The Speckled People Book Review

             The Speckled People was written by Hugo Hamilton in 2003 based on his childhood memory perspective. Hugo grew up in Dublin, Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s after the end of World War Two. His mother, Irmgard, was originally from Germany and his father, Sean, was from Ireland. This memoir focuses on Hugo’s struggles as a half-Irish, half-German boy dealing with the taunting from other school children while trying to find his own identity. The story also encompasses the many difficulties Hugo witnessed, growing up, between his mother and father.

            Like many people, Hugo is trying to accept cultural roots from both sides of the family. He wants to understand the Irish culture and the German culture and adapt both into a culture of his own. He got different tales from his parents and spent most of the time trying to turn their words into some truth. Since he is a mix of clashing cultures, he is considered “speckled”. Quite literally, he looks different from the other children because he is only half Irish, but living in Ireland. In the first chapter, he is wearing clothing from two different cultures so his physical appearance is odd to the other young children in the area. Hugo and his brother are bullied and called Nazis and Eichmann and are afraid they will be put on trial and not know what to say.

Hugo speaks Irish, German, and attempts to speak English, even though his father strictly enforces the Irish language as the only priority in their household. Hugo struggled to find a place to call home. He couldn’t find anyone else like him and speaking three different languages gave him the sense that he didn’t belong to any one particular culture.

Throughout his childhood, Hamilton also witnessed the struggles that his parents went through. His mother’s light-hearted sprit clashed with that of his father’s stern and often violent behavior. Hugo speaks of the troubles his mother dealt with while in Germany, calling the stories “films”. During one of her films, she recalls a man with whom she worked for that was nice to everyone during the day, but would come to her in a drunken stupor at night and abuse her. She never went into many details, telling the children that they were too young and could watch the film when they got older, but offered the advice of, “Everybody can make mistakes but there are some mistakes you can’t even talk about, because you feel so stupid that you can only blame yourself” (18). Her experiences through life made her a strong, but compassionate woman.

Hugo’s father, on the other hand, was spiteful when it came to the British people and the English language. He was adamant about Ireland remaining true to its original heritage and even rallied on the streets in order to convince the Dublin people to change their street signs to Irish language. Sean never spoke of his family and did not allow English-speaking children into their home. He was a violent man and became furious when he was defied. “The goat wanted to have a long tail but only got a short one, my mother says, whenever we want something we can’t have” (61). This quote from the book is fitting in the situation with Hugo’s father not getting what he wanted and that he lost the language battle with his family.

Sean’s biggest struggle with himself was having a father that fought for the British navy. He got extremely mad when Hugo was rummaging around his wardrobe and messed with the navy medals. Sean came in and smacked Hugo, but Hugo recalls feeling no pain because they “were all safe again and my mother was making cake” (15). This mention of cake-making is repeated throughout the book. It seems as though this has symbolic meaning for the mother to fix life’s problems with making a cake. Even though Irmgard tried to leave the home and her husband several times, but she was unable to do so. ““She’s just a bit homesick, that’s all”, my father said.” (32).

The way his mother is portrayed as a strong woman who takes care of the family is not much different for the time period. We can see a pattern in Hugo Hamilton’s story and much of society today where the mother is the strong figure and home life heads back to a form of a matriarch society. With the help of his mother’s encouragements over the years, Hugo began to stand up to his father’s ignorant ways and established his inner self and found his voice in the world.

Toward the end of the memoir, Sean realized that he made several mistakes while raising his children, Sean tried to make up for lost time later in life. He knew he lost the war with his family and became soft in his older age, as I’ve noticed with many older gentlemen. He even broke down and bought a television and began watching shows in English. Sean eventually died from several bee stings; bees that he taught Hugo to how to catch during their migration period before they disappeared to a new location.

During Sean’s last trip to Germany, he purchased presents for the children that were delivered back to Ireland with the rest of his belongings and his coffin. At the funeral, Hugo saw how many people actually looked up to his father and claims he never knew how many people were friends with his father.

After that, Irmgard made one last trip to Germany and recognized nothing. She returned to Ireland and took all the children on a trip to find a new place they could call home; one that could be recognizable. She knew a lot of different territories in Ireland from her pre-marital days spent traveling across the country. They were all considered orphans and lost, but at least they were lost together and able to start a new life.