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A review by deea_bks
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
4.0
3.5*
There are really many well-written paragraphs in this book. I also really appreciated the author’s knowledge of physics and how he subtly inserted a few notions regarding movement or elementary particles in his prose with real grace, making them seem as if they truly belonged there, in a work of fiction. He must be interested in physics (it takes one to know one) and reading what he made of those ideas while I was reading in parallel a non-fiction book written by a physicist stroke me as serendipitous in a way. Another book I picked at the right time, it must be so.
Anyway, Ryan's prose can get quite good, but then it’s also interspersed with some parts that seem a bit chaotic and also with some parts that seem unnecessary. The way he connects all three stories at the end did not really work for me. It’s as if he followed a recipe and I’m not sure this always works if you just do everything by the book as he seems to have done. It might with food, but with a novel, well, it just seems too formulaic (thank you Teresa for having helped me find the word I was looking for). Or it’s just that I might have seen way too many movies presenting interconnected stories (“Babel”, “Amores Perros” etc) to still be able to be touched by this technique.
With that being said, I’m quite sure that Donal Ryan is another Irish author whose works I will be exploring further in the future. His ways might (still) be imperfect, it’s true, but his prose is sprinkled with quite brilliant passages and he sure has managed to get my attention.
There are really many well-written paragraphs in this book. I also really appreciated the author’s knowledge of physics and how he subtly inserted a few notions regarding movement or elementary particles in his prose with real grace, making them seem as if they truly belonged there, in a work of fiction. He must be interested in physics (it takes one to know one) and reading what he made of those ideas while I was reading in parallel a non-fiction book written by a physicist stroke me as serendipitous in a way. Another book I picked at the right time, it must be so.
Anyway, Ryan's prose can get quite good, but then it’s also interspersed with some parts that seem a bit chaotic and also with some parts that seem unnecessary. The way he connects all three stories at the end did not really work for me. It’s as if he followed a recipe and I’m not sure this always works if you just do everything by the book as he seems to have done. It might with food, but with a novel, well, it just seems too formulaic (thank you Teresa for having helped me find the word I was looking for). Or it’s just that I might have seen way too many movies presenting interconnected stories (“Babel”, “Amores Perros” etc) to still be able to be touched by this technique.
With that being said, I’m quite sure that Donal Ryan is another Irish author whose works I will be exploring further in the future. His ways might (still) be imperfect, it’s true, but his prose is sprinkled with quite brilliant passages and he sure has managed to get my attention.