Max Morden, a retired art historian, returns to the Irish seaside town of Ballyless following the death of his wife, Anna. He stays at the Cedars, the same boarding house where he spent his childhood summers. The narrative weaves between his present grief and a pivotal season fifty years earlier, centered on his obsession with the wealthy Grace family. He recalls the twins, Chloe and Myles, and his first encounters with adult eroticism and sudden, inexplicable tragedy. Morden examines his own unreliable memory, detailing the physical sensations of the past and the cold reality of loss.
Readers of precise, detailed prose will appreciate the focused attention on aesthetics and the limitations of human recollection. Those interested in the psychological mechanics of mourning and the reconstruction of childhood events find a technical study of how past traumas dictate present identity. The reader finishes the book with a recognition of how individuals curate their own histories and the specific way that grief alters one’s perception of time and landscape. It offers a stark look at the isolation of memory.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2005
- Language
- EN
