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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
The main character was not what we'd call likable, she was considerably troubled and her perspective was quite hopeless, but I didn't dislike being in her head. I even felt sympathy for her. And for her husband. And for Mary. And especially for her father. The ending was a little convoluted and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.
The only complaint I really have is that I wish we got more social commentary, but I also recognise that this is an internal novel. It just feels like a missed opportunity for a fantastic discussion about Ireland as a modern but Catholic country with a complicated identity. There is a fleeting mention of abortion (going to London is a euphemism for getting an abortion since they weren't legal in Ireland at the time this was written) but no discussion about how Melody feels about abortion, the Travellers are a very misrepresented group of people but their portrayal felt cliche, they are referred to by slurs by other characters but we get no class commentary. It felt a bit surface level.
One HUGE positive though, this is one of the few books I've read where a male author writes a female character very very well. At no point while reading did I see a description of a female character and think, goodness not this again. It's just very well written overall so I do definitely recommend it. I think it's a books that will be very profound for some people
Because I don't have enough books on Mount TBR I signed up to Your Shelf and one of my three books was Donal Ryan's All We Shall Know. I've never read Ryan before, but his last two books got a whole heap of good press coverage and word of mouth so I figured he'd be a good place to start.
Melody, the main character and narrator, is pregnant by Martin Toppy, a seventeen year old Traveller. A boy she was tutoring. She's driven Pat, her husband away, they've spent years tearing pieces off of one another and this has been one straw too many for him. She's alone with her unborn child and her memories. Of her best friend from childhood Breedie Flynn. Of how Pat and she got together. Of her parents and the death of her mother.
It is a novel all about the damage that people can do to one another, intentionally and accidentally.
And it is a really good read. Ryan really gets inside the head of Melody and despite the fact that she does some truly horrendous things I slowly came to understand and empathise with her, to a certain extent. Her past certainly informed who she became and why she is the way she is.
But the fact of the matter is that she did take advantage of a seventeen year old boy, would the reader be so accepting of that behaviour were the sexes reversed? She was in a position of power over him as well. Okay, so technically he is over the age of consent, but it still isn't addressed in the book as much as it could be.
And then there is the depiction of the Travellers, and while for the most part it seems fair and balanced and the Traveller characters themselves all have depth and nuance, I still think that maybe their culture is a bit "othered". Ryan himself says at the end that he did ask people if they thought he did a good job in depicting them, but he doesn't seem to have asked any Travellers themselves.
But those are qualms and issues that a good book should raise, so don't think of them as complaints about the book, instead it is a good thing that the book makes the reader consider things like these.
All in all my first "Your Shelf" book was certainly one that I enjoyed and am glad I read it.
This soul-crushing book follows the progress of the main character’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the final nail in the coffin of her horribly dysfunctional marriage.
She meets a young traveller girl with another horribly dysfunctional marriage, and they become unlikely friends.
Peppered with heart-wrenching sentences that go on for entire paragraphs, each clause more upsetting than the last.
So begins a tale of a strained marriage, secrets, lies, shame - this story follows Melody through her pregnancy and looks at her relationship with the travelling community.
As with all Donal Ryan books I think you're better off going in blind so I never like to say too much - just if you're into solid, clever writing about rural communities, contemporary Ireland and human emotion, this writer should be your first stop. My absolute favourite author in Ireland today.
