 When an old flame comes back to town, a spurned lover can’t decide what he wants, or what is best.
Eilis Lacey moved from Ireland to Long Island, New York in the 1950s and secretly married an Italian American, Tony Fiorello. It’s 1976 and she now has two teenage children, Larry and Rosella. One day a complete stranger - an aggressive Irishman - knocks on her door and tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child, and that he intends to dump the baby on her doorstep when it is born. The news knocks Eilis for six, but worse is to come. Her mother-in-law, Francesca, concocts a plan to take care of the baby herself. Eilis doesn’t want the baby anywhere near her family. Stressed and not knowing what to do, she travels alone to her hometown of Enniscorthy in Ireland, ostensibly to celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday. An old flame, Jim Farrell, is running the local pub. The two had originally intended to marry, but Eilis ran out on him, starting a new life in America. Jim never married, but has now started a clandestine relationship with Nancy Sheridan, an old friend of Eilis’s. They are planning their own marriage, but carefully timing the announcement. When Eilis turns up in Enniscorthy, Jim’s is plunged back into the emotional turmoil of some two decades ago, when he was abandoned. He meets up with Eilis, which only opens old wounds; he also entertains naive hopes. Could he start a new life with Eilis in America, or is this mad, wishful thinking? And what of Nancy, who has invested so much in her relationship with Jim? Samuel Johnson, the great English essayist and lexicographer, once wrote that “Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.” This piece of wit goes some way to explaining the themes of Long Island. Jim is hopelessly intoxicated with the possibility of a rejuvenated affair with Eilis, and he knows it is seriously upending his judgment. But still he ploughs into danger. The sensible path, staying with the practical and stable Nancy, seems like a let down when compared to Eilis, who represents a youthful passion that can maybe be recaptured. Colm Toibin perfectly describes a slow moving trainwreck as Jim gets sucked further and further into this romantic delusion. A sense of suspense builds as it becomes obvious that none of what his characters are planning can possibly come to good. There are some humorous moments. The portrait of the prickly yet crafty Mrs Lacey, Eilis’s mother, is a delight. And the descriptions of Nancy’s business, a fish and chip shop which is subject to multiple complaints because of the smell, are wonderful for their relentless dinginess. The lives of Enniscorthy are often pathetic and small, but are nonetheless filled with warmth and humanity. There are some uneven notes, however. The novel doesn’t really resolve the plot involving the unwanted child and the family dynamics of the Italian family back in Long Island. The trauma this has caused for Eilis is pretty much left up in the air. And Nancy’s revenge on Jim perhaps stretches credulity a bit far. Having said that, this is a story I thoroughly enjoyed, with characters whom I became totally involved with. Long Island, by Colm Toibin. Published by Picador. $34.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A short collection of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speeches.
A Message From Ukraine is a selection of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speeches, from 2019 to 2023. The speeches were chosen by Zelensky himself and he also wrote the introduction. The book first appeared in 2022 and this new edition features an additional speech, from 2023. Having watched on our television screens the horrible destruction and humanitarian disaster of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the last two years, one might expect A Message From Ukraine to be full of grim stories from the front, unbearable tales of death and destruction. In fact, Zelensky’s speeches are warm and humane. While they may have been written to bolster morale and help Ukrainians endure the unendurable, their message has a universal appeal. Zelensky stresses that truth and dignity will be the victor in the end. There is a tone of deep empathy in Zelensky’s words - this is the voice of someone who has seen much suffering. A Message From Ukraine is more than a collection of political speeches of the day; it is a timeless book dealing with the deepest of existential themes. It shows that truth and honour can give untold strength, despite the confronting horror of war. A Message from Ukraine, by Volodymyr Zelensky. Published by Penguin. $19.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A matchmaking agency presents a moral quandary for its new owner
Thirty-year-old Katie has been offered The Perfect Passion Company, an old school introductions business. Her cousin Ness, who started the business and grew it into a respectable concern, has decided to take a gap year in Canada. She may return, she may not. With some trepidation, Katie takes on the business and its bulging files of lonely hearts. The matchmaking agency’s next door office on Little Mouse Street is occupied by a man four years Katie’s junior, William Kidd. Before leaving for Canada, Ness introduces William to Katie. It will be helpful, she decides, if the two get to know each other as Katie learns the ropes. William, it turns out, is the perfect gentleman - handsome, intelligent and courteous. There are no drawbacks, although he runs a curious business as a designer of woolen jumpers. He knits the designs up himself, which does lead to some assumptions about his sexuality, but the reader is assured that such reductive masculine stereotypes need not apply here. In fact, William has a fiance, Alice, back in his home city of Melbourne, Australia. As Katie works through her first few matchmaking cases, William helps out in an advisory role, and the two strike up quite a friendship. Alice, the fiance back in Melbourne, often looms ominously in the background as Katie and William become closer. Is William and Alice’s relationship really on firm ground, or are there cracks starting to show? As Katie feels herself falling in love with William, she must do her best to keep her emotions in check. The Perfect Passion Company started out as two e-book novellas, and now finds itself expanded into a four hundred page novel. All of the usual themes of Alexander McCall Smith’s fiction are present: sticky emotional entanglements, moral dilemmas, questions of how to live ethically. There is a good deal of stoicism in the pages of McCall Smith’s novels. Characters often must practice self-restraint and make decisions that prioritise the welfare of others. When Katie realises that her feelings for William could not only endanger herself, but cause cascading grief and heartbreak, she displays admirable self-control. Reading Alexander McCall Smith’s fiction, it’s always easy to empathise with his characters, to walk in their shoes and wonder, “What would I do?” In the end, all moral quandaries are resolved, and the good are rewarded for their exemplary behaviour and steadfastness. The not-so-good, if not punished, are certainly found out. The Perfect Passion Club is an entirely satisfying fiction about real lives and real world problems, with a cast of likable characters muddling through life as best they can. The Perfect Passion Company, by Alexander McCall Smith. Published by Polygon. $39.99 Review by Chris Saliba |
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