Reviews

I really really liked this novel. I do not know why it touched me so much, but I guess it just hit home and it is quite an emotional novel. For me it showed how an entire family can be ont he one side united and very much so strong and together through the tyranny of one father, who himself is just hurt and insecure, and on the other side feels imprisoned. It seems the father did want the best for his children, and did his upmost best, to him, but created a certain tensity in the house that made everyone uneasy. I really loved this novel and will be reading more by this author soon!

nickelini's review

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

mtmteres's review

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3.0

I had read this book many years ago. I remember liking it a lot. This second reading has been somewhat disappointing, I found the story a bit slow moving, and the portrait of Moran and the women around him not as interesting as I had before.

inspiredbygrass's review

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4.0

There's so much in this book , really no more on the surface than an undramatic portrait of a family living in rural Ireland in the 1960s and the decades before . Little plot either as nothing has happened to the family's patriarch since his Republican fighting days, which is the whole point . Here is a man whose actions in the conflicts remain unsaid and unexamined , who forbids discussion of the past and dominates his five children and his second patient and calm wife .

Themes of trauma , inarticulately , fear and control are explored as we see how the children react to his rule and quick temper . There is estrangement , anger and submission but the step mother's constancy allows 4 of the 5 children to understand the need for compassion despite being victims of his obstinacy and dominance .

The apparent passivity of the women is not an easy read for a contemporary reader but in witnessing their submissiveness we understand that, as a group, they have managed to tame the father whist still keeping love at the centre of their actions . It's a portrait of resistance and patience in a context where women had few options. Inevitably we conclude that they are ambivalent to acts of rebellion as the new nation state , which is above question given their fathers role , has given them few options except to be dutiful , obedient and respectful .

Above all the book is about stagnation and the dangers of closed thinking . The farm on which they live is unmodernised and the rural society unchanging . The children leave to find work either in Dublin or England and one daughter is prevented from achieving her full potential by her father's passive aggression . One daughter falls for a fellow Irishman in London who is not of the right sort which is bad enough but but when one son marries an English woman the family close ranks against her as the inchoate grief of the past determines present actions.

johnnylyne's review

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

tay_af's review

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5.0

Excellent novel with really interesting characters & dynamics. I loved the sinister undertones in discussions of family, it was very well done, but it will make one not want to see their family for a couple days as a result.

danabrown's review

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4.0

So we’ll done. It’s told as a sedate story of a family but in truth the central character is a tyrant, controlling and bullying. He loves his family but his way of expressing it is damaging. Or does he love them? I think he does but that kind of love, I could do without. Good story, beautifully written, maybe not for everyone but I’m glad I read it.

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