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A review by eyeowna
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5 stars, maybe a 5 if I think about it enough. I loved this novel! I read most of it in one day.
Whale Fall is a slow, quiet, vivid novel. In the late 1930s, on the cusp of another world war, the body of a whale washes up on the shore of a small Welsh island. We follow 18 year old Manod from the island’s small fishing community when, after the arrival of the whale, two English ethnographers turn up to write a book about the island.
I loved Manod as a narrator. She’s smart and observant. She’s very caring to her family but in a realistic way—heavy responsibility was put on her shoulders very early. She has her own desires. Sometimes she swallows her own wants to care for her younger sister. In other ways she will not budge. You can also see how her understanding of the world is limited because she doesn’t know much beyond the island. And yet when another character calls her naive, you feel that in many ways that other character is more naive than Manod.
The environmental beauty and culture on the island is tied together with the harsh realities of living in an isolated rural community. The throughline of the decomposing whale was just cool. The ethnographer characters are almost funny but also very much not in how they totally romanticize and misinterpret island life and the islanders. They made my teeth gnash together. Even so, I enjoyed the inclusion of some of their ethnographic notes into the novel, so maybe I’m just as bad re: the romanticization.
I plan to reread this novel later to pay more attention to the writing style. I think this would be a great book to study for craft.
Whale Fall is a slow, quiet, vivid novel. In the late 1930s, on the cusp of another world war, the body of a whale washes up on the shore of a small Welsh island. We follow 18 year old Manod from the island’s small fishing community when, after the arrival of the whale, two English ethnographers turn up to write a book about the island.
I loved Manod as a narrator. She’s smart and observant. She’s very caring to her family but in a realistic way—heavy responsibility was put on her shoulders very early. She has her own desires. Sometimes she swallows her own wants to care for her younger sister. In other ways she will not budge. You can also see how her understanding of the world is limited because she doesn’t know much beyond the island. And yet when another character calls her naive, you feel that in many ways that other character is more naive than Manod.
The environmental beauty and culture on the island is tied together with the harsh realities of living in an isolated rural community. The throughline of the decomposing whale was just cool. The ethnographer characters are almost funny but also very much not in how they totally romanticize and misinterpret island life and the islanders. They made my teeth gnash together. Even so, I enjoyed the inclusion of some of their ethnographic notes into the novel, so maybe I’m just as bad re: the romanticization.
I plan to reread this novel later to pay more attention to the writing style. I think this would be a great book to study for craft.