This was their first real kiss, and while it was interesting, neither of them really knew how to do it. Their lips fidgeted against one another. Their tongues touched for just an instant, then retreated.
Cal was born with one leg shorter than the other making him ineligible to serve in the war. It’s a source of shame for him. His father’s a World War I vet, deeply damaged, and even more so after the deaths of his wife and Cal’s siblings. Cal endured the usual cruelties dished out by schoolchildren, driven out of the family home by his father’s alcoholism aged eighteen. Becky had also been the subject of derision at school, her claims to hear the dead marking her out as odd. No earth-shattering bolt of lightning makes these two fall for each other but their friendship leads to marriage, a job in the family hardware store for Cal, and eventually a son. The only fly in the ointment is Becky’s spiritualism, a comfort to the bereaved but a source of disagreement with the sceptical Cal. On VE day, a beautiful redhead walks into the hardware store asking Cal for a radio. They listen to the news together, Margaret so delighted that she reaches for Cal and kisses him. It will be some time before she has news of her husband, presumed missing, who returns carrying a grief he can’t talk about to her or anyone. When Margaret tells him she’s pregnant, Felix has the hope of the family life he’s buried so much to attain.
Remember how my Grandad and my Pop-Pop were vets who’d been to war and fought and all that? And your dad? Why didn’t they ever talk about it? Why didn’t they tell us how awful it was?
The story of these two families is played out against the background of great social change, exploring themes of family, sexuality, infidelity, love and forgiveness with a perceptive compassion and a touch of gentle humour. War is an underlying background hum – the ruinous effects on those left behind, on those who go to war and the ones that come home unable or unwilling to talk about it. Ryan’s characters are engaging and believable; Becky’s contact with the dead is far from jarring in its expression of a desire to help those who have been bereaved. Often doorstoppers make me feel desperate to cut swathes from them but Ryan’s novel kept me engrossed throughout. An impressive, powerful debut. I’m not surprised Ann Patchett liked it so much: she could have written it herself.
Bloomsbury Books: London 9781526689283 464 pages Hardback (Read via NetGalley)
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I do like the sound of this.
One to sink into!
I tend not to enjoy being told ‘If you like xyz you’ll love abc’, but you are a very reliable witness. This book still hasn’t made it into any of our libaray shelves, but already I am 12th in the queue to borrow it. So someone else is talking it up too …
It was published last week so I hope has had several appreciative reviews. I’m happy with comparisons as long as they’re accurate. Publishers take note!
Sounds fab. I’m on the waiting list through the library. Too bad your Booker prediction didn’t come true.
I hope you love it as much as I did. I know: as with so many on my list it was there more in hope than anticipation. Still delighted about Skyscraper, though.
I’ve seen lots of buzz about this one, including piles and piles of copies at my local chain bookstore (a Barnes & Noble; perhaps the U.S. equivalent of Waterstones?) I must admit I’m somewhat tempted but will probably resist, at least for the immediate future (it helps, that I have several novels lined up for my fall reading). I don’t really like the WWII and family saga thing that much and I’m afraid the story might be a little too sentimental for my tastes. Still, I frequently reconsider these types of decisions!
I’m not a fan of sentimentality but Ryan avoids falling into that trap. It’s a long time since I went to the States so I haven’t visited a Barnes & Noble for a while but James Daunt who runs Waterstones was appointed to oversee turning around Barnes & Noble so there may be more of a resemblance than there once was!
I’m in the middle of this book at the moment and enjoying it so far. I could easily believe Ann Patchett had written it!
Absolutely! Glad to hear that you’re enjoying it. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before his next novel.
I read a review of this in The Guardian (I think) and really liked the sound of it,
Highly recommend it, Cathy. I’m glad I got over my initial scepticism.
A few chapters in and I’m getting more and more invested. Well written.
Very! Fully justifies its doorstopping length.
Good to know!
Yes it’s getting good reviews. I just finished a doorstopper on holidays – Llosa’s book The Dream of the Celt. So it’s a few shorter books for me for next few weeks.
Would you recommend it? I’ve only read Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.
It’s a very particular historical book about the life of the Irish patriot Roger Casement. I have to commend Llosa, who was Portuguese, on his indepth research on his subject. I found it enlightening and deeply moving as I have always been interested in Casement’s life. He was captured in Kerry and ended up in Pentonville prison where he was executed. I think the reader would need to be interested in Casement and Irish history.
Fascinating that Llosa was so interested in Irish history. It sounds like a very sad story.
Maybe it’s because Casement spent time in Peru working for the British Government investigating atrocities being committed against indigenous Indians by rubber excavation companies. Llosa was Peruvian, not Portuguese like I stated earlier. Very sad story. Casement has become a hero in Ireland now.
I had no idea. Thank you, Lucy.
This sounds ambitious and very well realised! I’m not usually one for doorstoppers but this sounds well worth the time.
Me, neither, but every page counted in this one.
I feel like I should read it, but I keep resisting. Silly, but I think it’s the title and the setting, because I’m from the buckeye state and I don’t think he’ll get it right. LOL. I’ve read that he studied for his master’s degree in the state, but that doesn’t count.
Ah, I see your dilemma! I loved it, as I’m sure you can tell.
Oh dear, I didn’t really get on with this, I didn’t like the way the female characters were handled and the exaggerated way the men were portrayed as being such experts in handling the domesticity and care. And also the identity reveal, the complete lack of understanding or empathy for the one from whom it was withheld.
I somehow missed this review and I’m not a fan of Patchett’s fiction, though I do really like her nonfiction essays.
Still I’m glad I read it to know, I was influenced by Margaret Renkl’s rave review.
That’s a shame Perhaps it’s because I’m a Patchett fan that it worked better for me.
I’ve just been given another Patchett to try, hmm.
Oh, dear… Which one?
Commonwealth
I hope you find something to enjoy in it.