Darn, I was so excited to read this after reading Tender, which I think is an excellent book, the best I've read all year, but I can't help being disappointed.
My expectations were obviously too high. I still love the prose, the realism, and the ending. But there was something about the tragedy that was a bit corny to me, and I do wish she would have given us readers a couple of pay-offs here or there; some moment of connection between our young couple- some puzzle piece that comes full circle, without being something too obvious- there are a couple attempts at this, but neither quite works. Is the family that Joanne is representing at the beginning of the book meant to mirror her own family at the end of the story? And more importantly, what becomes of her louboutin-sporting colleague? I enjoyed the book, but I think there were some problems with the pacing, and telling parts of the story in retrospect seemed messy to me. There seemed to be a constant attempt at not letting us see the relationship of the couple or any dialogue in the present between them- I think this was done purposely, but I can't quite figure it out. I'm rambling, but at least I'm not giving a book report like half the people on here :) On to some Philip K. Dick to keep things interesting! ( )

I don't know. . . . maybe I'm thick. Yes, that's true, and maybe I was also distracted by events in my own life when I was reading this. Anyway, I didn't understand the ending of this book. I didn't understand the reason why the father, Tom, spent so much money on useless farm machinery. I certainly did see that the relationship with his son, Mark, had a lot to do with it. I really liked reading about the relationship between the Tom and Mark, being a father (and a son!) myself. Much of this novel was indeed a story that I could very much relate to. Doing a PhD without a strong commitment and with the constant threat of failure hanging over your head is a situation I have been through. A parent-child relationship in which things are implied but not expressed is really captured well by Ms McKeon. I haven't experienced the sudden, unexpected grief of this story, but I could nonetheless feel the truth of its telling. I think I will stick with Belinda McKeon and try "Tender" - although I'm aware that it seems to get pretty mixed reviews. I'll keep Nancy Pearl by my side! ( )

In Belinda McKeon's prize-winning first novel, Mark Casey is a doctoral student writing a thesis on the 19th-century novelist Maria Edgeworth. As with many students who toil over a long-term academic project, Mark has grown weary of his subject and doubtful of both his argument and his career prospects. His search for distraction takes him to pubs and parties, at one of which he meets Joanne Lynch, a lawyer in training. Mark and Joanne fall in love, and their relationship is solidified when Joanne quickly becomes pregnant. Before all of this Mark's life was already complicated, financially tenuous and bristling with emotional landmines. His parents live on the family farm in the Irish midlands. Mark, an only son, does not particularly enjoy farm work but, as infrequently as he can manage without seeming spiteful or neglectful, makes the trek from Dublin to visit with his mother and to help his father, Tom, with chores that the older man can't manage on his own. Joanne is from the same town as Mark, and years earlier Tom and Joanne's father had business dealings, which turned out badly for Tom Casey. Even though Joanne's father is long dead, Tom's resentment persists. When the baby, Aoife, is born, a sort of reconciliation takes place. Tom grudgingly accepts Joanne and Aoife into his life. Then tragedy strikes. Mark and Tom, left alone with each other and Aoife, are forced by circumstance to set aside their pride and differences and learn how to be truthful with themselves and with each other. The drama at the heart of Solace builds slowly. It smoulders rather than explodes. Belinda McKeon is not afraid to spend entire chapters setting the scene. Inevitably, some readers will grow impatient. However, this is a novel that probes human motivation fearlessly and minutely. The emotions it evokes are raw and vivid. The prose, often spellbinding, is rich with moments of astonishing beauty. Undoubtedly the chorus of Irish literature includes many accomplished voices, but with her first novel Belinda McKeon makes a convincing case for herself as an important new voice, one well worth listening to. ( )

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/books/public-vote-debut-novel-as-iri...

Beautiful writing, in a non-showy way; very sad story.

There was no way he could not realise how much he had changed in himself, how diluted the energies of his mind had become. As though the shelves of a library had been ransacked. It's not fair, she thought... (210)

That was the ability to trust that she must have inherited from somewhere deep inside her father, because it was not anywhere on her father's surface, and it was not anywhere in her mother at all. (212)
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