Darkness on the Edge of Town

Claire Keegan's novella Small Things Like These (2021) has been shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. The judges accurately describe it as 'a story of quiet bravery, set in an Irish community in denial of its central secret. Beautiful, clear, economic writing and an elegant structure dense with moral themes.' 

It's almost Christmas 1985 in the town of New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. Bill Furlong is busily distributing coal and wood to locals, before closing for the holidays. Times are tough, stores have been boarded up, and some of Furlong's customers can barely afford a load of coal to keep warm in the biting cold. 

One of Furlong's deliveries is to the convent at the edge of town, a training academy for wayward girls who toil in the laundry to atone for their sins. On a visit, Furlong meets one of these girls, and while the nuns outwardly demonstrate kindness, in his gut he feels something isn't right. 

At home with his wife and five daughters, Furlong cannot stop thinking about the convent and the young women there. His own mother, who was 16 when she had her son, may have ended up in a similar situation had it not been for a benefactor who took them in. 

Keegan has done a wonderful job of contrasting the delights of festive season with the darkness of the Magdalene Laundries. There is a strong sense of community in this town, gathering together to turn on the Christmas lights and listen to the choir. At home, the Furlong family makes Christmas cake, decorates the tree and the girls write letters to Santa. If Furlong acts on his instincts, and probes more deeply into what is happening to these girls, he risks being ostracised and the social and economic impacts that will have on his family would be dire. But can he stay silent?

The Magdalene Laundries are a shameful part of Irish history in which an estimated 30,000 young women were confined in institutions operating from the 1700s until the mid-1990s. Run by Catholic nuns, the horrors of these facilities finally came to light when a mass grave was found in 1993. An inquiry followed and in 2013 the Irish leader Taoiseach Enda Kenny issues a formal state apology calling the laundries 'the nation's shame'. 

While Keegan only hints at the horrors of these facilities in Small Things Like These, in subtle ways she communicates the powers of the Church and the risks of speaking out. 

I really enjoyed this Dickensesque novella. Keegan's prose is rich, and in Furlong she has created a wonderfully memorable character. I am not certain that this should win the Booker Prize, but I am pleased to have been introduced to this gifted writer. 

Booker Prize Shortlist 2022

The Shortlist was announced today for the 2022 Booker Prize. The thirteen titles on the Longlist have been whittled down to six:

• NoViolet Bulawayo - Glory (Zimbabwe)
• Percival Everett - The Trees (USA)
• Alan Garner - Treacle Walker (UK)
• Shehan Karunatilaka - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sri Lanka)
• Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These (Irish)
• Elizabeth Strout - Oh William! (USA)

This is an interesting shortlist without an obvious front runner.  I haven't read any of these books yet (as always, whenever I read a longlisted title it is guaranteed not to make the shortlist - sorry Graeme Macrae Burnet!).  But I really want to read the titles by Claire Keegan, NoViolet Bulawayo, Percival Everett and have heard good things about the novel by Shehan Karunatilaka. 

A video of the shortlist announcement is available below. 

The Winner of the Booker Prize, and recipient of £50,000, will be revealed on 17 October. Better get reading!

This Life

Jennifer Down won the 2022 Miles Franklin Award for her second novel, Bodies of Light (2021). It is an unflinching story of one woman's life, from a traumatic childhood in the suburbs of Melbourne, to reinvention in New Zealand and America as an adult, as she attempts to reconcile her past and claim her future.

Maggie Sullivan has reinvented herself in an effort to shed her past. After a vulnerable childhood, in which she experienced abuse and neglect as she was shuffled between foster care, group homes and institutions, Maggie continually tries to find a normal, quiet life. She is smart and full of potential, but at a disadvantage because of her upbringing and the systems and people who repeatedly failed her. When we first meet Maggie she is in her forties, living in America with a different name. An unsolicited Facebook message from someone looking for Maggie causes her to reflect on her past and her evolution from the child she was to the adult she is today. 

Bodies of Light explores difficult subject matters - child abuse, neglect, death, drug use, grief and more - but unlike so many novels, this trauma is not exploited for a voyeuristic reader. Maggie's story is authentic, and told with such beauty and trust. Her memories may be unreliable, clouded by loss and black spots, but her desire to make something of herself and find peace in her life is compelling. Along the way Maggie finds people who love her and help her on her journey, but given how often she has been let down in the past, she is always on the lookout for when she will be abandoned again. 

Every so often a character comes along that gets under your skin. I found myself so invested in Maggie's story that I could not stop thinking about her. Listening to the audiobook as I read, heightened my immersion in Maggie's life. 

Down is a poetic author, choosing adjectives that describe Maggie's world. Every sentence is beautifully crafted, and despite the dark themes, there is hope - a light in the darkness. While many readers might be put off by the subject matter, I would encourage people to give Bodies of Light their time. There are Maggies all around us and society should not shy away from understanding these experiences. 

I had the pleasure of hearing Jennifer Down speak at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May this year. She spoke about the challenges of writing this novel while working full time, the research she undertakes and the reasons why she wanted to tell this story. I am so pleased she has been recognised for this important novel with many award nominations and receiving the Miles Franklin Award. She deserves an audience for her work. I will certainly be keen to read more from Jennifer Down.

File Corruption

Emily St John Mandel's brilliant novel Station Eleven (2014) centred around a devastating pandemic and was told in a non-linear way, switching timeframes between before, during and after the world collapsed. In The Glass Hotel (2020) Mandel creatively braided timelines and stories of people impacted by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. In her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility (2022) Mandel ups the ante. She blends characters and locations from her previous novels with new people and places, and expands the narrative across five centuries.

It begins in 1912 when Edwin St John St Andrew is exiled to Canada after embarrassing behaviour at a family dinner party. He journeys across Canada, making his way to the remote fictional town Caiette, British Columbia (the site of The Glass Hotel), where he witnesses a strange phenomenon in the woods. In amongst the trees he is overwhelmed by the sound of a violin and experiences a sense of 'a flash of darkness, like sudden blindness or an eclipse. He has an impression of being in some vast interior, something like a train station or a cathedral...'. 

This sensation has been experienced in other times and places. The music is captured on film and used in a performance by a composer in 2020. Author Olive Llewellyn has a scene like this in her bestselling novel Marienbad. She travels from her home in Moon Colony Two to Earth on a book tour in 2203 when a pandemic breaks out. Later, in 2401, Time Institute Detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is sent back and forth in time to discover the source and make sense of this phenomenon.

It is hard to explain this novel to those unfamiliar with Mandel's work - its a kind of science/speculative/ literary fiction that defies pigeon-holing. You don't need to have read her previous novels to enjoy Sea of Tranquility. However, as a fan of her work I gained such pleasure from revisiting familiar characters and locations. It is a joy to marvel at the brilliance of the Mandel Universe. 

Mandel's prose is beautifully poetic and there is something hopeful in the way she explores themes of colonisation, climate change and pandemics. People endure dark days and remain resilient in the face of the difficult and unknown. While I loved her previous novels, Mandel has matured as an author and in Sea of Tranquility she has perfected her craft. The way in which the novel builds to its climax, bringing the story lines together, is brilliant and surprising. 

My reviews of Emily St John Mandel's previous novels  Station Eleven (2014) and The Glass Hotel (2020) are also available on this blog.