From a Low and Quiet Sea
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Average rating4.3
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE A moving novel of three men, each searching for something they have lost, from the award-winning and Man Booker nominated author Donal Ryan. For Farouk, family is all. He has protected his wife and daughter as best he can from the war and hatred that has torn Syria apart. If they stay, they will lose their freedom, will become lesser persons. If they flee, they will lose all they have known of home, for some intangible dream of refuge in some faraway land across the merciless sea. Lampy is distracted; he has too much going on in his small town life in Ireland. He has the city girl for a bit of fun, but she's not Chloe, and Chloe took his heart away when she left him. There's the secret his mother will never tell him. His granddad's little sniping jokes are getting on his wick. And on top of all that, he has a bus to drive; those old folks from the home can't wait all day. The game was always the lifeblood coursing through John's veins: manipulating people for his enjoyment, or his enrichment, or his spite. But it was never enough. The ghost of his beloved brother, and the bitter disappointment of his father, have shadowed him all his life. But now that lifeblood is slowing down, and he's not sure if God will listen to his pleas for forgiveness. Three men, searching for some version of home, their lives moving inexorably towards a reckoning that will draw them all together.
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Donal Ryan is an incredible writer with undeniably gorgeous prose and fantastic character voice. His quirk is that he builds his “novels” from disconnected chapters, almost like short stories, narrated by different characters. In the first book I read by Ryan, [b:The Spinning Heart 15995144 The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349169242s/15995144.jpg 21753684], there were 21 of these narrators, too many in my personal opinion, so I was pleased to learn that this number is vastly reduced in From a Low and Quiet Sea. Unfortunately, I actually think Ryan pulled off the unusual structure better in The Spinning Heart, where there were little hints to the overall “novel” plot and how the stories linked together throughout forming a cohesive storyline of interlocking events. Here, however, the standout “story” which begins the book and is narrated by Farouk seems remarkably distant from the next two sections. Indeed, it is only in the forth and final section that the connections were finally revealed. More than that even, it was really just in the last few pages. This reveal seemed too unexpected and out of the blue for my tastes, and unfortunately really affected the strength of the middle two sections, in my opinion. A shame as I do love a lot that was here!
