Daughters of Passion

“Half the trouble in the world, comes from people asking too much of themselves”

This was actually extraordinary in its own way, but it loses itself in a false sense of passion towards loved ones.

We find Maggy in a jail cell, currently in a hunger strike. When reading this I think it'd be best to familiarize yourself with The Troubles, because this short novella has no room or time to hold your hand through it. I'm rather naive on this topic not knowing a whole much so as far as accuracy goes, I couldn't account for that.

But we quickly delve into Maggy meeting her friends Rosheen and Dizzy. She was left with Nuns when she was just a young kid, not knowing of her mother really at all. We learn that Dizzy is a bit agnostic but joined Catholicism school for the... ‘fun' of it? Hard to say her motivations. Rosheen very devout in the teachings of Catholicism gets more or less exiled from it, and marries an abusive man named Sean. Maggy herself upon leaving school leaves to America for 8 years and makes her way to London where Rosheen has left her abusive husband to move in with Dizzy, and Maggy ends up living with them too.

Maggy throughout this appears apathetic to it all. Like she's just there not really inside her own body. When she's recalling these memories she doesn't come across as delusional from starvation, the writing actually making all interactions quite straightforward. It's only during the brief moments out of these memories that we see how hungry she is, and how that's messing with her feelings and body, making her weak and uncertain in this path.

I'm not sure if it's the writing or the length but when we find out WHY she's deemed on the side of the IRA and participating in a political hunger strike it seems completely outlandish. The reasons behind her setting off a bomb, and who she targeted with a bomb, was more about her allegiance to her friends Dizzy and Rosheen over anything political at all, albeit the Politics being the driving force behind this entire situation in the first place. We don't get much emotions from Maggy regarding Dizzy and Rosheen, no extreme declarations one way or another about how she feels about the friendships. So to make the decision to plant a bomb and take out someone seen as a “threat” was lacking a sense of reason for me. Not to mention, Rosheen and Dizzy don't even appear at the court hearing for her. Maggy's political stance was not entirely conveyed either. All we know of her is growing up in South Ireland, raised Catholic. Off to America and then is in London for an indescriminate amount of time. I'm not sure though if in a mere 50 pages we could of gathered more in understanding from any of this should it of been written in a different way.

However, again, it truly is extraordinary in its own way. You're thrown into this and I couldn't help but be drawn to the premise of a woman locked in jail on hunger strike, with the background of The Troubles. The writing while vague in emotional territory is confident and welcoming. The ending is a left over question, not a perfect bow conclusion. I was okay with this as it gave me the opportunity to imagine Maggy in the way I think her story should end.