My Review:
O’Farrell’s talent as an author lies in her ability to weave together the points-of-view of multiple characters into one seamless and captivating story. The centerpiece of the book is the marriage of Daniel and Claudette but we view their histories and their paths toward each other through different people in their lives including ex-spouses, children, and employees.
The first person we encounter in the book is Daniel himself who is about to embark on a journey from his home in rural Donegal, Ireland to visit his family in Brooklyn, New York. It is his estranged father’s ninetieth birthday and Daniel is making the trip back home in an attempt to reconnect with his family. While Daniel is on his way to the United States memories of his past come flooding back and he decides that he wants to also reach out to his children, Niall and Phoebe from a previous marriage. The storyline moves back and forth between the present and the past; as he is travelling to the United States, where he hasn’t been in ten years, it is natural for Daniel to think of the two children whom he was forced to give up.
Daniel is a linguistics professor and while he spent time teaching at Berkeley he met his first wife. Their marriage had a bitter ending and his vengeful ex-wife wins custody of their two young children and refuses to allow Daniel to see them. One of my favorite parts of the book is Daniel’s reunion with Niall and Phoebe in a coffee shop in California where he explains to them that he never stopped trying to have a relationship with them. He wrote them hundreds of letters over the years, all of which their mother intercepted. This meeting is the beginning of a meaningful and long-lasting relationship with his oldest children.
Daniel’s next stop on his making amends tour is to Brooklyn where he has vivid and heartbreaking memories of his mother. She never seemed happy in her marriage and she was the only person in the family to have any real affection for Daniel. O’Farrell weaves into the narrative the life and struggles of Daniel’s mother and how his relationship with her has had a profound effect on his current life.
While Daniel is in Brooklyn, he decides to make one last stop in London before he finally goes home to Ireland. He learns that an ex-girlfriend from his college days died shortly after they broke up and Daniel feels responsible for her death. But while Daniel is on his making amends tour, his wife feels neglected and left out. It is ironic that Daniel’s making amends tour marks the beginning of trouble and estrangement for Daniel and Claudette.
Claudette is one of the most interesting characters in the book because she is quirky and unpredictable. The beginnings of her career as a world-famous actress are told in great detail from various points-of-view. While living in California with her long-time boyfriend and her five-year-old son, Ari, she decides that she just can’t take the attention and fame of being an actress any longer so she decides to disappear. Claudette ends up in a remote, old farmhouse in Donegal Ireland where she just so happens to run into Daniel. Their accidental meeting is a great example of O’Farrell’s deft ability to weave the lives of characters together with an amusing and heartwarming storyline.
The last part of the book focuses on Daniel and Claudette’s struggling marriage. By all accounts Daniel should be happy with Claudette, their two children and his career as a linguist. But his making amends tour appears to have had a negative effect on his mental stability and he begins to ignore what should be his greatest priorities. We are left wondering whether or not Daniel will be able to make amends one final time with Claudette. The place in the world where he seems happiest and where his life is the most complete is at that old farmhouse in Donegal. Will Daniel ever be able to make his way back to this life?
This is my first Maggie O’Farrell book and I am eager to explore her other titles. I am wondering if all of her books have such strong and interesting characters. Two of my favorite characters in this book are Daniel’s sons, Ari and Niall, and I think she could get two more books out of them alone.
About the Author:
breach is a series of eight short stories that all focus on the plight of the refugees in Calais and the ripple effect that their presence has on the lives of everyone with whom they come in contact. The refugees in these short stories are from different countries and have made their way to this camp in Calais which is referred to as The Jungle. It is a type of holding place, a purgatory, where they are caught between the horrors of their past lives and their hopes of finding a future in Britain.
The narrative of this book takes places during the 1980’s and 1990’s as the communism regime in Bulgaria collapses and the government goes through a transition to democracy. The narrator jumps from one time period to another in an erratic and almost frantic method. The book opens when his father-in-law, a man named K-Shev who is the cruel dictator of Bulgaria, has fled to Germany. The narrator is visiting the now sick and dying old man in the hospital and delivering a giant suitcase of money that K-Shev stashed away before his hasty retreat.
Georgi Tenev, before penning the Vick Prize-winning novel Party Headquarters, had already published four books, founded the Triumviratus Art Group, hosted The Library television program about books, and written plays that have been performed in Germany, France, and Russia. He is also a screenwriter for film and TV.
Petterson presents us with the story of Tommy and Jim who grew up together under difficult circumstances in the same small town in Norway. They lose touch with one another and a chance meeting on a cold morning on a bridge brings them back together and causes memories of their troubled childhood to flood their lives. The story alternates between 2006, when they are middle-aged men and the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when they are teenagers. Since their early years are full of tragedy, we get the feeling that for the rest of their lives they are fighting a constant emotional battle, pushing back against the darkness and continually having to say “I Refuse” to unpleasant circumstance.
Petterson knew from the age of 18 that he wanted to be a writer, but didn’t embark on this career for many years – his debut book, the short story collection Aske i munnen, sand i skoa, (Ashes in the Mouth, Sand in the Shoes) was published 17 years later, when Petterson was 35. Previously he had worked for years in a factory as an unskilled labourer, as his parents had done before him, and had also trained as a librarian, and worked as a bookseller.
This book was an unexpected surprise that pulled at my heart strings. Mattis and his sister Hege live in the Norwegian countryside in a simple cottage by a lake. Mattis is mentally challenged and he is constantly attempting to navigate a world that he doesn’t understand and that doesn’t understand him. He has the mind of a child; he becomes excited at the simplest things like the woodcock which flies over their cottage. He has a deep fear of abandonment and is afraid that his sister, who is his only caretaker, can be snatched from him at any moment. And when he cannot make others understand him he becomes bewildered and frustrated. I became completely absorbed in Mattis’ simple and constricted world.
The Book Binder's Daughter 