"Things happened to people, and some people were required to lift great weights that crushed if you faltered just for a moment. It was his job not to falter. But every day he faltered. Every day he was crushed, and rose again the following morn like a cartoon figure."
Questionable memories and an unreliable narrator dominate the latest novel from Sebastian Barry, as "Old God's Time" follows a retired Irish detective as he attempts to find peace after a lifetime of loss.
As Tom Kettle is drawn back into an investigation that kindles remembrances of what has become of his family and how shared childhood traumas have reverberated in pain over the years. The bulwark of an old castle on the island's shore isn't enough of a haven to protect Kettle from the strain of his own legacy.
"He cradled the memory of his wife as if she were still a living being. As if no one had been crushed, no one had been hurried from the halls of life, and the power of his love could effect that, could hold her buoyant and eternal in the embrace of an ordinary day."
Presiding over a master class in pacing, Barry handles horrific content with as much grace and elegance as possible. The beauty and brutality of pastoral Ireland function as characters in this book populated with ghosts and unicorns, making "Old God's Time" a painful but rewarding read.
"He stood at the picture window and the sea was a million grey dinner plates below, surging in the channel. Spinning and dipping, each one a circus trick, a clown's trick."
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