I loved being inside her head exactly because she had such complex and deeply felt opinions. I never completely lost this sensation and there were moments near the end of the novel where I again became frustrated, but it’s testament to Dolan’s writing that actually I mostly fell for Ava. For a while I found this disconnect irritating and wasn’t sure if I could bear to listen to someone’s strong and somewhat judgemental opinions while she was simultaneously profiting off the very people she judged. Instead most of her behaviours come across as self-absorbed, selfish and sneaky. She’s very vocal about all sorts of things including workers rights, abortion, class and feminism but her actions rarely follow through. I think a lot of my initial confusion about how I felt about the book was rooted in how frustrating Ava is. I found the prose incredibly easy to read and sped through the novel. Naoise Dolan has a really unique voice and the novel is written from the point of view of her protagonist Ava, a young woman who’s moved from Ireland to Hong Kong to work as an English teacher.
I finally read it when a friend listed it as one of their top reads and I spent the first few chapters trying to work out if I loved it or was deeply irritated. Released during lockdown, Exciting Times was a book whose cover I kept seeing but it wasn’t really on my radar and I knew nothing whatsoever about it. Book Review | Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
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