Reviews

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan

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the_nik83's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I don't think I liked this, but I don't think I fully didn't like it either. The writing style isn't my favourite and the plot is a bit convoluted. A lot is happening but also nothing is happening. But there were a few moments that captured me which is why this is a low 3.

orla2310's review

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

vishnu_'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jrm0202's review

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

madeleinegeorge's review

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4.0

A delightful, wandering Irish folk song. Spanning decades, canvasing the lives and strifes of farmers, poets, and exiles alike, Ryan deftly moves through the grief of one family as it is inherited by each generation. Its twists and turns are moving and unexpected, bringing with them a beautiful prosaic simplicity. His rich, arresting characters remind us that we can't give each other nearly as much as we will take away. They remind us what homecoming means if home is a place that keeps losing its center, that keeps falling out from beneath your feet, a person that walks away, whose name changes, identity shifts, and can never truly be within reach.
A stunning little book, generously wrought. Love as torment and redemption.

Essentials:

"He feels happy in this moment, actual happiness, that the moment he's existing in has the best possible aspect of any moment: the best smell and taste and texture and colour and shape; no human could be more beautiful than the human before him; no story could be more enjoyable in the telling than the one he's telling the beautiful human; no sound could be more exotic or delicious or fascinating than the sound of her."

"She wants to shout at him, Wake up, wake up, the world is hard and it rushes on regardless of your heart."

"It's funny how you sometimes, most times, have to be surprised into awareness of the strength of your own feelings. Ambushed by the truth of things."

"He's alive. He's still alive, after all. He is, unexpectedly, alive and in love. He'll have to see that small thing out, the small, dense, massive thing that has him helpless, desperate, locked in a dizzy orbit of desire."

"He can't imagine trying to read in front of an audience now or ever again. He wants to read only for her; he wants the world to be composed of him and her."

"He bathes in sadness, it seems, lets it wash over him and into him and out of him. This story he's written, and the poem she picked up from the floor, his attempt to corral it, to tame it from wildness so it won't kill him. Or maybe just to know where it is so it can't blindside him, attack him, claws drawn, from behind."

"Life was like that: it meandered on and away along its course and there wasn't much anyone could do in the path of Fate but stand aside and hope and pray for the best."

harrietmarydean's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

2.75

ruthlessly's review against another edition

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5.0

He’s not a missing person, more a person missed. Anyway, he’s hers for now, her secret thing, her warm comfort, her project. She’ll tell her dad she’s found him soon enough. She’s never seen a boy like this, so soft and earnest, so devoid of awareness of himself, so ignorant of his own selfishness. She wants to shout at him, Wake up, wake up, the world is hard and it rushes on regardless of your heart, and people never take the shape you want them to, people are stubborn about that, about being themselves, even when they’re trying to be someone else. No one can hide for ever.

[...]

She always thinks of how she used him. How he let himself be used. How his love for her was so complete and hers for him so brittle and so weak. What faulty magic cast these things she didn’t know, what terrible arrangement of their stars.

i really, really loved this.

i know i've read another donal ryan before, which i remember very little about except for thinking the writing was lovely and lyrical, languid and focused in that wonderful way that means the small things take up so much room within the world. this novel is essentially about the one family, the gladney's, in a small town in tipperary, whose daughter goes missing and then comes back five years later. what most struck me about this book is the love and the care that suffuses it. paddy and kit so clearly love each other, they love moll. alex is a star AND i loved reading about him so much. he's a black fella who comes to small town ireland and the way this deals with this is very interesting and i think VERY rural town ireland in the 70s/80s.

the uncomfortable way "difference" functions in this story is really interesting and i think perfectly shown through the lens of a small town catholic ireland. there's a strange tension consistently through all of the POVs, from paddy's confusion at his "good, good little girl" disappearing in such a way, moll's secrets, alex's blackness and josh's anger and grief. i really enjoyed reading this slow, wandering stream through all of it. i enjoyed everything, actually -- including the way this dips into bigger themes (police brutality against black people in london in the 70s, ptsd from the faulklands war). this is a very short book, i suppose -- it's only around 200 pages. but it's a PERFECT length for this story, which i never felt was rushed despite the multigenerational aspect.

i do think as well, i found it SO affecting when talking about family bonds and what can break and make them. the real love that donal ryan put into these characters is so obvious. i fucking LOVED josh's story-within-his-story for what it showed, the love, grief, religion, stubbornness and the father-son bonds. this was beautiful! i really recommend it for a litfic moment.