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Executive Times |
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2007 Book Reviews |
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The Light
of Evening by Edna O’Brien |
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Rating: |
** |
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(Mildly Recommended) |
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Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Contrasts Edna O’Brien’s
latest novel, The Light
of Evening, presents the complicated relationship between a mother and
daughter with lyrical language and deep grief and sadness. The mother, Dilly,
is dying of cancer, and reflects on her life. Having left rural It would be a row over a
biscuit or a comb that was missing. The truth was they did not want me there.
I was an extra person and an extra body in the bed. In return for my lodgings
I did the laundry and ironing, all the cleaning and sewing for Betty, who was
mad for style. Betty was boss, a big girl with big feet and big hands, always
making novenas because her hair was falling out and she feared that no man
would want to marry a bald woman. They would drop hints for
my benefit about the landlady threatening to raise the rent, on account of an
extra person, the extra person being me. Other times they would be all pie. Then one evening when I got
back from the convent where I worked part-time my clothes were in a bundle on
the step, my name in big print on a label on top. At first I thought it was a
joke, but when I examined it I saw that every stitch I owned was in there, my
pleated skirt, my good shoes, laddered stockings, my brush and comb, my
prayer book, everything. They were telling me to go. It was the month of May
and there was a magnolia tree in bloom in the garden. The blinds inside the
house were drawn, all the blinds, the way they are when someone has died. I
reckoned they had conferred with other lodgers and had done it as a team. It
did something to me. I stood there and called up, thinking that one of them
would come down and, seeing I had no one to turn to, would take pity on me
and let me back. No one came. In the waxen flower of the
magnolia that was wide as a saucer, a tawny bee fed itself on the saffron
threads and I thought, I’ll never
forget this moment, the hum of the bee, the saffron threads of the flower,
the drawn blinds, nature’s assiduousness and human cruelty. Dear Dilly, Black and
Tans and their elite brothers in terror called here two nights back, they
burst in with blackened faces, seven or eight of them and I had to make a
dive for my life. Your father had his hands and feet bound while they
searched. Having failed to find your brother I had to act as candle bearer,
going around the house while they rooted in drawers and presses, everything
skiving out and then one said to the gang leader, a big tall fellow with a
military cast, said, “C’mon, Reg, there’s nothing
here” and the leader struck him and used the most terrible language because
of his name being said. They do not want their names known for fear of
reprisal, but it is creatures like us that the reprisals are vented on, hay
and crops burned, animals slaughtered, taking revenge on families that they
suspect have housed the volunteers. Shops and business premises have been
set fire to. Even a doctor that rendered medical aid to a wounded volunteer
had his automobile burned and he is frightened for his life. A man beyond Tulla that was a known sympathizer was taken out of his
house along with his wife and children, then the house set fire to and the
man thrown back into it, his wife and children looking on and the gang
shouting, “Let him fry, let him fry.” They were drunk as they so often are.
Write to me, in God s name,
write to me. Bridget The stream of
consciousness from Dilly’s deathbed can be a challenge to read, and the shift
in narrators can be distracting. The Light
of Evening tells a story of estrangement, sometimes at the price of
estranging the reader. The sadness and loneliness of the lives presented on
these pages can be difficult to absorb, and there is always a depth to the
power of the relationship between a mother and daughter. The Light
of Evening is a study in contrasts, in the hands of a fine writer. Patient
and willing readers will be rewarded. Steve Hopkins,
April 25, 2007 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the May 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Light of Evening.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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