Highly enjoyable because it is written simply and dispassionately, yet this novel delivers strong impressions of deeper insights into the life of Judge Redmond and his family connections. The story reminds us of the impact of life's accidents and how this man slowly comes to terms and makes peace with the historical, familial and professional bonds that have shaped his own life.
Well worth the read.

This was a random purchase from my local charity bookshop a few weeks ago, and was just the kind of fiction I was in the mood.

The Heather Blazing is one of those books were the chapters alternate between the past and the present. In the present day, the protagonist is a senior judge in the Dublin courts enjoying the escapism of weekends at his old family home at the coast with his wife. For a while, the jumps back to his boyhood frustrated me a little, as they seemed to be going nowhere and I tire easily of Ireland-of-yore fiction, but as the novel progressed the point of these chapters became clearer and they provided the back story of why Eamon Redmond had become the man he was, for good and for bad, politically and socially.

It took me a while to warm to this novel, but in the end I really enjoyed it. Toibin writes with warmth and compassion towards his characters, and although Redmond had his flaws by the end of the book I loved him because of his flaws, not despite them, understanding how his earlier years had shaped him.

With the historical backdrop of Enniscorthy in Wexford, a key location in the 1916 Easter Rising, Irish republican politics are woven into the story, past and present. I often struggle with the romanticising of terrorism in Ireland, but Toibin handles it delicately enough.

4 stars - probably not a book I'll remember too much about in the near future, but recommended when you're just in the mood for a decent page-turner. ( )

A quietly beautiful novel about family, intimacy and the passing of time, the slow rhythms of a life, the simple but moving stories. Little happens, but a picture builds up with Toibin skilfully using narratives from two periods of Eamon Redmond’s life as youth near Wexford and High Court judge in Dublin, including the significant silences. It then looks like it might all be washed away, but there is still life and life goes on. ( )

an Irish judge loses his wife and reflects on his boyhood

An elderly judge Eamon Redmond lives with his wife Carmel and travels to the fair city of Dublin everyday to fulfill his high court role. A quiet, thoughtful, deeply intellectual man Eamon often reflects on his life in the present and moments of his childhood that helped shape and create the person he is today. His childhood was a time of order, daily chores, and routine but always under the auspices of the only binding force in the community; the catholic church. A church that demanded allegiance and in return for such devotion and faith man could be saved from the evils of the world, but "without God’s help, we will all die in our sinful condition and remain separated from God forever". The truth of the situation was that the church offered few answers for a young man exploring his sexuality, trying to make sense of the often painful passage from boyhood to manhood. However politics and the allegiance to a particular party played a much more prominent role in the life of the citizens with its constant reminder of past struggles and romantic leaders most prominent of which was Eamon de Valera and the famous Easter rising of 1916 against British rule. As Eamon Redmond becomes immersed in the politics of the age he meets and falls in love with a young party worker Carmel who is equally smitten by her admirer's oratory skills and his ambitions within the political arena.

The story is told in two parts a reflection, often romantic, view of childhood with its warmth and sadness at the passing of close relatives, and in contrast adulthood, responsibilities and complex decisions that constitutes the daily routine of a high court judge. To me The Heather Blazing celebrates the importance of family and how the youthful formative years impress and influence our decisions and mindset into adulthood. Colm Toibin is a great observe of daily routines and the Ireland he describes reminds me, as an Irishman, of my own childhood with simple family routines embedded forever in my mind....."They all settled around the fire, the women with glasses of sherry, the men with beer, the three boys with glasses of lemonade. Eamon watched as his father tipped his glass to the side and poured the beer in slowly, letting it slide softly down the edge of the glass"....The harsh beautiful untamed Irish landscape with wild unpredictable seas somehow compliments the simplistic yet deeply moving narrative of one of Ireland's finest authors. ( )