That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack: Never too late to change

Cover image for That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy TallackI’d not come across Malachy Tallack before his second novel, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, popped up on NetGalley. Tallack’s a singer-songwriter as well as an established writer of books about his beloved Shetland. The blurb promised a story about a man who has spent almost his entire life in one place who finds unexpected friendship late in life which sounded very appealing, reminding me a little of Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life, a favourite of mine.

From the time that Jack was first conscious of the world around him, music had been part of it. As much a part – a tangible part – as the walls of the house behind him, and the pitch of the land ahead. It had filled him up, become a kind of vocabulary and a kind of company. He thought in melodies as often as in images; he thought in verses as much as sentences.

Jack’s father had worked on a whaling ship, spotting whales for slaughter from his lookout high above the South Atlantic Ocean. Opportunities were rare in Shetland, and whaling money was good. Sonny salted his away, marrying Kathleen and moving into her great Uncle Tom’s croft in 1958. Jack was born two years later, growing into a quiet boy who knew to avoid his father’s temper. Sonny brought a passion for music back from South Georgia, passing it on to his son who became an ardent country music fan, scribbling songs for himself with hopes of becoming a singer. Now in his sixties, he’s a man of simple routine, walking his morning route, keeping up with gossip in the local shop, greeting acquaintances who have never quite become friends and listening to the CDs that line the wall of his old family home. Songs are still written but the fuzzy ambition which sent him to Glasgow for a few weeks four decades ago, a quest interrupted by tragedy, has long gone. One day a cardboard box containing a kitten is left on his doorstep to Jack’s consternation. Loretta, as she will become, is a tiny thing but she’s the spark for a surprising change in Jack’s life which has been changeless for so long.

That evening – its fourth at Hamar – the kitten and Jack were sitting down to a meeting of sorts, a summit, in which neither party could quite comprehend the other.

Tallack weaves Sonny and Kathleen’s story through Jack’s present in episodes that are often vividly lyrical in contrast to their son’s quotidian life, particularly in the opening whaling section. From his acknowledgements, it’s clear that Tallack spent a lot of his Shetland boyhood listening to whaling stories from men who knew South Georgia in the 1950s. There are passages of beautiful descriptive writing in both narratives, Jack’s threaded through with a gentle, affectionate humour and steeped in music. Tallack is a close observer, not least of cat behaviour: Loretta is as lovingly drawn as Jack himself, and eight-year-old Vaila’s adoration of her is spot on. I thoroughly enjoyed this touching novel which steers well clear of sentimentality. Any cat lovers with niggling worries about Loretta can be assured that she’s happily curled up on the sofa as it draws to an end.   

Canongate Books Edinburgh 9781838854980 240 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)

10 thoughts on “That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack: Never too late to change”

  1. Someone with as glorious a name as Malachy Tallack had got to be worth a punt. Stories of simple lives set in isolated communities often draw me in, epecially if beautifully coloured in, so this one’s got itself high on my Must Read list.

  2. Shetland is a place I would love to visit. Especially having religiously followed the TV drama Douglas Henshall. I have been up the West Coast as far as Ullapool which is steeped in fishing history. This book sounds lovely.

    1. Tallack is clearly rooted in Shetland and evokes the landscape beautifully. I love that series and have been treating myself to rewatching it via iPlayer. Not so happy with the new DI, though, but I suspect that’s because Douglas Henshall was perfect in the role.

  3. I have become very fond of this kind of novel. There can be a lot of productive rest in them and I appreciate books that aren’t all about tempestuous emotions and jumping the shark. I mean, I’m sure this has lots of deep emotion in it, but it’s processed and I like that. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

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