William Wall's cautionary tale of Catholic folk wracked by Catholic
guilt is as dense, richly textured and full of haunting imagery as
is to be expected of an Irishman and a poet. A young writer, Joe
Lyons, is estranged from his mother, an obsessional collector of
bric-a-brac, as a consequence of using his dysfunctional family as
the raw material for his first novel. The usual arguments - that
all first novels contain autobiographical material, that the writer
meant no harm in fictionalizing what was common knowledge anyway,
that outsiders saw the family's portrayal in a heroic light - do
nothing to mitigate what is seen as a betrayal of the ties of
blood, the negation of kinship. When Joe, whose life-experience has
not led him to put his trust in others, meets Suzie, free spirit
and muscician, he embarks on what promises to be the most important
relationship of his life at the moment when he hears the news that
his mother, diagnosed with a hereditary degenerative brain disease,
is already beyond hope of reconciliation. The unravelling of these
blood-ties, betrayals and counterbetrayals, the interferences of
clerics (malevolent), medics (benevolent) and the re-appearance of
a long-absent sister lead, as is not always the way in fact or
fiction, to the ultimate triumph of love. Beautifully written,
page-turning, satisfyingly introspective, this novel interprets the
minutiae of daily life in a search for the truth behind the
half-truths of family memory. Sounds familiar? Of course. It's not
only autobiographical first-novelists who'll recognize themselves.
A gentle book, rough-edged but full of hope. Elisabeth Luard is the
author of Sacred Food. (Kirkus UK)
Joe Lyons has never had much success with relationships until he
meets Suzie, a young music teacher. Living a solitary existence as
a writer, he's alienated his mother with his autobiographical first
novel and has little to say to his stridently religious sister,
Mary. Only his father keeps in regular touch. But now, in the
warmth of this new love, the happy endings finally seem to
outnumber the tragedies. So when news comes that his mother is
seriously ill, he returns home, but what he finds there shocks him
out of his complacency and Joe, like his father, comes to
understand the true nature of love.
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