Breakfast on Pluto

Breakfast on Pluto is a novel by the distinguished Irish writer Patrick McCabe, who is known for his experimental style and controversial themes. First published in 1998, the book contains elements of fantasy and historical fiction. It presents the narrative of “the life and times” of Patrick Braden, a transgender person growing up in Ireland and London during the 1960s and 1970s. Through Braden’s journey of self-discovery, McCabe portrays a country amid turbulent political, national, and religious conflict. The novel was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, adapted into a movie by acclaimed Oscar-winning director Neil Jordan, and is currently being made into a musical.

Patrick McCabe lives in Ireland. He often writes on dark and provocative topics using unusual narrative techniques and colloquial and experimental language structures. Like Breakfast on Pluto, most of his works are set in small-town Ireland, a setting through which he deconstructs the ideas of respectability and normalcy to which that community usually conforms. In addition to novels, he also writes radio plays and short stories.

This guide utilizes the 2006 UK Pan MacMillan edition.

Note: McCabe wrote Breakfast on Pluto as a book within a book. In the framing narrative, Braden identifies as Mrs. Riley. Mrs. Riley relates her life story, which she calls The Life and Times of Patrick Braden most of the narrative. In this life story, Braden explores gender by presenting as both feminine and masculine before fully embracing her identity as Mrs. Riley. Because Braden’s gender fluidity and exploration serve as an integral plot point, throughout this guide, we will refer to Braden with both masculine and feminine pronouns accordingly.

Plot Summary

Set in the small fictional town of Tyreelin, Ireland, and London, United Kingdom, in the 1960s and 1970s, the protagonist Patrick Braden—otherwise known as Patrick-Puss, Pat Puss, other variations of Pussy, and Mrs. Riley—narrates the novel in the form of a “book within a book.” Breakfast on Pluto centers on Braden’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance within the context of the Northern Ireland conflict.

Braden is the illegitimate child of a Catholic priest (Father Bernard) and a teenage girl, Eily Bergin, who disappears from Tyreelin after giving birth to Braden, leaving him in foster care. Braden grows up wearing women’s clothes and scandalizing the community with his behavior. When an English teacher commends Braden’s writing, Braden begins writing pornographic stories featuring his father, then sends them to the priest. During his teenage years, Braden develops a female persona, and throughout the narrative he begins to use both male and female pronouns. He also begins exploring his female side with his best friends, a girl, Charlie, and a boy, Irwin, by organizing modeling shows and lip-syncing to famous female singers. When Charlie and Irwin grow up, they become a couple.

Braden’s behavior causes a commotion in the small town when he begins to wear fancy clothes and has an affair with a married politician. The politician, who is profiting from the ongoing conflict between the Catholic Irish and Protestant British soldiers, dies soon after the affair begins when terrorists blow up his car. Charlie leaves for art college, Irwin joins the Irish Republican Army (a terrorist group dedicated to freeing Northern Ireland from British control and uniting it with Ireland), and Braden leaves for London, where he becomes a prostitute.

On one occasion, Braden almost dies when a client tries to strangle him with string. On another, Braden moves in with Bertie, a musician; he begins to role-play with their landlady, Louise, playing the role of her dead son. Bertie catches them in the act, after which Braden leaves Louise and continues to live as a transgender prostitute. Braden’s career comes to an end on the night a bomb explodes in a disco-pub. The police mistake Braden’s feminine dress as a disguise and arrest Braden under the assumption that she is a terrorist. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the British catch Irwin during a terrorist activity for the IRA and force him to become an informant by threatening Charlie’s life. Soon, members of the IRA and longtime friends of Irwin murder him.

During Braden’s time in jail, he experiences a break from reality and hallucinates about becoming the Lurex Avenger, a woman determined to punish her priestly father, small-town community, and the IRA for inflicting such unfeeling misery on young Braden and killing Irwin.

After the police release Braden from prison, she travels back to Ireland to comfort Charlie, this time openly dressed as a woman. Following Irwin’s death, Charlie left college and began drinking and using drugs. To help her heal, Braden gets Charlie a dog. Braden becomes obsessed with the way married men treat teenage girls in Tyreelin: They instigate affairs and then often leave the young girls pregnant. This leads to a confrontation with one such girl, Martina Sheridan, who mistakes Braden’s hysterics for aggression. Their clash further alienates Braden from the townspeople. Furthermore, Braden develops a crush on Brendan Cleeve; after he spurns Braden in a local bar, Braden sets Brendan’s girlfriend’s hair on fire. The boys in town retaliate by destroying all Braden’s feminine clothes and killing the dog Braden got for Charlie. This act is a turning point for both Charlie and Braden, who leave Tyreelin forever.

Charlie eventually marries and has three children. Braden at first continues to work as a prostitute but, after a nervous breakdown, lands in a psychiatric hospital. There, a psychiatrist Braden identifies as Dr. Terence treats her and persuades her to write her life story. Terence leaves the hospital without explanation, which hurts Braden deeply. After their time in the hospital, Braden continues life as Mrs. Riley, a middle-aged woman living in an apartment in a block of buildings mostly inhabited by workers. Here, she achieves a certain peace and resignation.