Cuddy
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
**Chosen as a book to watch out for in 2023 by The Times, Observer, Guardian, Irish TImes and Scotsman** 'Myers at his best: dark, sharp, earthy and superbly funny. Cuddy isn't a novel, it's an invocation' ROB COWEN The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.
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Contains spoilers
Extremely beautiful, and haunting. Each section was worthy to stand on its own, but the picture painted through time by each led to a bigger picture that somehow made each piece resonate within its greater context. The last and first sections were my favorites, and I find myself thinking of them often, even now, especially Michael, now several months later. I am haunted by the conclusion of Michael's section, and still today, I think of him: I worry for him. I want to believe he escaped the confines of the restrictions of his beginnings with earnestness.
I really enjoyed the interstitial sections, and how as the story told in the text moved from the more distant past to the present (and how historically the form of the written English language and even the concept of prose became more rigidly defined) the text itself reflected that change. The medium is the message. Delightful!
The cycling characters were also really enjoyable in a way that felt both immediately comfortable and yet freshly novel. Meeting, parting, meeting again, but not. A delight to read, surely: to find them and see them and say, “Is that you again, my friend?”
Really a lovely book.
