This review of Lord of the Rams originally appeared in the 5 September 2008 edition of Book View Ireland.

Subtitled "The Greatest Story Never Told", this could be a very irritating book if penned by someone less well able to distance himself from his own story. The Rams in question is the author's own nickname and the book tells the potentially mundane story of his growing up in a rural area of Co. Cavan, his journey through primary and secondary school, years at Waterford Institute of Technology and in his first job in Dublin. After the formative years the narrative seems to consist of a series of drunken episodes involving Rams and his friends, often leading to violence of a fairly innocent sort, if that is possible, and humorous incidents which tend to rely heavily on bodily functions for their punch lines. Ronan Smith has told the story of the first quarter century of his life in the third person and, while it is a touch self-indulgent, it is written with sufficient verve to hold the attention of the reader to the final philosophical thought.

(Trafford, ISBN 1-4251-6484-6, pp222, €14.50)

Article by Pauline Ferrie

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