Books
by Colm Toibin
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House of Names |
In this brilliant retelling of the classic Greek myth of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Toibin explores the effects of excessive patriarchal power on a wife’s thwarted ambition, leading to family intrigue, betrayal, bloodshed and forced exile. The tragedy unfolds as a first person narrative by the three guilty family members as they take their violent revenge. It feels intimate, modern and contemporary and therefore all the more chilling. I absolutely loved it.
(Denise Lewis - bwl 120 Spring 2026) |
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Long Island |
The sequel to 'Brooklyn' finds the heroine 20 years later living in the suffocating embrace of her husband's Italian family and contemplating leaving him. A holiday back in Ireland rekindles an old love with a man himself now entangled in a new relationship. Secrecy is a dangerous element in the mix as the characters face up to realities and try to make plans. The clarity with which the characters and their conflicting loyalties are depicted and the way in which, in middle age, complications are multiplied, gives the story force as does the portrayal of restrictive small town Irish life. A story well told by a master novelist.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 117 Summer 2025) |
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