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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reviewed for Books and livres
One of my readers returned it at the library and told me she was deeply moved by the the beauty of this book. Of course, I then knew I had to read it for the Irish readathon.
After several pages, I began comparing the note on the cover, "A joy to read" - The Independant, and what I was reading : an obviously complicated woman, confused bordering on harpy, hard on her husband, not nice with her father and has been awful to her ex-best friend who ended up killing herself. Everything was black, Melody was not nice but also deeply depressed and thought a lot about death. I thought The Independant and I definitely don't have the same notion of joy and found it hard to keep reading about Melody.
Then... Then I understood why, for the most recent part, she was hard on her husband and couldn't agree more with her ! And from that point, I got more and more hooked by the story, the depth of the characters, Breedie, Pat, Melody's confusion, her pain, her anger, the losses she had to cope with and her inability to find out how to live with herself.
The time setting is unusual : each part of the book is related to the progression of her pregnancy. The characters in this novel are complicated, some are really wonderful (Mary Crothery is "a card") and gradually, Melody finds out how to deal with everything that happened in her life, how to atone for her sins, how to deal with herself, how to completely change the life of some people around her and hers at the same time.
My review will never do enough justice to this book. When I first wondered what to write about it, my only thought is that it was like a light in the sky, like the sun shining after the rain while everything is wet all around.
I then went to search for videos of Donal Ryan talking about All we shall know and listening to him speak, I was struck by his empathy, his hope for human kind, his capacity of understanding human weaknesses and I thought I really had to catch up on this wonderful writer.
Beautifully written, this novel is devastating and uplifting at the same time. The end is totally unexpected but gives so much hope for Mary and Melody. You'll still think about it long after you have finished it. As the author says at the end : "I want the experience of reading my books to be intense, and memorable, and to count for something in the lives of my readers beyond a temporary distraction." He succeeded.
One of my readers returned it at the library and told me she was deeply moved by the the beauty of this book. Of course, I then knew I had to read it for the Irish readathon.
After several pages, I began comparing the note on the cover, "A joy to read" - The Independant, and what I was reading : an obviously complicated woman, confused bordering on harpy, hard on her husband, not nice with her father and has been awful to her ex-best friend who ended up killing herself. Everything was black, Melody was not nice but also deeply depressed and thought a lot about death. I thought The Independant and I definitely don't have the same notion of joy and found it hard to keep reading about Melody.
Then... Then I understood why, for the most recent part, she was hard on her husband and couldn't agree more with her ! And from that point, I got more and more hooked by the story, the depth of the characters, Breedie, Pat, Melody's confusion, her pain, her anger, the losses she had to cope with and her inability to find out how to live with herself.
The time setting is unusual : each part of the book is related to the progression of her pregnancy. The characters in this novel are complicated, some are really wonderful (Mary Crothery is "a card") and gradually, Melody finds out how to deal with everything that happened in her life, how to atone for her sins, how to deal with herself, how to completely change the life of some people around her and hers at the same time.
My review will never do enough justice to this book. When I first wondered what to write about it, my only thought is that it was like a light in the sky, like the sun shining after the rain while everything is wet all around.
I then went to search for videos of Donal Ryan talking about All we shall know and listening to him speak, I was struck by his empathy, his hope for human kind, his capacity of understanding human weaknesses and I thought I really had to catch up on this wonderful writer.
Beautifully written, this novel is devastating and uplifting at the same time. The end is totally unexpected but gives so much hope for Mary and Melody. You'll still think about it long after you have finished it. As the author says at the end : "I want the experience of reading my books to be intense, and memorable, and to count for something in the lives of my readers beyond a temporary distraction." He succeeded.
emotional
reflective
"Martin Toppy is the son of a famous Traveller and the father of my unborn child. He's seventeen. I'm thirty three. I was his teacher. I'd have killed myself by now if I was brave enough. I don't think it would hurt the baby. His little heart would stop with mine. He wouldn't feel himself leaving one world of darkness for another, his spirit untangling itself from me."
Wow. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this book. The plot was interesting, the writing style was captivating and the characters were so well developed and complex.
I really appreciated Donal Ryan's writing style. He writes in a way that is very much like a stream of consciousness, with sentences that just run on and on. Also speech marks were not used during the dialogue and I surprisingly didn't have any trouble getting used to it. It worked really well with the feel of the story. Also I loved that the chapters were told by the week of Melody's pregnancy. I thought that it was a really nice touch.
Donal Ryan's characters are a triumph. Melody is one of the most flawed people I have ever read about, she has done some pretty despicable things, yet I still managed to feel compassion for her. That is a such testament to Ryan's ability as an author.
What a lovely, surprising and heartfelt book. I would definitely recommend it.
PS. I need to read more stories by Irish authors set in Ireland! I really connected with the references and language/slang and it all just felt so natural and cozy to me.
Wow. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this book. The plot was interesting, the writing style was captivating and the characters were so well developed and complex.
I really appreciated Donal Ryan's writing style. He writes in a way that is very much like a stream of consciousness, with sentences that just run on and on. Also speech marks were not used during the dialogue and I surprisingly didn't have any trouble getting used to it. It worked really well with the feel of the story. Also I loved that the chapters were told by the week of Melody's pregnancy. I thought that it was a really nice touch.
Donal Ryan's characters are a triumph. Melody is one of the most flawed people I have ever read about, she has done some pretty despicable things, yet I still managed to feel compassion for her. That is a such testament to Ryan's ability as an author.
What a lovely, surprising and heartfelt book. I would definitely recommend it.
PS. I need to read more stories by Irish authors set in Ireland! I really connected with the references and language/slang and it all just felt so natural and cozy to me.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Listened to the audiobook while working and was so lovely to listen to. The writing is stunning. I had put this on the list of books I wanted to read and downloaded it without looking at the plot and was pleasantly surprised by the subtle twists and the unfolding language. The length was wonderful and will probably read again with a physical copy to really soak in the language.
Since I'm reviewing this book months after I've closed its covers, I don't remember much of it, which is one of the reasons I'm giving it an average 3 stars. I don't recall a lot about the writing or style. But for such a short book it packs a hefty punch. Set in Ireland, the MC's morals are involved when she is involved with one of her students, much younger than her. Her brain is confusing, a bit of a mess, and there are times when she's definitely taking advantage of her position/power. Her dad is concerned. You wonder how she became this way, the actions she's taking, the decisions she makes. Every time I opened this book I felt a little sadder - her situation, her mind, her voice, just the overall mood.
"All We Shall Know" is the story of Melody, a young woman who finds herself pregnant but not by her husband. This sets off a chain of events that will have Melody and everyone around her questioning the way that things are supposed to be. The father of the baby is a teenaged kid from a Traveller family (that Melody has been tutoring). At first, it is hard to see why this happened but as the book unfolds, we see that not everything is the way it seems.
The strong point of this book is really the writing. It is so real and very raw. The book is told from Melody's perspective as she gets further and further along in her pregnancy. We get a lot of insight into her feelings about Pat, her husband, and the marriage that is rapidly unraveling between them. We see how she is hated by his family even though Pat is most definitely not perfect himself. I really liked that the book was told by Melody as it allowed me to get really into the story.
While the writing is good, I did want to know more of the motivations of the characters. What is driving Melody to doing what she does throughout the book? While we get a lot of her perspective, there was a lack of showing what was really driving her. What drives Mary to form the kind of relationship that she forms with Mary? And then there is the ending (I don't want to give anything away so I apologize for my vagueness). The ending is incredibly clean and neat and is very much in stark contrast with the messiness of the rest of the book. It didn't feel realistic and left me wondering.
The strong point of this book is really the writing. It is so real and very raw. The book is told from Melody's perspective as she gets further and further along in her pregnancy. We get a lot of insight into her feelings about Pat, her husband, and the marriage that is rapidly unraveling between them. We see how she is hated by his family even though Pat is most definitely not perfect himself. I really liked that the book was told by Melody as it allowed me to get really into the story.
While the writing is good, I did want to know more of the motivations of the characters. What is driving Melody to doing what she does throughout the book? While we get a lot of her perspective, there was a lack of showing what was really driving her. What drives Mary to form the kind of relationship that she forms with Mary? And then there is the ending (I don't want to give anything away so I apologize for my vagueness). The ending is incredibly clean and neat and is very much in stark contrast with the messiness of the rest of the book. It didn't feel realistic and left me wondering.
This was a beautifully written book. The prose was very liquid and wonderful to read.
The story is quite haunting in a way that the ending will stay with you long after you finish. The characters seem deliberately shallow, without insight. However, that lack of depth helps the haunting feeling. Additionally, the style pulls the reader in as you try to impute the characters.
This one is going back on my shelf for a re-read!
The story is quite haunting in a way that the ending will stay with you long after you finish. The characters seem deliberately shallow, without insight. However, that lack of depth helps the haunting feeling. Additionally, the style pulls the reader in as you try to impute the characters.
This one is going back on my shelf for a re-read!
All We Shall Know is another title which I requested from Netgalley, from an author I’ve heard a little about but have never read. I tend not to read much Irish fiction, especially that which is encompassed by the broad title ‘contemporary’, but the premise intrigued me, and I thought I’d give it a go. I started it just by chance to see what it was like, and found it immediately engrossing. The whole is gritty, and the prose is startling at times. The narrative voice was realistic in a refreshing way; you’ll know what I mean if you read this. I had no real idea throughout about the direction which the story would take, and was quite surprised at the sheer scale of the emotional depth in such a slim novel.
The drawback for me was that the Irish dialect used throughout was rather overdone. I see its necessity, sure, but phrasing was repeated rather a lot, and such inclusion put me off reading at points. The sections of conversation which lasted past two or three exchanges felt a little jarring to read. I did not feel as though the novel was quite sustained throughout; its beginning was compelling, but the rest of the book just didn’t quite match it. An odd story, but an interesting one.
The drawback for me was that the Irish dialect used throughout was rather overdone. I see its necessity, sure, but phrasing was repeated rather a lot, and such inclusion put me off reading at points. The sections of conversation which lasted past two or three exchanges felt a little jarring to read. I did not feel as though the novel was quite sustained throughout; its beginning was compelling, but the rest of the book just didn’t quite match it. An odd story, but an interesting one.