Matt McAvoy Book Review

I’ve read alot from this author, and have come to the conclusion that he is a master of metaphors – the satisfying kind, which make one give a little smile and an understanding nod.  With a penchant for first person narration, he draws the reader immediately into the world of his characters, unsavoury, yet as normal as you or I – a world in which life can change in an instant.  Another trademark of Michael Irwin, apparent in this bite-sized cautionary tale of villains, blags and remorse, is his uncanny ability to contrast hopeless tragedy and laugh-out-loud humour, and he should know how: his own 6 years in an A-cat prison was characterized by the former, and made survivable by the latter – were it not for that contrast, he would likely have not made it.

Ultimately the question in “The Day I Made Good”, probably exactly like in Michael’s own sentence, is: at what point in a long sentence does one “make good”?  And, in this story, who is it exactly that is “making good”?  The narrator, having wasted his life, pledging to change at a tragic moment, or was it long before that, when he made the decision to study in prison, or even immediately at the time of the events which put him there?  Or perhaps Villain Snr. is making good, just before it is too late, by delivering his moral message in true, self-discommending, Jimmy Cagney style.  Whichever the answer, Michael Irwin should know – as a convicted criminal turned masters-degree educated criminologist, he is actually one of the few who can truly explain the feeling of repentance under such inevitably forlorn circumstances, with this little tale, simultaneously so common, yet so abnormal to most; he crafts the question(s?) and the answer well.

BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON >