The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 22 March 2012
by Pauline McLynn
You don't have to be Irish to be familiar with the deep cultural experience of drinking, drunkenness and alcoholism, but it helps. Perhaps the Irish have, since the recent economic boom and ensuing bust, reconsidered the place alcohol has in their culture. There are numerous memoirs about the gloomy as well as joyous aspects of growing up Irish, and there is always someone a bit too deep in the drink. This novel, by noted Irish comedienne Pauline McLynn (most well-known for her turn in the series Father Ted), is of a more modern bent. A more self-aware character appears here, in Charlie Finn, pub owner and recovering alcoholic. One afternoon in a dry midsummer (dry summers rare enough in western Ireland), in the small County Clare village of Kilbrody, a cross-island bus pulls in and a mysterious, nameless and quite deeply dazed woman stumbles off and into Charlie's pub. She drinks herself into oblivion and ends up sleeping it off for three days in Charlie's bed. Charlie, we can see, is quite accomodating. The village is an example of that familiar Irish trope of charming small-town people all in each other's business. Soon, they've adopted the wayward woman, who has dark memories of loss and cruelty from her most recent days back in Dublin.
Those details trickle out throughout the novel, as we read of her evolving relationship with Charlie. There are one or two subplots, such as that of Cathy Long, a bright red-headed girl on the verge of teenaged romance; her alcoholic father Tom Long, who first stirs the mysterious woman's interest; Linda, a married woman who considers Charlie her property; and various other characters who populate Kilbrody. Still, and throughout, Charlie's history as an alcoholic, and Tom Long's first admission of his disease, are driving themes as the woman from the bus snaps out of her grief and returns to life in the world. The language of the twelve steps is sprinkled throughout the story, though it stops short of becoming preachy. The romance is light, and the ties to village and history are gently asserted. Overall, the book is a gentle story of one woman's return from shock, and one man's admission to alcoholic recovery. Charlie is almost too charming a character, flawless in his charm. The woman's own story becomes clear and the reader might not help but wonder why she let things get so bad. Still, McLynn's novel acknowledges the stumbles people make, and tries hard to imagine a more hopeful outlook for them all. The stumbles seem more realistic than the hope, but maybe that is just this reader's take on life.