cmoo053 's review for:

From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan

3.0

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This was my second read from the Man Booker 2018 long list, and in the end I felt a bit ambivalent about it. Ryan’s prose is undoubtably beautiful. His writing is considered, measured and lyrical at times. This novella is a sad story, each central character grappling with the reality of their lives which have taken traumatic, unexpected turns. Normally this is one hundred percent my kind of read, but for some reason I felt very distant from these characters and this world. Ryan kept me at arms length, and although he drew his characters together at the end, I found this conceit a little too convenient.