This is my first contribution to https://746books.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/readireland2016/ which is an event being run by Cathy at 746 Books. This book was originally published in 2011. My copy is the newly released paperback edition from Dalkey Archive Press.
My Review:
The focus of this book is an old man named Farley who lives by himself in the suburbs of Dublin. When the book opens he is laying on his bathroom floor and it is evident from the symptoms he describes that he has suffered a stroke. He can’t move and is unable to call for help so it is terrifying for him that no one knows he has fallen. How long will he lay there before someone comes to his rescue? The rest of the book is a retelling of his life as each chapter reaches back another ten years in his story, leading us all the way back to his early childhood.
As the author reaches back into the decades to tell us Farley’s story the details of his life and how he ends up alone are slowly revealed. Farley was married to a woman whom he absolutely adored. He meets her in the 1960’s when he is a young man and is unsure of the path his life will take. He wants to move to Australia, much to the dismay of his widowed mother, and work as a car salesman. But Martina comes into Farley’s life just at the right time to give him direction and grounding. Farley gets a job as a clerk in an office, a job which he is proud of and does for the next forty years of his life.
A large part of Farley’s story is taken up with the grief he feels after the tragic death of his wife. From the details he gives us about the last hours of her life it seems that Martina suffered a painful bout of cancer. She was his whole life and he is completely devastated when she is taken from him. A few months after her death his Uncle Cal is so worried about him that he goes to Farley’s house and gets him out of bed and urges him to clean up his house and get back to work. Farley slowly begins to work his way out of his cloud of grief but he calls the entire year after Martina’s death his dark period. Farley never finds the kind of love he had with Martina ever again. Farley has an affair with Kathleen, Martina’s sister, who also happens to be married to his boss. They both realize that Farley is trying to use Kathleen as a poor substitute and the affair gradually fizzles out. Kathleen is worried that if her family finds out about the affair then she will lose all respect and love from her children.
So the pieces are gradually filled in to show us how Farley ends up alone at the end of his life on his bathroom floor. The theme of loneliness pervades this story as Farley tries to make connections with people in his life. But as an old man who is set in his ways this is no easy task. When his Polish immigrant neighbor offers to take a key to his house so she can check in on him he practically runs away from her. As he walks the streets of Dublin in search of a cobbler to fix his shoe he laments the changing landscape of a city he used to know so well. But it’s changing store fronts and differences make him feel even more lonely and isolated.
The details that are given by the author about Farley’s life caused me to become emotionally attached to this old man. I knew from the beginning that the story would not have a happy ending for Farley. But then again, he does live a rich, full life filled with love, friends, and hard work. The fact that I was sad when the book was over is a testament to the author’s talented, character-focused writing.
About The Author:
Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story competition, she was also a prize winner in the Observer/Penguin short-story competition. Her latest novel, Last Train from Liguria, is set in 1930’s Fascist Italy and Dublin in the 1990’s and will be published in June 2009.
Even though this book is a fictional account of the process of a heart transplant I learned quite a bit of information about the entire, complex procedure. The storyline in the book takes place over a twenty-four hour period that begins with a surfing adventure. Simon and his two best friends have woken up at the crack of dawn to pursue their favorite pastime, chasing waves. I enjoyed the description of their love for this sport and how they go about finding the best waves. They are young, fearless, and don’t have a care in the world which makes the tragedy that happens to Simon all the more shocking and upsetting.
Maylis de Kerangal is a French author. Raised in Le Havre, Maylis de Kerangal went on to study history and philosophy in Rouen and Paris. She worked at Paris-based Éditions Gallimard, then travelled in the United States, and went back to studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
This intense story is told in alternating views of two people who survived the brutality of a fictional totalitarian regime called the Theological Republic. Although the homeland of these two characters is fictional, it is evident from clues in the text that this country is in the middle east and that both characters are refugees somewhere in Russia. The female character, Vima, was know in the republic as their most stubborn political prisoner and given the name Bait 455. Vima is arrested and repeatedly raped and tortured by her captors who are trying to get information about her husband’s political subterfuge. Vima’s love and devotion for her husband runs so deep that the only words she ever speaks during these torture sessions is a defiant, “No.” One day, without any warning, a high ranking official interrupts one of these torture sessions by snapping his fingers and Vima is rescued.
Fariba Hachtroudi was born in 1951 in Tehran. She comes from a family of scholars and professors. Her paternal grand-father was a religious leader who supported the constitutionalists in 1906, against other religious leaders who advocated for governance by Sharia law and the absolute rule of God as a monarchic authority.
This is a difficult title to review because it is impossible to describe the beautiful and philosophical language which permeates the book. When the narrative begins Felipe Díaz Carrión is returning to his home in a small village in Spain, but returning from where we do not yet know. When he reaches his native village he takes great comfort in the familiar surroundings in which he grew up; the trees, the road, the nest of Egyptian vultures, the bronze doorknocker on his house and a cross which is the grave marker for his own father are all soothing to him. As a person who likes her routine and is comforted by old, familiar things, I was mezmorised by the first few pages of this story as Felipe slips back into his peaceful and calm surroundings.
I don’t normally read Dystopian, Orwellian type novels with talking Gorillas. But since this book is published by Peirene Press I decided to give it a try anyway and I am glad I did. The narrator tells us that he was living a happy life in the wild until one day members of his family start disappearing from their idyllic home. He then finds himself drugged and dragged out of his natural habitat against his will. He, along with his family, are chained together and forced on an arduous journey during which they are given just enough food and water to survive. Some of them die along the way and the living are forced to march on and leave their loved ones behind.. I found this to be the most heart wrenching and sad part of the book. Their fear was palpable and it was difficult to read about these innocent animals as they are taken out of their natural surroundings, and forced on a journey towards the unknown.
Peter Verhelst, born in 1962, is a Belgian Flemish novelist, poet and playwright. He has written more than 20 books. His work has been praised for its powerful images, the sensuality and richness of its language and the author’s unbridled imagination. His breakthrough came in 1999 with the novel Tonguecat, which won the Golden Owl Literature Prize and the Flemish State Prize for Literature. The Man I Became is his eleventh novel.
The Book Binder's Daughter 