My Coney Island Baby audiobook

Adultery is hard to condone but their love is hard to deny. Michael and Caitlin meet one day each month as they have for twenty five years, deeply in love with each other but married to others. This is an introspective and beautifully written story that takes place on the day of one of those meetings, on a freezing, blustery day at a hotel near Coney Island. In alternating points of view, we get the story of their present circumstances, how they met, what their marriages are like, traumatic experiences in their lives, flashbacks to their childhoods. The air in the room is heavy with them , their pasts hovering, and their present outside of this hotel room threatening the calm, quiet intensity of the afternoon. Conversation is minimal, but meaningful and I’m amazed at how much we know about these characters in this book which is not very lengthy. It’s about marriages, about loss and grief and lost chances as life goes on and they age, but mostly about love. It’s sensuous - yes of course their physical connection, knowing the terrain of their bodies even as age has changed them, but even more so in their emotional connection. Beautiful, sad, moving.I read an advanced copy so it’s possible that these quotes may change in the final version. I hope not . The writing is beautiful and I just have to share some of it.“This afternoon, Coney Island feels like the end of the world, the last bastion just short of some great abyss, a place for the damned to drift, waiting their turn at nothingness.”“Gleams of pleasure can be had even from those times rightfully owed to sadness. It is simply a matter of sifting for gold, and the passage of time grants wisdom of a kind.”“Time has deepened the understanding each had of the other, an understanding, free of judgement, that counts want, need, desire among its blessings, as well as a knowledge of what lies within the other’s heart. Fires can blaze and fires can smolder. now though, wanting is no longer in itself enough. Something is about to be broken. “I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.

4.5 stars"Sometimes it seems unclear which of her two lives is the greater reality. Once she has slipped back into her homely skin, the afternoons spent with Michael, heightened by their rationing, take on the sensations of a dream. Against their memory, the world feels staid, and empty."Caitlyn may not understand which life is the greater reality – the one spent with Michael an afternoon each month in a seedy motel room on Coney Island, or the one spent with her husband the rest of those days for the past twenty-five years. Michael too has a separate existence with his wife, Barb. A life that cleaved apart due to unbearable grief. Somehow it seems pretty clear that only lies prevail at home while the truths are the words expressed in that damned depressing, rented room."The room is clean and plain but determinedly sterile, with all trace of romance having been surgically removed, the sort of room suited to women on the run, and travelling salesmen, and those who wish to hide a while without being found, those who need time alone to think of good or even bad reasons why they shouldn’t hang themselves in the closet or pull a razor blade across their wrists."This is a highly introspective novel full of lush language and the delicious, gray moral ground between ‘right and wrong.’ The complexities of marriage, love and relationships are put under the microscope and painstakingly examined. You’re not going to find any real answers here, however, despite the intensity of that scrutiny. Author Billy O’Callaghan, with exquisite language, tells it like it is. Love is not simple, and there is no secret formula for doing the right thing. How the hell do most of us make it through from one day to the next? It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, but nearly impossible to climb back out again. The setting for Michael and Caitlyn’s illicit trysts is actually quite perfect."Because Coney Island feels done for. A rot has set in. And yet, being out here on a day like this still feels good. So fit for broken things, it has become their place. The best may be lost but an air of romance remains, and settling is a matter of choice."The novel spans the length of just a single day, but we get flashbacks into both Michael and Caitlyn’s pasts - their difficult and often lonely childhoods leading up to their now estranged marriages. There are some very moving scenes of bereavement and regret that are written with such beautiful and heart-rending prose that I won’t soon forget them. "… her crying was unbearable, the jagged shudders of breath, the whine that came stabbing up out of her in gouts from some deep place. Her soul in haemorrhage."Now for my one little gripe with this book. I am wild for introspection. But once in a while, even I became a bit overwhelmed by it. Michael and Caitlyn are middle-aged. Okay, I get it. No one is quite as scrumptious as they were in their twenties. But I got a little tired of hearing about Michael’s extra weight and sagging and fading, while Caitlyn remains radiant, not cursed by the effects of time and gravity. I mean, I’m thrilled for her, but I couldn’t help but think that a little bit of this was due to the author’s fantasy of sorts. Naturally, she loved him just the same, as she should, despite his flaws ;) I really only needed to be told once! Nitpicking aside, I was completely consumed by this book and the gorgeous writing. Like all Irish literature I’ve so far had the pleasure of reading, this one is laced with a heavy dose of melancholy and is a treat for those that revel in self-reflection. I would highly recommend this to anyone that delights in the same. "Universal connectedness was a comforting thought, but the greater truth seemed to be that every soul spun through its days and nights alone.""Don't give me those eyes 'cause you know me and I can't say no to youWe can't have each other even if we wanted toIn another life, darling, I'll do anything to be with youWe can't have each other even if we wanted to…." – Don’t Give Me Those Eyes, James Blunt

Kindle $1.99 Special Today...I thought the writing was beautiful.... the imagery vivid... and the sensitive story so very human. A bargain of a price. Coney Island is their place.“The best may have been lost but an air of romance remains”. Caitlin and Michael, both in their 40s... aware of aging ... have been meeting every Tuesday, once a month for twenty years. They are both married to other people. Michael’s wife, Barb, is scheduled for 55 cycles of chemo therapy. Words like aggressive, and metastasis are not encouraging. Years ago, Michael and Barb lost their 14-week old baby boy named James Matthew. Their loss was so devastating- it changed their relationship in ways it never returned...each dealing with their loss differently. Michael turned to bodily muscle work. Later he hit the sport bars. It was at one of these places where he met Caitlin. She was just 22 when they first met and already married. As for, Barb....the loss of their child manifested itself in small violent explosions. When she was like that, all Michael could do was hold back and try to ride it out. We get a background story of Caitlin... allowing us to think of why she entered the affair with Michael, too. And more details about Michael’s growing years. Now in their forties, Michael is aware that life has shifted from thrills to comforts. Caitlin was once his thrill... and now his comfort. Michael and Caitlin stand a while, just gazing at the ocean, holding hands. They are sheltering themselves from a storm. And for a moment they believe that the world has been made to exist entirely for their benefit, and that nothing else matters beyond their happiness. Coney Island feels done for. Every stall and pitch is shut down. Even during high season, the place only ever runs at half speed any more. A rot has set in. Yet their place still feels good. It’s even fitting for the broken things that are happening in their own individual lives. Winds were blowing muddy with a threat of snow. The boardwalk, with memories of cotton candy, fire eating unicyclists, fried food, sweet and salty smells in the air, and the screams of teenage boys roughhousing bikini-clad girls don’t feel like that many years ago. Caitlin knows that their day ahead holds darkness. There are things that need discussing between she and Michael. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story other than end with this one quote.“It’s natural, of course, to reminisce, especially as a heart settles into middle-age, and regret is a flavour familiar to anyone who is ever fled one life in the chase for another”. I really enjoyed this book.It allowed me to think about those that cheat, lie, and deceive and how their actions cause pain to others..... I definitely don’t condone cheaters....but....this book delivers on its pure humanity. I reflected on why this couple did what they did .. my judgements at arms length. The writing was gorgeous and intimate, capturing a very internal world. The realism is beautifully rendered, examining broken hearts and the impact that it has. Thank you HarperCollins publishing, Netgalley, and Billy O’Callaghan

My Coney Island Baby is my first Billy O’Callaghan novel, and this author is highly recommended by several of my Goodreads friends. Michael and Caitlin are each married to other people, but they have met monthly in a run down hotel in Coney Island. Their love affair has continued for years and has enabled them to stay in the comfort of their unhappy marriages. During one month’s visit, there’s a storm brewing outside, and also a storm brewing inside. Michael’s wife has cancer, and Caitlin’s husband’s job will be relocating him to the Midwest. It’s at this juncture that the two must make a decision about their future together. Overall, I soaked in this author’s take on middle-aged, forbidden love. There’s a sensitivity to the writing that I picked up on immediately, and it connected me to these characters and the author’s depiction of them. I normally might question two lovers in a lifelong affair, but when O’Callaghan navigates the storyline, I understood where each flawed person was coming from, the bits and pieces of life that add up to overbearing challenges, and the fallible decisions we all make that may also add up to equal challenges. There is beauty here in the forlorn, in the decay of the hotel, and in the hearts of these average human beings. I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

At times, My Coney Island Baby felt like the novelistic equivalent of a pointillistic painting — every emotion, thought and interaction broken down and examined carefully and separately. Michael and Caitlin have been lovers for years. They meet once a month on Coney Island. The rest of the time, they endure marriages that seem to have long passed their expiration dates. O’Callaghan paints one of their afternoons together, while flashing back to parts of their separate lives. The writing and attention to detail is absolutely beautiful. At times, the emotional pitch felt almost overwhelming or suffocating. But I really appreciate O’Callaghan’s craftsmanship and the complex emotional and moral vortex he plunged me into. I will definitely read more of his writing. A belated thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

This is a beautifully written book about a couple who, to escape their unhappy marriages, have been meeting once a month for twenty-five years on Coney Island.The substance was however not really for me. Michael divulges that his wife Barb has cancer and with exquisitely written and yet sensitive flashbacks we are kept informed of the progress of her disease and how it affects the lives of the pair of them.Caitlin also has her ghosts with her husband and his rather discreet affairs. Nevertheless, I loved this personality.I just feel that this is such an excellent writer, with obviously joy in his soul purely by his writing style, that he needs to reach out in another direction. Where, I don't know but I have no doubt he will find it.When one has a writing talent such as Mr O'Callaghan, he will soon appear with the right "positive" book.Bravo!

My grandmother lived near Coney Island and when I was a child, I was always a bit in awe of its magic and enchantment, always undercut by a prevailing sense of menace an a hint of unreality.In Billy O’Callaghan’s novel, his merging of marvel with a seedy underbelly is on display in this tale of illicit love. Michael and Caitlin, two lovers in their late 40s, escape their tedious marriages to revel in each other on a monthly basis. Michael, a fastidious salesman, experienced tragedy early in his marriage; Caitlin, a writer, subsists with a seemingly good husband who may have had his dalliances. These regular trysts are what keeps them going.The author is a master wordsmith and in dissecting the several hours that Michael and Caitlin share on a cold January afternoon, we get a clear sense of their interactions—their aging bodies, their “survival fueled on denial and made bearable by meeting once a month to pleasure in lighting one another’s fuses, that four week integer tried and tested to perfection in their game of lust gap enough to hone the appetite to aching, to hold excitement at a dizzying height.”The descriptions of the repeated physical connections—at first luminous—begin to feel repetitive and I suspect deliberately so. The acceptance of the aging process (Michael now carries an excess of weight and his stomach pummels her during lovemaking) is objectively displayed. These are two people who know each other’s imperfections and provide a safe haven. But like any affair, theirs is now at a crossroads, due to external factors on each of their sides. A question looms through this book: what do they have a right to choose?As decisions loom, time is slowed down and each detail becomes intensely described, which is one of the beauties of Billy O’Callaghan’s writing. Although the author refuses to judge his characters, the reader may see differently. “Love…is the story we make up to justify all the rotten things we do,” Caitlin says. Is that, indeed, the definition of love? Or is it the inertia and lack of courage that keeps them tied to dying marriages? There is, of course, no clear answer.

Read this heartbreaking book if you want to read breathtaking language. Billy O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's best short-story, and now novel, writers. He is unsurpassed in his ability to form a sentence so beautiful that you are forced to re-read his words again and again, appreciating his mastery like a work of art hanging on a gallery wall. If you are a writer, this is a must read.

Billy O'Callaghan has become one of my favorite writers based on the two books of his I've read. As with the short fiction, his novel delves inside his characters, and the present is informed by the past. Although based in Ireland, he has captured the atmosphere of a New York city in midwinter, and given all his characters inner lives that will haunt.