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bgg616's review
5.0
Lillis flees Dublin for the Scottish Highlands after the death of her childhood friend and would-be boyfriend Donal. In the Highlands, she works in a bistro in a small seaside town, and gets involved with a man. Lillis is haunted by memories of Donal, and her own childhood with an alcoholic mother. In the second part of the book, we find Lillis 20 years older, and still unsettled. This is a story of motherhood - good and bad mothers, and women's lives. Lillis never seems to be able to live her life as she wanders through life burdened by the past. I believe this is a book for women, more than it is a book for anyone, and specifically women who want to explore motherhood and what it means. The prose is often simple, and beautiful. It reminds us that Ireland and Scotland are very different places and makes them seem as far apart as perhaps Canada and Mexico. I plan to read more of Ni Chonchúir as I love her prose and her sensibility.
clairewords's review
4.0
Saw that the Irish Times had chosen this title as their Book Club pick for December, so joined in the reading.
A new authorial voice to me and looking forward to the discussion.
Divided into two parts, book one takes place in 1991 when Lillis is almost 21 years old and in the throes of grief, after the death of a close childhood friend from a motorcycle accident early on New Year's Day. She had already made plans to leave Dublin and take up a waitressing job in Kinlochbrack, a fishing village in Scotland and it is there that she moves through the phases of her grief and falls quickly into a new relationship with her boss fifty one year old, Struan Torrance.
Things end badly for Lillis in Scotland and after a spell in Glasgow she returns to Dublin.
Book two begins twenty years later, Lillis is pregnant and about to give birth to a daughter, her supportive and loving husband at her side. The pregnancy, birth and raising of the child bring back memories and force her to address issues she had chosen to bury deep within her for the last twenty years. Much of it to do with being a mother, believing she had come from a long line of woman who were bad mothers.
It is a realistic novel with much to discuss and reflect on, both the decisions we make as individuals and those that we make due to the pressures of family and society.
Full review here at Word by Word.
A new authorial voice to me and looking forward to the discussion.
Divided into two parts, book one takes place in 1991 when Lillis is almost 21 years old and in the throes of grief, after the death of a close childhood friend from a motorcycle accident early on New Year's Day. She had already made plans to leave Dublin and take up a waitressing job in Kinlochbrack, a fishing village in Scotland and it is there that she moves through the phases of her grief and falls quickly into a new relationship with her boss fifty one year old, Struan Torrance.
Things end badly for Lillis in Scotland and after a spell in Glasgow she returns to Dublin.
Book two begins twenty years later, Lillis is pregnant and about to give birth to a daughter, her supportive and loving husband at her side. The pregnancy, birth and raising of the child bring back memories and force her to address issues she had chosen to bury deep within her for the last twenty years. Much of it to do with being a mother, believing she had come from a long line of woman who were bad mothers.
It is a realistic novel with much to discuss and reflect on, both the decisions we make as individuals and those that we make due to the pressures of family and society.
Full review here at Word by Word.
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