Having had such a brilliant year reading Irish women writers in 2022, I’ve had my eye out for more this year which is what drew me to Chloe Michelle Howarth’s debut, Sunburn. Set in rural Ireland in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, it’s a queer coming-of-age story which follows Lucy, long since assumed to be on the road to marriage and kids with her neighbour and best friend, Martin.
It’s safe. It’s airtight. In a place so small, there isn’t much room for wild thinking or ambition.
Lucy’s father is a farmer and her mother a housewife kept busy by her family of which Lucy is the only girl. She’s fifteen in 1989, one of a group of girls tightly bound by friendship, fraught with all the worries and pitfalls of adolescence. Lucy desperately needs to fit in, to ignore the troubling feelings she has for Susannah whose parents have split leaving her craving attention from a father caught up with his new family and a resentful mother out having a good time whenever the opportunity arises. As she finds herself in the spotlight of Susannah’s attention, Lucy dares to hope that her feelings are requited. By the end of a summer spent in Susannah’s garden, it’s clear that they are but while Susannah wants their love made public Lucy is terrified of coming out, continuing to string Martin along and feigning jealousy for her friends’ benefit when he takes up with someone else. Then something happens which forces Lucy to make a decision one way or the other.
My own feelings are a hedge of briars that I can’t bring myself to touch. There are so many unhappy people, I just don’t want to find out that I am one of them.
Lucy tells us her story, full of the passion of first love and the terror of being discovered in a town alert to any non-conformity and judgemental of it. Rural Ireland in the ‘90s is a world away from the country that voted for equal marriage in 2015. Howarth’s depiction of village life where everyone knows everyone else’s business is claustrophobically convincing. The small kindnesses doled out to Susannah, emotionally and physically neglected by her mother, are balanced by the closed mindedness of Lucy’s friends and family. Faced with the possibility of ostracism, her solution is both painful and selfish, although perhaps understandable. Howarth’s novel is not without flaws – I found it overlong and a little florid at times – but overall it’s an enjoyable coming-of-age story which left me hoping things areeasier these days for the Lucys of this world.
Verve Books: Harpenden 9780857308412 288 pages Paperback (Read via NetGalley)
Despite your slight misgivings, this seems well worth looking out for.
Definitely minor quibbles. She captures that adolescent intensity brilliantly.
Excellent review Susan
Thank you! Continuing my Irish women writers roll…
To be fair there is an abundance at the moment
There certainly is. Long may it last!
Interesting, I do like the sound of this.
I’ve a soft spot for coming-of-age novels and this is a good one.
I do love a coming-of-age novel and this sounds quite well done
I’d recommend it overall, Cathy. A few minor quibbles outweighed by the storytelling and themes.
This does seem well done; things are I think easier (relatively) for people but not all the time sadly. (In my part of the world, a politician’s daughter who’s opted for gender reassignment is facing a lot of trolls and flack, though what business it is of theirs one wonders).
Couldn’t agree more with your last point. It really is no one’s business but the people involved.
There are positive stories too, thankfully. Like a former diplomat had written a piece about how initially he was shocked and taken aback when his daughter came out but then how he was able to accept things with time.
Which is exactly the kind of thing young people need to read. Good for him for saying it publicly.
Like others here, I like the sound of this despite your minor reservation about the length. The evocation of the small-town / village setting seems particularly strong, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. (I’ve made a note for when it comes out in paperback.)
Yes, she captures it very well. Also that time before Ireland reinvented itself by way of the two referenda.
I really like the quotes Susan – a lovely pacing to the writing. I’ll look out for this but bear in mind what you say about the length.
Definitely worth reading for the way she captures both the headiness of first love and the fear of being different in a small judgemental community.