I read my hundredth book of the year last week.  Last year I saw this milestone coming and picked what I thought was an appropriate book, but there was no planning this year.

As The Beast Sleeps, is a play by Northern Irish playwright Gary Mitchell.  I didn’t find it easy to read.  Not because of the writing or the language, which is wonderfully authentic, but because the play is set in loyalist North Belfast after the peace process.  The play deals with brutal in-fighting between members of the loyalist paramilitaries as they struggle to deal with the changing environment in Northern Ireland.

Living in Japan I can often forget about Northern Irish culture.  I don’t dwell on certain aspects of my childhood, but this play brought back memories of living in North Belfast, some of which I had buried.