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wordsofclover's review
3.0
3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a quiet, character-driven story about a woman called Alice and her time married to an Irish man and the affair she has that subsequently destroys the union. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going into this book but it ended up being a rather lovely-told story about a woman who loved her husband but just didn’t quite seem to fit in to married life as well as she thought. One of the things I liked about this book was that there was nothing particularly nasty about it even though the main plot was about the breakdown of the marriage between Alice and Eddie. They both obviously love each other, they just couldn’t make it work and it was a quiet ‘uncoupling’ I guess even though Alice had done a bad thing.
I liked her examination of her marriage and her actions years later following the death of her mother which appears to make her think a lot about the past. I also liked the inclusion of her new friend and confidant Harry, who to me appeared to be a mix between Eddie and Cauley and therefore a perfect romantic partner for her. There is some examination of her relationship with her mother and i liked this as well.
This book isn’t some action-packed crazy tale. It actually reflects its cover a lot - it’s quiet, calm and oddly serene and beautiful.
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a quiet, character-driven story about a woman called Alice and her time married to an Irish man and the affair she has that subsequently destroys the union. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going into this book but it ended up being a rather lovely-told story about a woman who loved her husband but just didn’t quite seem to fit in to married life as well as she thought. One of the things I liked about this book was that there was nothing particularly nasty about it even though the main plot was about the breakdown of the marriage between Alice and Eddie. They both obviously love each other, they just couldn’t make it work and it was a quiet ‘uncoupling’ I guess even though Alice had done a bad thing.
I liked her examination of her marriage and her actions years later following the death of her mother which appears to make her think a lot about the past. I also liked the inclusion of her new friend and confidant Harry, who to me appeared to be a mix between Eddie and Cauley and therefore a perfect romantic partner for her. There is some examination of her relationship with her mother and i liked this as well.
This book isn’t some action-packed crazy tale. It actually reflects its cover a lot - it’s quiet, calm and oddly serene and beautiful.
lonesomereader's review
5.0
Any tale that describes an American’s permanent move to the UK or Ireland will immediately grab my attention because of my connection to this experience. In Molly McCloskey’s novel “When Light is Like Water” Alice travels to Ireland to live and work there while she figures out what to do with her life. She ends up falling in love and setting there. It’s so difficult to resist the charms of Irish men! However, the majority of the novel relates an account of the dissolution of her marriage through an affair and her present life sorting through her emotionally-broken past. In doing so, McCloskey creates a powerful account of the complexities of Alice’s wayward love life and the difficult grief-laden process of moving forward when she’s lost the people who are closest to her. This novel is a deftly told story of painful heartache told as if looking through soiled panes of glass.
Read my full review of When Light is Like Water by Molly McCloskey on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of When Light is Like Water by Molly McCloskey on LonesomeReader
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