This is a beautiful book with a powerful message about Northern Irish culture. This novel paints a haunting picture of a fractured community through the eye’s of a brave young woman who is trying to make her own way in the world.
Cushla, a young teacher, wants to create a life for herself away from her grief-stricken home, the alcoholic anxieties of her mother, and her brother’s watchful eyes.
While this story is firmly anchored in her community and context, it’s also a universal tale of survival and endurance.
Social history vs romance
I did not love this book for its romance, but for its rich characters and social history. Northern Ireland in 1975 and its complex social and political landscape, encompassing pubs, sectarian violence, loyalty, shipyards, schools, estates, Belfast, Dublin, churches, and funerals. You “travel” far in this novel, both in space and in emotional landscape.
You really get a feel for the lives and destinies of the characters and you desperately want the heroine, Cushla, to find her own way out.
A doomed romance
Catholic and living in a town outside Belftast, Cushla must confront society’s demons and figure out who, if anyone, can be saved, whilst also living out her own sexual journey. Her excruciating and sincere desire to make something of herself is very relatable and her internal dialogue when confronted with older, more sophisticated circles is very well done.
Cushla is drawn into an affair with a married man who comes from a privileged background and a different world, and as violence heats up around them, their sexual passion also has increasingly illicit, dangerous edges. At the same time, it’s also a tale as old as time about a young, slightly naive partner who is desperate to reach further into their lover’s life.
Beautiful moments of betrayal and friendship puncture the love narrative, plus the complicated world of sexual passion is intelligently examined.
Verdict on this book
This is a meaningful and engaging read and definitely a good book to read for anyone interested in Northern Ireland. It also works as an intelligent romance novel and is a good example of an “affair novel”.
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