Tag: Northern Ireland

Book Review: Ghost Wedding by David Park- characters in two time-frames at a place where the past seeps into the present

~ Judith ~ Leave a comment

This is one of those books that makes me say to myself, I must read more by this author. David Park is such a sensitive writer, his characters so subtly drawn, the storytelling original and thought-provoking.

Ghost Wedding takes us to a country manor near Belfast, now a wedding venue which Alex and Ellie are visiting. It’s the kind of place you have to book a year in advance, but Ellie has her heart set on it. So when the manager suggests that the newly refurbished boathouse might be available in time for their wedding, Alex agrees – anything to make Ellie happy.

Alex has all kinds of doubts, mostly because of guilt. For something that happened with his friends some time ago, for the way his father runs the family business and his own inability to please him. And then there’s his unhappy childhood and his mother’s mental health. How can Alex ever be worthy of Ellie? And why do they have to make such a big thing of getting married – the perfect wedding, the venue, the dress, the cake and everything else?

It’s a lot of pressure on Alex, who has been sent by his father to tell the tenants of an old arcade of shops and businesses that their lease is soon to expire. If only he was made of sterner stuff and hadn’t become so friendly with Anton, who has a sick child, the tattoo artist and others. Then there’s the history of the commercial buildings Alex’s dad buys up with a view to selling on to developers. Where his father sees profits, Alex imagines the lives of those who once worked there.

It isn’t the smoke that attracts them – they are used to men smoking – nor is it the sound of his feet moving from room to room, however quietly he manages to do it. It is to do with some almost imperceptible disturbance of the air, the shifting of what has settled for so long into different patterns, the slow ebb and flow of new currents. The dissolving and reforming of time itself, the constant layering of what has once been with what is still to come. So they slowly stir now from their past lives and form about him, just as they do in every one of the city’s derelict or discarded buildings when Alex comes to mark them out for a different future.

Alex is a good guy with regrets in the present day storyline that runs through the book, just as George Allenby does in the storyline that takes place a hundred years before. He’s the junior architect in charge of the construction of a lake and boathouse at the substantial home of the Remingtons. It’s back-breaking work and the digging out of mud during rainy weather only reminds George of his wartime experiences, in particular the comrades he lost at the Somme. He sees them from time to time when they shouldn’t really be there.

When the weather prevents his usual return home to Belfast one evening, George accepts the Remington’s offer of a bed for the night. Dinner is awkward between Mr Remington and his son Edward, who too young for the war, has done nothing with his life – another son who has disappointed his father. There’s also an attraction across the divisions of class when George meets Cora, one of the maids who work for the Remingtons – something George is ill-equipped to deal with.

The story switches between the two time-frames, and while there are ghosts of a sort, this isn’t really a ghost story, in the traditional sense, as the images of the dead tend to be connected with the feelings of our main characters, of their sense of the past. There’s sadness and inevitability about what happens, although there’s hope as well. It’s a beautifully crafted novel, David Park capturing the missteps between characters and their struggles to communicate, so they remain locked in their feelings of doubt and misery.

There’s a lot about class in the book – old money versus new money, the morality of making money, particularly that tied up with property, in both storylines. And the way the war not only tainted its survivors, but also made them somehow more worthy, not that they can ever talk about it. Secrets bubble away and not all are revealed, however troubling they may be. It all adds up to a layered and satisfying novel, as I would expect from David Park. Ghost Wedding is a four and a half star read from me.

Review: Milkman by Anna Burns

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

It took me a while to figure out why there’s an image of a sunset on the cover of Milkman, Anna Burns’s 2018 Man Booker winner. This is a novel about about a young girl’s battle to stay safe and sane in a divided and violent town that is probably Belfast, circa 1978. She’s eighteen, and with her habit of walking while reading pre-twentieth century fiction, is steadily becoming one of those ‘beyond the pale’ people who don’t fit in.

The young narrator has already lost one brother to the ‘troubles’ and a sister to exile, her late father was plagued by depression, so she keeps her head down and her mouth shut where possible. When a senior member of the paramilitary known as ‘the milkman’ takes an interest in her, she draws fury from her family and neighbours even though she does her best to avoid him. He’s over forty, married and with veiled threats against her ‘maybe boyfriend’, is clearly stalking her.

The novel follows the girl’s battle to be herself in an environment marred by terrorism and reprisals, where you have to watch what you say and do, even what you buy (nothing that comes from that place ‘over the water’). Meanwhile the milkman is never far away, and her fears for what he will do next disrupt her life, and she becomes increasingly withdrawn. She even stops going to French classes, where one lesson their teacher has them look at the sunset, something she once did with maybe boyfriend, and which isn’t the sort of thing people tend to do.

Yet the book is oddly humorous. The quirky narrative style takes a bit of getting used to -with long, complex, stream-of-consciousness sentences and paragraphs that go on for pages at a time. But they bring you inside the mind of an engaging, smart and aware young person. Oh, and did I mention the characters’ names? Well, there really aren’t any. As with ‘maybe boyfriend’ people are referred to as ‘third sister’, ‘first brother-in-law’, ‘tablets girl’. It kind of adds to the disconnect the girl has with her world or possibly it helps the characters see themselves as blending in, not standing out. Names can be revealing.

Essentially this is a historical novel, but unlike most historical novels, the specifics of places, dates and names of personnel are missing in favour of creating the feeling of the time and circumstances. I cannot imagine reading anything else that recreates so well the effects of sectarian violence on ordinary people, and particularly women. The rumours, the assumptions of guilt, a fear of loving in case the beloved is killed or imprisoned, the need to conform, the lack of sunset appreciation.

Read Milkman when you have some time to sit and concentrate; when you can get into the feel of the writing and let it draw you into its world. If you can read it with that Northern Irish lilt in your head, even better. It’s a worthy award winner and for me a four and a half star read.