I enjoyed this book very much (I gave it a 5-star rating on Goodreads). I actually prefer this to The Master. While The Master is equally well-written and the events perhaps more grandiose and involving, I felt that Nora Webster had more the ring of truth; not the vague truth of imagining something else well but the deep truth of
knowing something so well.
I also so enjoyed this trip to '60s/'70s small-town southern Ireland. I felt immersed and aside from Nora herself I was just interested in finding out more and more about the town and the people. I didn't want to 'leave' when the book was over.
As well, I feel lucky to have listened to the audiobook narrated by Shaw; she was one of the very best audiobook narrators I've listened to and I thought did very well with the challenging characters. It was a delight.
Reading through the thread, there's so many great posts and analysis and so much I want to respond to but for now I'll suffice with the first post I came across that I wanted to respond to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I'm not one who cares about to what extent characters are likeable or I can warm to them, but that said, I was irritated not by Nora in her grief, but by the devices in the storyline. Her passivity was understandable, but unlike Eilis in Brooklyn, there were no negative consequences for Nora. Everything went her way. She needed to sell the beach cottage? A buyer walked in the door. She needed a job, with 20-year old qualifications? Ditto. When she disliked said job? She got to work half-time and avoid the manager she detested. The private room at no charge on holiday, the free singing lessons, everyone in town, it seemed, falling over themselves to help her - it got tiresome. Her only setback was the botched audition.
|
I agree that most everything went her way, but I don't think it unrealistic. Sometimes that's just the way it goes for someone, especially a more or less likeable and attractive recent widow that a town is rallying around to help. I for one thought she shouldn't have sold the beach cottage at all anyway as she had enough money otherwise so I thought a buyer showing up so fast was more of a hindrance as it goaded her to sell before she could really think it through a bit more.
I think the nun character whom you didn't even mention strained my credulity the most. I actually wondered for a little while if she was a figment of Nora's imagination. She seemed to be some kind of sporadic guardian angel.
Really though, I think this boils down to who Nora is and the way the world views her. She must have a sympathetic face and be one of those people who give off a strong aura of needing help. I've seen it before in real life, and I think in a past time such as when this was set the urge to help from others would've been even more pronounced, for a woman anyway.
As for the job, yes it was a job and she needed one, but she wasn't happy with it. We could debate whether that's ungrateful or not but it didn't feel to me like she just got what she wanted with that. Imagine having to go back to a job you'd left decades ago that you hated because it was all you could get (regardless of the reason why you're getting it). I imagine it would feel terrible and regressive and she had to do that while dealing with such grief.
Quote:
|
Poor Donal, of course was another story as he suffered lasting damage; Nora's inability to exert herself to help him was unsettling, even as she was able to act for Conor. Her abandonment of the boys as their father was dying was chilling; if I were going to dislike Nora, that in itself would have provided the justification.
|
Nora, in my mind, wasn't meant to be likeable. Nor was she meant to be detestable. She was just meant to be, faults and shortcomings and luck and all. She felt very real to me, and it's funny because at first I wasn't sure she'd be real enough as she seems a bit overly saintly in the very beginning. I feel like the genius or strength of the novel is that Tóibín paints such a fantastic portrait of a real person and a real town, even if Nora Webster is fiction. It's too bad you didn't like it more but well, we all can't like everything!