Rainsongs

4.5 Stars

“The years have made me bitter, the gargle dims me brain
Cause Dublin keeps on changing, & nothing seems the same
The Pillar & the Met have gone, the Royal long since pulled down
As the grey unyielding concrete, makes a city of my town

“Fare thee well, Sweet Anna Liffey, I can no longer stay
& watch the new glass cages, that spring along the quay
My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes
I’m part of what was Dublin, in the rare ould times.”
-- The Rare Ould Times,Dublin City Ramblers, Songwriters: Pete St. John

”Is beag an rud is buaine na an duine” - Irish Proverb

The Irish proverb above translates as “The smallest of things outlives the human being.”
From the moment I read that, and with that proverb echoing in my mind, I felt the pain and grief behind those words in this story. A beautifully written meditation on grief, loss and love, this is also a lovely story of healing, which is all the more soothing in this rural scenic environment of this remote village on Ireland’s west coast.

In December 2007, Martha Cassidy’s husband has died, and she has returned to his cottage in West Kerry, trying to piece together everything, hoping, somehow, to make sense of it all.

She sorts through his papers, reading through his notes, his letters, slowly coming to terms with their past, their loss, his infidelities, and the present. His death. And the memories she has of them, all together, in this place. And through all of this she comes to realize that she isn’t sure she ever knew who he really was.

As she begins to need more supplies, she must head into the town, and sees the changes all around. This is the Celtic Tiger era of rapid economic growth which came from foreign investment, and in this land where the charm of the old seems almost sacred, suddenly new and bigger and better and more luxurious, hotels with spas and oversized luxury homes were envisioned to replace old cottages by the sea. And when it becomes known she is there, an “investor” with big ideas of building right along her property – if only she will agree. She does her best to avoid him. She welcomes a man, a poet and musician who befriends her, and she comes to rely on him.

This is a quiet, contemplative little book, and a gently handled look at a life of a woman struggling to understand not only what she thinks or feels, but struggling with the past, and some weighty decisions. This is filled with emotion, but at the same time, the writing is so lovely, and there is such a sense of reverence for the world around her that this never felt, to me, overly sad. This has become a place where she has found so much peace about the past, and in doing so, slowly she finds herself learning how to say goodbye to her uncertainties, and to embrace the future.


Pub Date: 04 SEP 2018

Many thanks for the ARC provided by The Overlook Press