired marine turned cop, rides predawn streets to witness a Chinese satellite splash down in the Gulf. Rain-slicked roads, chilaquiles in cafes, and Oxxos cut through the mist as he drifts between remembering missing cadets and the quiet duty of guiding a lost young man. Ordinary gestures meet cosmic spectacle, reflecting a central tension in Saints: survival against forces threatening to pull us under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Elsewhere, moral reckonings and quiet revelations unfold. A sewer worker in Dive warns: \u201cWhatever you do, if you\u2019re not doing something to make it better, you\u2019re making it worse.\u201d Helena battles a rising tide as her car sinks in Beach, recalling the turbulence she fled in 1973 when \u201cit got really weird &#8230; if you were \u2018active politically\u2019 in the US\u201d \u2013 achingly familiar amid today\u2019s unrest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/culture\/books\/review\/2025\/06\/14\/the-black-pool-a-memoir-of-forgetting-a-new-high-in-inebriated-escape\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Black Pool: A memoir of forgetting &#8211; A new high in inebriated escapeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The title story carries the same thread of endurance, woven through Veronica\u2019s restoration of a damaged Maxim\u00f3n statue, an act of mourning for her son: \u201cEvery time Carlos left the house, I\u2019d get this tearing feeling &#8230; now he\u2019s never going to come through the door again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Darkly funny, humane and alive to everyday miracles, Saints is a timely reminder that courage and connection matter, on the streets of Mexico and in the currents of our own lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Yvonne Watterson is an Irish writer living in Mexico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saints Author: Tim MacGabhann ISBN-13: 978-1068355516 Publisher: Scratch Books Guideline Price: \u00a310.99 Tim MacGabhann\u2019s Saints is a walk&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5533,49,48,1072,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-343764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-book-reviews","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mexico","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}