Ruth & Pen
Ratings3
Average rating4
Dublin, 7 October 2019 One day, one city, two women- Ruth and Pen. Neither known to the other, but both asking themselves the same questions- how to be with others and how, when the world doesn't seem willing to make space for them, to be with themselves? Ruth's marriage to Aidan is in crisis. Today she needs to make a choice - to stay or not to stay, to take the risk of reaching out, or to pull up the drawbridge. For teenage Pen, today is the day the words will flow, and she will speak her truth to Alice, to ask for what she so desperately wants. Deeply involving, poignant and radiantly intelligent, it is a portrait of the limits of grief and love, of how we navigate our inner and outer landscapes, and the tender courage demanded by the simple, daily quest of living.
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Brilliant, rich, gentle, heart aching, intelligent, swift.
Ruth and Pen follows two women separately through a single day in Dublin. Ruth is grappling with the potential end of her marriage following a long and difficult road of failed IVF attempts; Pen is a young neurodivergent girl determined to have the perfect day with her maybe more-than-friend Alice. The multiple POV style is executed perfectly here, where each chapter is short enough to let both characters equally shine.
I found this difficult to get into through the first half. Emilie Pine writes almost breathlessly, like I can picture her sitting at her desk in the candlelight just going manic on her keyboard. And I found it worked for me in the second half because all of this suspension had been built up, but diving straight into her quick paced, thought-like narrative from the beginning was hard. But she definitely makes up for it.
Pine explores themes of love, neurodivergence, loss, climate change, sexuality, fertility, the female body, the works. And she does it well. And it's Irish. Basically, I'm searching for anything even remotely resembling Sally Rooney.
