Donal RyanRezensionen

Mawkish and melodramatic. Donal Ryan has an ear for some of the idiosyncracies of how rural Irish people—particularly those of a certain age—talk, but his dialogue lacks subtlety and variation. The characters and their motivations rang increasingly false the more the book progressed. The ending made me want to throw the book at the wall.½

I am fast becoming a fan of Donal Ryan. He writes stories about people who live simple lives in rural Ireland. However, all lives have their own complexities and problems.
Paddy and Kit Gladney lived a quiet, hardworking life tending the farm of the wealthy landowners, the Jackmans and Paddy was also the local postman. There was respect on both sides. When their only daughter Moll catches a bus and disappers from their lives without a word they are devastated. She appeared a meek, obedient young woman and this was perceived as totally out of character. It is five long years before she returns with little explanation untill a stranger arrives in the village seeking the family. How she had spent the past 5 years then comes to light. The reason for her sudden departure thoughis only revealed to the reader in the latter section of the book.
Although this was a slow burner, I found myself drawn into and captivated by this tale and oh what a beautiful cover.½

The Queen of Dirt Island follows the Aylward women who live in a rural, small town in Ireland — a circumstance that both makes and breaks them as a family. A book of two-page chapters, it comes across as a bit of collage leaving readers to fill in a lot of the spaces and connect the missing pieces, but ultimately tells a story of four generations of women who rely on each other to survive what life throws at them.½

Okay, what was all that about?

It's an okay read, but at the end... it's just over. And uhm, why?½

What happens when a story is pared down to its absolute essentials? There is nothing here in Donal Ryan's tale of rural Ireland that does not ring of truth. Each of the interior monologues shaves the skin off the apple. Even the monologue of the dead. I cannot think of another writer since William Faulkner who tells me what real people are thinking even as the characters are woven in their own words, then the words of their neighbours and relatives. There is no real present tense here. There is the impetus of the past folding these people into the future, like scraggly lines of DNA, or neurons of some colossal brain.

DNF

I enjoyed this book but did find the different characters voices made for a disjointed telling of the story. It does come together in the end.

This is now the third book I have read by the Irish writer Donal Ryan, and I almost always have the same experience: the man can write beautifully and his stories show enormous empathy, but there is always something lacking in the focus of his storylines, it's as if Ryan can never maintain that focus for long. This is also the case here. The first two parts of this book are of a particularly high standard, with a very empathetic sketch of the drama that happens to the Irish couple Paddy and Kit when their 20-year-old daughter Moll runs away, and the restrained joy when she returns 5 years later. Especially the depiction of Irish rural conditions (the ubiquitous Catholicism, the fear of everything foreign, the intolerable submissiveness of the social inferior to the superior, etc.). And those image-rich, rhythmic sentences. What a marvel.
But then the story suddenly takes a turn and the tone changes: Moll's black man, Alexander, who was initially treated very racist, is integrated without any problems, he builds up a successful career in an incredibly fast time and the family seems like a textbook model. Very implausible. Ryan then zooms in on the adult son of Alexander and Moll, his struggle with life, incorporated into a self-written story with an African and biblical slant, the meaning of which escapes me. Finally, the last two chapters offer a series of flashbacks with revelations of what was really going on, and here Ryan draws on a number of Irish taboos such as sexual repression and lesbianism, again linked with unlikely plot twists.
No, I can't rhyme it: the high-quality first half, and then the messy second half. It's as if Ryan couldn’t decide what book he actually wanted to write. A pity.½

Set in a small Irish village, Nenagh, four generations of Aylward women live loudly, argumentatively and with fierce love for each other, 'all wrapped up in one bundle'.

Eileen Aylward married because she was pregnant and was disowned by her family and on the birth of her daughter, Saoirse, her husband was killed in a car accident. Her mother-in-law owned a farm but eventually came to live with them whilst her son ran it and together, the women lived their lives with traumas and heartaches but always with the love of and for each other. Even if it didn't sound like it most of the time. Boy could these women cuss.

There is no doubt that this is a novel about women with the men often characterised as weak, not very clever, drippy, depressed, unable to live up to their father's expectations or angry and violent. Mary was the head of the family, straight-talking and loud and not afraid of what others thought of her or of Eileen her daughter-in-law raising a child without a man. Eileen lived up to her name Queen of Dirt Island, ready to attack anyone who hurt her daughter or Mary, on one occasion head-butting the girl who shouted at her daughter. She grew up with the rough and tumble of a brother that she fought with constantly, one time pushing him off the roof of the family barn, and whilst this violence is not on display often, every now and then it escapes.

When Saoirse becomes pregnant Mary and Eileen decide that the house wasn't big enough and that they need an extension, a bedroom and toilet of her own. They can't afford it so ask the builder to teach them how to lay bricks and build it themselves.

Her room a small bit crooked in the wall for all Mother's care with a plumb line.
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Saoirse is the character that I think is the least well-developed, strangely as it becomes clear towards the end of the book that she is telling the story. She seems quite blank in her early years, doesn't know that she was raped even if she wasn't hurt. She certainly wasn't in any state to consent to sex. In a chapter entitled 'Immaculate' we get one sentence that is a page and three quarters long of Eileen's thoughts about her daughter's pregnancy.

. . . the pregnant virgin, look out there, Mary, and see can you see the three wise fucking men coming down the hill with our gold and our fankincense and our fucking myrrh, look out and see can you see the Holy Spirit and the North Star, our lady is after having an immaculate conception and she's going to give birth to the king of all men . . .
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Saoirse is desperate to be in love, falling for Josh who then asks her to write down all the stories that her Mother and Nana tell and pass them onto him so that he can turn them into a book. She does this but when she reads the book he has written finally comes to her senses and stands up for herself, horrified at the way the women have been depicted. I have only just finished reading a book about author's stealing stories from other people - A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne - and thought here we go again. A woman written out of the story that she wrote by a man who was supposed to be her lover.

These women live in a small world, never travelling far but have the richness of family life that so many people wish for. Pearl, however, lives a life they didn't, finishing school and going to college to train to be a teacher and then taking a year out in her second year to travel safe and secure in the love of the women back in Ireland.

Written in short chapters or vignettes reminiscent of memories, the writing flows and descibes the life of the women particularly well. The dialogue between Mary and anyone is sharp and rather honest even though it is never demarcated with speech punctuation.

Her mother then at the back door and the postman offering to lift the box in for her, and her mother saying it was okay, and the postman saying, Lift with your legs , not your back. Nana's voice then floating out from her perch by the living-room window. He's some feckin' know-it-all, wouldn't you think he'd lift it himself if he's such an expert, and the jolly postman smiling, winking, calling back from his cargo doors Hello Mrs Aylward! and Nana shouting back, Oh, hello, Francis, love, is it yourself? Tell your mother I was asking for her!
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I read this book because it is our next book club choice and because I am going to hear Donal Ryan talk at Budleigh Salterton's Literary Festival. The Q

Strange Flowers is a recent release from Irish writer Donal Ryan. I've previously read The Spinning Heart (2012); The Thing About December (2014); and From a Low and Quiet Sea (2018) all of which deal one way or another with cultural change in Ireland. In a setting that begins with the 1970s, Strange Flowers explores the arrival of a black man from London looking for his Irish wife in a small, insular village, and the catalyst for these events is a #MeToo moment for a young woman whose emerging sexuality is not acceptable within the rigidities of Catholic Ireland. None of this is known when the book begins, so there are spoilers in this review.

Moll refuses to live life with the passivity of her parents. When the book opens, she has gone, left for a destination unknown, and for reasons not explained. She does not contact her parents for five years, leaving them in a kind of abyss, mourning the loss of their only child without knowing what has actually happened or even if she is alive or dead. The irony is that the daily routines of Catholicism offer them some kind of solace, when it is, in part, the strictures of the church that impel Moll's flight, and cause her to make choices that are not ever really right for her.

The other reason for her flight is social. Her parents, Kit and Paddy Gladney, are tenant farmers, beholden to their wealthy neighbours for their home and financial security, such as it is. The Jackmans own the farm and the house, and they are at the top of the social hierarchy in the village. For people in this village of Knockagowny in County Tipperary, it has always been that way. So it comes as no surprise that Lucas Jackman has a sense of entitlement over all that he surveys. For Moll to take the kind of action that she's entitled to make when she's been assaulted, would ruin her parents' livelihood and have them turned out of their home. Given the choice, her loving parents would have done anything and lost everything to protect her, but that's not the choice that Moll makes.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/08/24/strange-flowers-2020-by-donal-ryan/

Three generations of women live together: Nana, her daughter-in-law of her deceased son Eilene, and Saoirse Alyard, Eilene's teenage daughter. In a small town in Ireland, these women who yell at each other, call each other terrible names, and fight, love each other immensely through all sorts of trials.

Each chapter is only two pages long and the story slowly unfolds revealing the pasts of each woman. Eileen's husband has been killed in an auto accident, but she remains with her mother-in-law, having been rejected by her family for marrying "beneath" herself. Saoirse finds herself pregnant after a one-time affair unleashing her mother's wrath, but when the baby is born, a fierce bond develops.

The story is as much of a character study as plot although, Eileen's inheritance of some land plays a big part of the plot. It's funny in places, sad in others and a good read. Dirt Island refers to land that belonged to Eileen's parents; land that her brother Richard wants to steal from her.½

There is something so musical about the Irish brogue and for me the best part about this novel is the way that came out in print. I really felt the lilt of the Irish brogue while reading this. I also enjoyed getting the feel of the citizens of a small Irish town. Well done! My only problem with this novel was the main character himself. OK, granted he was probably a bit challenged mentally, and I'd like to say I felt empathy for him. But there is just so much self pity I can deal with. And Johnsey spent virtually the entire novel wallowing in self pity. I just got tired of it.

John Lennon once sang :
If you had the luck of the Irish
You'd be sorry and wish you were dead
You should have the luck of the Irish
And you'd wish you was English instead!

I don't think the characters making up this novel would go that far, but they are all certainly down on their luck. During the "Celtic Tiger' period of the mid 90ies to early 2000 the Irish economy was booming and life seemed great for everyone. But in 2008 the bubble burst and a deep recession caused suffering for all. It's at this point where the book begins with Bobby's chapter. Most of the novel centers around Bobby,but there are 20 more chapters that each tell the plight of the village from a different point of view. That's what I found so brilliant about this book. Each character gets about a, 6 pages or so, chapter all their own. And yet so much is revealed about them in these short chapters. What is particularly fascinating is the is a vast diversity of the characters. Some we hate right from the start, some have our full support, but they're all just so miserable and so down on themselves. One of the darkest, bleakest, and depressing works of fiction I've read in a long time. But still a worthwhile read because the characters have an honesty and sense of perseverance about them. The Irish have suffered many hard times throughout the centuries, but they always keep up the good fight.

My second novel by Donal Ryan this year and I can’t help feeling sad I didn’t read him sooner and delighted I still have the rest of his books to discover.

This is the story of three men, the story of their heartbreaks and the things they have lost in life.

Farouk whose country is being torn apart by war, Lampy who has had his heartbroken by the girl he loves and John who is confessing his life sins to us.

We learn about each man separately. What makes them up and how those parts are broken down.

The worlds Ryan create are so easy to fall into. He writes in a particularly Irish way with a quietness and empathy that I am drawn too. That said, I did enjoy the character of Lampy’s grandfather whose cantankerous humour and heart brought a beautiful side to the story.

I had so many thoughts while reading this book. I first thought about the functional structure: each chapter is less than 2 pages long. I'm in a bit of a library glut right now, juggling books and renewals in order to maximize and get through all the books I've borrowed. Not the best mindset to truly enjoy a book. But, I couldn't be distracted by these logistics for long: this is a gorgeous read. I find the Irish accent to be most beguiling, and I found myself trying to read the words in that accent as much as possible, but it is so mysterious that I can't hold on to it for long. The Irish stories I've read almost always feature close, multi-generational families, especially women, who cluster together in a world that feels both tiny and expansive, and they keep the family history alive, while the men gallivant about and get in scrapes or do valiant and noble things, and honour or abuse their women. There's a little bit of everything in this story of four generations of women, including the telling of this very tale, in a meta turn that feels almost like self-mocking (the author is a man telling women's stories), but works itself out in the end. There is birth, there is death, and there is life, and all of it is simple and complex and beautiful.

Pretty ordinary stuff.

Short chapters cover the highlights of 20+ years of 4 generations who make a life despite the petty jealousies and rivalries of neighbors and relatives.
The chapters are written as gesture sketches of events, leaving the reader to fill in some of the story.

I'm a fan of Donal Ryan's writing, but can understand that it might not be to everyone's liking

Winesburg, Ohio or Spoon River Anthology writ Irish and set in hard times after the big bubble economy burst. Lots of characters to follow and so I ended up thinking of them as "types"...desperate, or outraged, or defeated...depending on which of these timbres they sang in.

Ultimately, not to my taste. I like opera, less so oratorio. The interconnedtions of characters are often more interesting to me than the characters themselves, most especially when they're moaning and groaning about broadly similar things.½

Told in beautiful prose, this is the story of Moll Gladney, who at the age of twenty, leaves her home in 1973 rural Ireland, and disappears. Her parents, Paddy and Kit are left bereft. Five years later Moll returns.

A tale of love, loss, secrets and family relationships. there is much to this story. I struggled through a portion of the book ,"Song of Songs". But overall a very worthwhile read. I'll look for more by Donal Ryan.½

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan is a 2020 Penguin publication.

This is my first book by this author and from what I could tell this book had been very well received. It is supposed to be a lovely family drama, set in Ireland, and it sounded like something I would like.

I decided to add audio to my Kindle book, to complement my reading experience.
Unfortunately, I did not have the same positive experience as many of my reading peers.

The story is slow, and the shifts in chapters do not explicitly make clear the various time passages. The narration was too brisk, with little emotional inflection. For a short book, it took me a long time to finish it.

I was bored, confused by the stories Joshua wrote, which weren’t always clear in the audio portions, and kept trying to figure out who was blind because it was hard to tell when the story started or ended. It all seemed to bleed together- so eventually, I stopped the audio, switched back to the ebook, which helped. But after all those struggles, I was just ready to get it read and move on to something a little less depressing.

I didn’t get the ‘lovely’ part and was very disappointed at the turns the story took. I am not going to address the religious allegory as I’m not entirely sure what the author was getting at.

Overall, this wasn’t the right book for me, I guess. It’s a quiet book- which is good when I’m in the mood for that type of novel- but mostly I found this one to be either bland or utterly depressing. I’m an outlier this time around.

I loved this book and if it's in audio , I suspect it would be a delight to listen to. Strong woman, strong sense of place, humor and a happy ending.

La plácida existencia de Paddy y Kit Gladney en el pequeño pueblo irlandés donde viven se viene abajo una mañana de 1973 cuando su única hija desaparece repentinamente. La joven Moll, tímida y sosegada, cogió el primer autobús a Nenagh y luego el tren a Dublín; eso es todo lo que sus padres logran averiguar. Cinco años después de esa aciaga mañana, la llegada de un extranjero a la casa de los Gladney no hace sino añadir preguntas a los motivos de Moll para huir. Considerada como la mejor obra de ficción del 2020 en los Irish Book Awards, "Flores extrañas" es la quinta novela de Donal Ryan.

The structure of this one is not the norm. I would barely characterize it as a novel. The first three parts are truly much more like short stories than any other fictional form. The last part brings the first three parts together in an interesting way, but still didn’t leave me feeling like I read a novel. All that being said, I LOVE short stories, and the writing is so well done. Ryan brings these characters to life, and honestly I could have read entire novels about each one. For me, this book is the first one that I feel is worthy of the short list. I felt like I was reading about real people, and as if my friend was telling me about these people over a cup of coffee. The way Ryan wrote about them, I was riveted.

Mal was neueres an irischer Literatur zur Einstimmung auf den St. Patrick's Day.

Neuer aber doch altbekannt ist die Stimmung, sind all die Probleme der Iren in dieser Geschichte, die so plötzlich und unerwartet ein paar Schattierungen düsterer wird.

This is not the best of Donal Ryan’s latest novel. The lives of four generations of Irish women are described in a novel of over 120 chapters, with little to distinguish it from so many other novels about the lives of generations of Irish women.

The 120 chapters it did little to make for a good read and it had the effect of making the long story disjointed. As subplot followed subplot the meaning of each chapter was to be gleaned more from their headings than their contents. There’s a chapter of a few sentences about a young girl sitting for a college entrance exam titled “Questions”. The content describes she’s nervous but holds a relic of her great-great-grandmother and is calmed. That’s it. Next chapter she completes the exam. The title? “Answers”.

And on that note my short review ends. It’s shorter than a whole chapter of the novel. It’s title is “Disappointing”