Krishna
This is an interesting book. It is a story about Michen O’Kane, who lost his mother and grew up in a series of orphanages and correction facilities. The more he was punished, the more he felt that everyone was against him and the wilder he became. Finally he was put away for many years and came home (to Ireland) to a part of the woods known as the Cloosh Woods. He had always felt at home in the forest, which was his refuge whenever he felt as a boy that he cannot take what life dealt him.
For the first time, he falls in love, when he meets Eily, who with her three (I think) year old son Madge, who have come to occupy his old house, which is now vacant. He is in love for the first time and Eily has to love him, right? When a stranger stays in Eily’s house for a whole night, his jealousy is aroused and he decides to ‘escort’ them, at gun point to his safe hideout in the forest. When things do go horribly wrong, he goes in search of a priest, and the intrepid young priest (Father John) realizes that he has been given a major goal in life by God in giving solace to the tortured soul.
The story starts slow and reminded me of a poor version of Roddy Doyle. But it really takes off at the middle of the book, and you are really shocked as you read on by the gruesomeness of the deeds of the person whom you thought of as delinquent but no more violent than that. What is heartrending is the fact that Eily tries to put on a brave face and talk to Michen as if it is a normal stroll, her attempts to save the child when she realizes that she is in grave peril, and her request to Michen to treat the child well.
The priest’s demeanour throughout is dignified and thus chilling. The story stops just at the right moment and switches to the reaction of the townspeople, the initial apathy of the authorities and the determination of the people to mount a search party themselves to find the mother, child and the priest who have successively disappeared.
The story is inspired by the real life story of Imelda Rilney and her son Liam, who went missing and Father Jow Walshe, a curate also disappeared a few days later. Brendan O’Donnell was the local youth who was suspected.
It is an interesting read. I would give it a 6/10 because it takes a while to pick up speed.
— Krishna