The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabeAlan Tinkler
Patrick McCabe. Breakfast on Pluto. HarperFlamingo, 1998. 202 pp. $22.00.
With Breakfast on Pluto, his fourth novel and his most recent foray into the realm of Irish life, Patrick McCabe again reveals his mastery of character. Patrick “Pussy” Braden captivates readers with his tale of life on the fringe. As a boy, Patrick learns that his priest, Father Bernard, is his father, and later places letters in Bernard’s postbox with titles such as “ ‘Sex Mad Sky Pilot!’, ‘Fornicator’, ‘The Adventures of Father Benny Rape!’” Since Pussy does not cling to the Irish Catholic cultural norm of silence, he hitchhikes to the next town, intending to leave for London’s Piccadilly Circus.
On the way out of town, Pussy’s “Married Politician Man,” his IRA lover, picks him up and keeps him. Pussy matter-of-factly conveys after his keeper is killed by an anonymous bomb, “Well, obviously I couldn’t be his girl into perpetuity but I was quite prepared, if he continued to lavish me with compliments and cash, certainly to remain with him for as long as—well, who knew!—and would indeed most likely that have done, if he hadn’t gone and died.” Whether the bomb was placed by the IRA or by the Ulster Defense Association remains unclear. Such questions are not answered within the convoluted zone of forced silence endemic to the conflict; therein lies a striking parallel with the silence of Catholic Ireland where priests knock up their housekeepers and where men are gay.
McCabe portrays the insidious conflict wonderfully. With his sugar daddy blown-up, Pussy runs to London to ply his trade, initially as a transvestite prostitute and later as a somewhat indifferent carrier for the IRA. While Pussy is markedly unaware that his actions are consistent with the incontinence of the conflict, the incontinence of Irish culture (and British, for that matter), McCabe masterfully endows a tale that exposes such incontinence.
The narrative strength of Breakfast on Pluto and the portrayal of the cultural milieu make this one of McCabe’s most interesting novels to date. [Alan Tinkler]