Nothing but Blue Sky

by Kathleen MacMahon

Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage?

David thought so. But when his wife Mary Rose dies suddenly he has to think again. In reliving their twenty years together David sees that the ground beneath them had shifted and he simply hadn't noticed. Or had chosen not to.

Figuring out who Mary Rose really was and the secrets that she kept—some of these hidden in plain sight—makes David wonder if he really knew her. Did he even know himself?

Nothing But Blue Sky is a precise and tender story of love in marriage—a gripping examination of what binds couples together and of what keeps them apart.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Ireland, Novels, Grief

307 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2020

About the author

Kathleen MacMahon is an award-winning television journalist with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, where she reports on the major international stories. The grand-daughter of the distinguished short story writer Mary Lavin, Kathleen lives in Dublin with her husband and twin daughters. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS is her first novel.

Reviews

[Claire Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this slow unfolding of the history of a marriage. Nothing but Blue Sky is quiet and thoughtful and very moving. I listened to the audio version, beautifully narrated by the Irish actor, Stephen Hogan. In the slight present-day story David has returned to Aiguaclara, a small Catalonian resort where he has holidayed for the past twenty years with his wife Mary Rose. Except that Mary Rose died in a plane crash about a year ago, and David has decided to return to this place - so familiar and yet now, without her, so different. David remembers his marriage, examines his and Mary Rose's differences, what they each hoped for, and what they both loved. He recalls his own difficult childhood and Mary Rose's family. There is nothing here that is surprising or terribly shocking, and I loved it.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Mary Rose had for so long tried to achieve – for years she had been trying to stir up some passion in me for something outside of myself – was accomplished in one brutal moment by her death. Like the recipient of a transplant organ who acquires some of the characteristics of the donor, I had somehow managed to inherit a portion, at least, of Mary Rose’s heart

I read this book due to its longlisting for the 2021 Women’s Prize. As always with the prize if features a range of different styles and this book I felt was relatively conventionally written

It is a quiet examination of a life and a marriage – one that is both introspective (taking place in an intense first person, with a great deal of belated self-awareness and empathy) and retrospective (looking back over twenty years when perhaps both the self-awareness and empathy were somewhat lacking).

The narrator is David – a television journalist with RTE in Dublin. His family background was difficult with a domineering father and brother who have dented his confidence in life, causing him to adopt as he entered adult life a rather cynical misanthropic persona, as well as an antipathy to family life and company.

But, then, slightly to his disbelief, Mary Rose, a neonatal nurse from a much more stable, supportive family who is very much the opposite of him and through her David sees the route to a possibly happy future.

Shortly after I met Mary Rose, my aunt Marguerite was knocked down by a car on Middle Abbey Street. She broke her pelvis and had nobody at home to mind her. My mother wanted to invite her to stay, but my father wouldn’t have it, so she had to go into a convalescent home while she recovered. She spent her days there doing jigsaw puzzles, but to make the puzzles more challenging she would throw away the box, building the picture piece by piece with nothing to guide her. That was what the early days of my relationship with Mary Rose were like. I had no template for happiness – there was nothing in my experience that offered a picture of what a loving relationship might look like – but, in the same way that a jigsaw comes together piece by piece, an image began to form in my mind of how our future together might appear.

And the two settle into a marriage, which David at least sees as happy, although it is not clear he ever really properly assembles the jigsaw he had conceived, not least due to Mary-Rose’s disappointment at her inability to conceive and is inability in turn to really conceive in what it means to her.

The book is set a year or so after Mary-Rose’s death in what the author has called “sudden and highly improbably circumstances” – and given its known to all the main protagonists (as well as large chunks of the world), and given its rather crucial to my issue with the book, it is I think not a spoiler to say that we quickly realise she died in a plane crash (which we later realise to be the real life MS804 Egypt Air crash).

The two visited a small Catalan beach village (the fictional Aiguaclara) every year for their holidays – indulging in familiar routines and people watching. They developed a long fascination with a French family that visited around the same time each year – David perhaps in active denial that the multi-generational nature of the family, started for Mary Rose as a sign of what was to come for them before metamorphosing over time into what they never would have.

Now after a rather disastrous holiday in Nice (8 weeks after the aircraft crash) with a group of he and Mary Rose’s old friends – David decides to retrace his and Mary Rose’s steps and revisit Aiguclara (meeting again the French family and for the first time actually engaging with them).

Looking back now he find himself imbued with a greater sense of how his reaction to his upbringing unhelpfully shaped his life and even marriage, and (as the opening quote to my review implies) a greater ability to care for others, despite his shock and almost numbness of Mary Rose’s death.

And he tentatively seizes a second chance given to him.

Overall I thought this was a strongly written book

However a false note struck not so much by the nature of Mary Rose’s death as the way in which the author assembles too many elements of the story improbably around it.

A little calculation of the 8 weeks may tell you what happened to rather mar the Nice holiday. And while that may be just about OK having another side set of characters attend a Paris concert in November of the previous year is taking the coincidence perhaps a little too far. Or maybe the coincidence is that David specialised in reporting disasters – his big breakthrough the Concorde crash at Charles de Gaulle (of course from where MS804 departed), that as a child he wanted to be a pilot and his favourite possession was a model aircraft. Or perhaps that Mary Jane had a life long fear of flying and a superstition that when flying each of them should text the other to say that they have safely landed.

As a result my rating of 3.5 is for now rounded downwards.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the reasons I love reading is so I can get a sense of people's lives and situations that are very different from my own. So it presents an interesting personal challenge to encounter a novel about a man who I feel like I already understand as he's similar to many men I've known throughout my life. The narrator of MacMahon's “Nothing But Blue Sky” is David, a middle class, middle age Irish journalist. He's a bit grumpy, unfailingly practical and drags his feet when he has to go to social occasions. In some respects he's probably like the man I'm rapidly becoming. But he also has a morbid sense of humour which is imbued with an underlying contempt for the people he's blithely making fun of and I find this kind of masculine comedy particularly odious. His jovial, kind-hearted wife Mary Rose provides the perfect counterbalance to him. But she died in a tragic event and when the novel begins we meet David as he is grieving for the woman he might not have ever fully understood or fully appreciated. He recounts his memories of her, the awkward process of continuing to holiday with friends without her and discovers new familial connections which he never knew existed.

Read my full review of Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon on LonesomeReader

[Suze · Rating 4 out of 5]

David’s wife, Mary Rose, has died suddenly and left him alone in their middle aged life. Surrounded by well meaning friends who take him on inappropriately located holidays, and keep him grounded in his grief, he just wants to go back to Aiguaclara. They holidayed there every year for twenty years, and he feels closer to Mary Rose there than in Ireland. 

I really enjoyed this - the writing is understated but well controlled and joyful, even. David is a man who spent a lot of time following his dreams and believing Mary Rose to be following hers. Her death, so unexpected, makes him examine their life and his actions in a way which I can believe we all do when faced with such a change in our lives.

The narrative is not a big drama, or crime novel or mystery to solve - it’s David’s internal narrative as he goes about his daily business and adjusts to life without Mary Rose. I did have trouble with her name - I’m not sure it’s supposed to sound like the prawn cocktail sauce/ship or like two names said together? Definitely minor but somehow, I wanted to make sure I got her name right. Her absence is a character in itself - a selfless nurse with a big heart and plenty of love to give, it’s clear from the writing that she completed David in a way he’d never understood until her death. 

I also thought David’s internal monologue was really authentic - I actually forgot that the book was written by a woman momentarily, and was surprised when I checked and it’s Kathleen MacMahon. I know that sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, but David’s character was so clear I thought he could only have been written by a man.

I’d recommend this not for summer holidays, actually, but this time of year - cosy nights in by the fire as you dream of sunshine and sangria. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the ARC, as always.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5) A deeply touching look at loss and what comes next. When I read a synopsis, I thought it would be Sue Miller’s Monogamy with the roles reversed, but that’s because the blurb makes it sound like there were secrets in David and Mary Rose’s marriage that only emerge after her death in a plane crash. I was on the alert for something sordid and earth-shattering, but in fact this is a quiet novel about what goes unsaid in any marriage.

David, a foreign correspondent on Dublin’s television news, always put his career first, his sophistication and wicked humour masking the wounds of an emotionally chilly upbringing. Mary Rose, a hospital midwife, was the perfect foil, deflating his pomposity and calling him out on any unfeeling quips. Her loving nature was the soul of their relationship. Now that’s she gone, David regrets that he didn’t take more seriously her desperation to have children, a desire he didn’t share. His voice, even flattened and numbed by grief, is a delight. For instance, here’s how he describes Irish seaside holidays: “Summer to us was freezing your arse off on a windswept beach, with a trip to the ice-cream shop if you were lucky. Of course, they never had the ice-cream you wanted.”

The novel is set in Aiguaclara, a hidden gem on Spain’s Costa Brava where David and Mary Rose holidayed every summer for 20 years. Against his friends’ advice, he’s decided to come back alone this year. Although most of the book remembers their life together and their previous vacations here, there is also a present storyline running underneath. Initially subtle, it offers big surprises later on. These I won’t spoil; I’ll only say that David’s cynical belief that he’ll never experience happiness again is proven wrong. Grief, memory, fate: some of my favourite themes, elegantly treated. This reminded me of Three Junes and also, to a lesser extent, The Heart’s Invisible Furies.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon

David's wife, Mary Rose, died in tragic circumstances and a couple of years later he returns to Aiguaclara where they holidayed together every year. There follows his reflection on their life together, from first meeting to her untimely death, interspersed with current day events.

This book is a beautifully written account of a marriage and an absolutely exquisite depiction of grief. It is testament to the author's skill that I was so invested in David's story, even though he isn't a particularly sympathetic character, and that I was delighted with how things turn out for him.. In fact I could not put this book down! It is a fabulous story of friendships, families, relationships, love, bereavement, grief and ultimately hope. Heartbreaking, funny, and everything in between., Very highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Ireland for the ARC of this book.

[Lulufrances · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb is kind of misleading and I was expecting a slightly different story from the one I got, yet I am so so glad this is on the WPFF longlist this year, as I don't think this book would have been on my radar otherwise.
An absolutely beautifully written novel of loss and grief...and holidays.
Honestly, I lived vicariously through David's time in Aiguaclara in these current pandemic non-travel times - it did feel like being on holiday myself, for real!
A proper story that transported me for the time being and worth a read!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was one of two by Irish writers on the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction longlist. Although one of my favorite book bloggers gave it a rather blah review, I ordered it.

I loved this book. It is the story of a man in his early 50's whose wife of 20-some years suddenly dies. It is an exploration of grief, and his summing up of each of their lives. David is a journalist, working as a correspondent for a major Irish news outlet. His wife Mary Rose was a neonatal nurse. They never had children. Their annual vacation spot was a small sea village in Costa Brava, Spain, that fortunately has escaped the plague of retirees from England and Ireland who seem to have overtaken much of the area. The second summer after Mary Rose's death, he returns to their Spanish vacation spot. He develops a friendship (non romantic) with another long time visitor, and they bond in their grief over losses.

This is probably not a novel of anyone who has experienced recent loss, but it might be. It is a novel of deep reflection on the meaning of a life, as well as relationships.

November 2021
I intended to skim this book for my book club discussion. But I found each page or two contained such gems that I had to reread the book. It was as good, if not better the second time.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

a book which looks at loss and reflection of life how little things make up life

[Wendy Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, for the great writing, but with significant reservations about the story below (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW):

Mary Rose is middle-aged and devastated about not having children. She says: "I feel depleted... I feel like a battery that's going dead. I feel like I'm ready for the scrapheap". She is desperate for "a break from herself"; David describes her as a shell. "I remember feeling I had reached the edge of my love for her" he says.

I would have loved a more original story that explored this and gave it a happy ending. But Macmahon's narrative solution is to kill off the husk and explore the fruitful renaissance of the bereaved husband (the wife dies and David discovers he fathered a child with someone else 26 years ago). For me it was brutal to cut that thread and introduce a new daughter and granddaughter for David: a real 'WTF??' moment. It suggests that life can only go forward vertically, via offspring of some sort, and if you aren't part of that hope-filled progression you are meaningless.

As Deborah, heroic mother-of-three, says: "The rest of us all have our lives marked out for us by our kids, but you and Mary Rose didn't have that, and it troubled her. She couldn't see her way forward". Most non-fathers just don't understand the meaning of having children, she continues - "they only fall in love with their children when they set eyes on them". After that they think they've "discovered the secret of the universe". The penny drops for David: the lesson implied is that if only men knew all this in advance, then they'd be on the same page as the womenfolk and everyone would be reproducing like they should be.

The sad thing is that Macmahon does show some insight into how life can feel yawning and unpunctuated without kids, but she kills that narrative dead by offering, er, children as the answer.
"Mary Rose would think it was wonderful" that David had instantly become a father, says Deborah when she hears about his new daughter & granddaughter. "Don't be an arsehole" agrees Mary Rose from the grave: grab your chance of a meaningful life by the horns. Not only does the saintly dead husk fully approve, but David has also learnt the error of his ways and is now embracing fatherhood. Everyone is fulfilled in one narrative stroke.

Children are clearly the be-all and end-all in this scenario. It's "a gift" says Deborah, "it's life's gift to you". As if embarrassed by this knackered trope, David's character ponders that "It was like something that would happen in a movie". (Yes, a bit like those miracle pregnancies that occur in films and sitcoms after the sad characters adopt a baby.) David is healed: "In an instant, I had become a father. A grandfather". He'd been offered "a glimpse of a new way to be". That old trump card of children as a promise of renewal and redemption, that facile & oft-used denouement.

French Claire, childless mother of dead children in a broken relationship with her husband, handily recedes into the sunset, but not before she also gives her full, uncomplicated, approval: "As she looked into my eyes, I felt that she was urging me forward too", says David.

Nothing matters but the onward propulsion offered to David's life by his new instant family. Seeing himself next to them, surrounded by their daughterly and granddaughterly accoutrements, just feels right to him - something has finally fallen into place. For whether it's hard and miserable, or fine and joyous, what could be more 'right' once you're over 50 than being a parent and grandparent?

This book left me with horrible heebie jeebies of unease that not everyone will understand. I would call it triggering if I was so inclined. I loved Macmahon's first book and am quite surprised by her perspective in this one. If you're currently rolling your eyes and thinking "it's just fiction ffs" then you're safe to enjoy David's fantasy happy ending to the max.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't want to read about a man "searching" for himself after his wife's death. I think the summary is wrong, I don't feel like he really reflected on their relationship at all. Instead, it was a laundry list of events happening in this vacation town that he can easily afford as he wallows in self pity. He does kind of hit a breakthrough by realizing his childhood was messed up, but it feels so miniscule to me compared to everything else.

I think the best part was that, every now and then, you have some well written depictions of grief. The way the story was told in step by step actions just isn't for me, though. And no, I don't care what you and Mary Rose called this random family or that you created an entire fictional life for them. That's just weird, and turned into skimming as MacMahon describes entire random scenes of strangers for what feels like no reason.

[Skye · Rating 2 out of 5]

A depiction of grief in beautifully-written, nostalgic imagery that is regrettably let down by the almost absolute lack of any plot.
The blurb told a story entirely different to the one the book did which was a real shame.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me a bit of when all is said

[Laura Mikkelsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this kind of book - an intimate reflection on a marriage and the unique dynamics that made it work. Nothing outlandish or thrilling, just two humans doing their best. It reminded me a little of Ian McEwan’s work and was overall a quick but lovely read.

[Jessica Hinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live for these moments. For a book so wonderful to cross your path and leave you absolutely breathless with astonishment. I knew nothing about this book or the author going in and I certainly wasn't expecting to be blown away like I was.

This is not an action packed book. The whole story is basically David coming to terms with the loss of his wife, and reflecting on their life spent together. Were they really as happy as he had thought they were? Was he the husband he should have been to her? In the midst of his grief, he sees their marriage with a new clarity as parts of their marriage are brought into a sharp focus he never allowed it before. It's one of those books where I was furiously highlighting beautiful passages that effortlessly seemed to capture a thought or emotion, hence this review being quote heavy!

It was exhausting to me, and touching at the same time, how my friends took such care to gather up every morsel of her life. They collated these shards of her history with all the white-glove care of archaeologists gathering up the fragments of some precious artefact.

I know, I know - it sounds depressing and maudlin. But it's not. It's beautiful, thought provoking and exquisite. It's sad in a reflective way, but I don't think it'll have you weeping under the covers. It manages to be both incredibly poignant and uplifting at the same time. I have never come across an author who describes the process of grieving for a loved one so perfectly and eloquently. How the pain doesn't go away, but the times between you noticing the sharpness of it it lengthen.

That's what I feel like now,' I told him. 'I feel like there's a low hanging wooden beam, right in front of me, and I keep walking slap bang into it. A hundred times a day I walk into that beam, and the pain hits me, right here, between the eyes.'

In time I could have told him that I never did learn to duck to avoid the pain of losing her. What happened was that I found myself stumbling into it less and less often. Imperceptibly at first: whereas at the start it happened to me a hundred times a day, by the time a month had gone by I was struck by the blow of it perhaps only ninety-five times a day. Another month and it hit me only ninety times in a twenty-four-hour period, and by the time a year had passed, there was sometimes a whole hour when I did not collide with the pain of it. It wasn't that it was any less painful when I did, just that the intervals in between got longer and longer. That's how I came to understand that I was healing.

This book took my heart in its hands and repeatedly squeezed it. It manages to be both beautiful and heart wrenching in such an understated way. It's not written in a fussy manner - especially David's internal monologue as he adjusts to living his life without his wife. We understand the depth of his feeling, without the point being laboured. His raw emotion is tempered with astute observations and his ability to face up to the difficult truths.

I understood for the first time how correct it was to say that she was 'survived by her husband'. I had seen that expression used in obituaries without ever giving it a thought, but it turned out to be a term of great precision. I had survived Mary Rose only barely. I was struggling to survive her.

Ultimately, this book is more uplifting than anything else. It spells out the hope that still persists, even after a loss bigger than you thought was bearable. Whilst a tender exploration of love and bereavement, it reinforces that happiness can still be found amongst tragedy, once you start to put the pieces of your life back together. David's story demonstrates that you just have to be prepared to put the pieces back together to make an entirely different whole to the one that existed before.

"I know what you're saying, and of course there will be a moment of sadness, always, that Mary Rose isn't there. But the happy occasions will still be happy occasions, because that's how life works. Happiness trumps sadness, every time. If it didn't, we couldn't survive.”

Happiness trumps sadness, every time.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for this preview copy in return for an honest review.


Nothing but blue sky was published on 30th July 2020 by Penguin Books, Ireland

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the Women’s Prize long list, this story of a man coming to terms with himself and his marriage after his wife dies unexpectedly was too saccharine and cliched for my taste.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the audiobook.

[daphneslm · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was good but i hated the main character so much that it became hard to read this book

[Daisy Coyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Emily Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly was not expecting to absolutely love this book. totally recommend, so beautifully written. recommend 100%.

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life slips through the fingers of David. A life that has been defined by his cold upbringing and inflated by finding his true love.

It is a bittersweet insight into how well we know each other, learned behaviour, looking at life with hindsight and how how short life is. A story of life, love and loss. It is beautifully written with a delicate touch that belies the considered prose. It is a book about a marriage told backwards. Its troubling end causing David to unravel his perspective and his attitudes to life.

I found it fascinating for a female writer to insert herself into a man's head, grief and memory. This is not the easiest of reads with its introspective riff but it is thoughtful, fluid and tender.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

'You,' she said, accusingly, 'have lived a life of splendid isolation. You were married to an angel, who heartbreakingly for all of us was taken too soon, and now you find yourself unexpectedly alone in middle age and drowning in self-pity'.

Long listed for the Women's Prize 2021, Nothing But Blue Sky is largely an internal monologue about marriage, relationships, grief, lives lived and opportunities and emotions both missed and experienced. Told through the retrospective and introspective narrative of David, a journalist, after the surprise death of his wife, neo-natal nurse Mary Rose.

There was a lot I loved about this quiet, beautifully written book. The character of David was so well drawn that at times I wanted to shout at him for his often selfish, unemotional behavior. As the novel progresses David, and we as readers, learn more about his past, including some possible reasons for his attitudes and past actions. As the novel ended I found myself hoping that this introspection resulted in a better man, capable of living a better, more giving life as his wife had tried to encourage.

3.5 stars

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book. Beautifully written, well narrated, tragic and yet laugh out loud funny at times.

"I was struck by the sense of how wonderful life is, and how sad; and how strange that it can even be both of these things at the very same time."

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quotation from the cover: "What a beautiful novel.....rings perfectly true. Donald Ryan" I totally agree, every word rings true, I feel like I'm secretly reading someone's diary. What a beautiful novel about love and grief.

[Penelope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful study of grief and loss told through David whose wife Mary Rose has died in a plane crash. These event force David to reflect and examine his marriage and although his love for Mary Rose is unfaltering he is not always happy with what he finds about himself. Long listed for the Woman’s Prize for Fiction and a really thought provoking read. Set in Ireland and the lovingly described Aiguaclara.

[Scott Baird (Gunpowder Fiction and Plot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible book, ruined by a stupid plot twist.

[Ellie Beagley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quietly sad and suprisingly calm story looking retrospectively at the details of a marriage. Sometimes only with space and time (to set aside self absorption) can you recognise the truths of a relationship. I wish there had been fewer unlikely coincidences in the book but otherwise I really enjoyed.

[Derval Tannam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an engaging, well-written, beautifully-peopled book. It described love and grief so well, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main character could be a bit of a dose, but he was self-aware and self-critical enough to empathise with. I could have read another 300 pages from his perspective. Nothing huge happened in terms of drama or action, but I can't deduct a star for that reason.

[Emma Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this portrait of a marriage, of grief and of how life goes on, even after unimaginable tragedy, was perfect.

Beautifully written, understated and moving. I loved it and feel sure it will stay with me.

[SharleneH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage?
David thought so. When his wife Mary-Rose dies suddenly he has to think again. In reliving their twenty years together David sees that the ground had shifted and he simply hadn't noticed. Or had he chosen not to?
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My thoughts 
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David isn't a particularly sympathetic character and sometimes he's rather unlikeable but I became so invested in his story. This book is an absolute exquisite example of how grief can affect someone when their whole life has been invested with another soul.
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing and this story is bittersweet that David realises how short life really is and how he unravels his own thinking and behaviours.
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Whilst reading I forgot this was written by  a woman as it is so cleverly constructed into the mind of the man. The writing is fluid and beautifully descriptive in places.
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This is not a happy book but I did find the ending hopeful and it made me smile. It definitely will not be an easy read for some but personally I loved the nostalgic elements and that grief remained present throughout.