Returning Light: Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael

by Robert L. Harris

Returning Light has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Nature, Ireland, Biography Memoir, Travel, History

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book so much, and in only very brief moments, I did. But mostly it was hard to engage with, and was slightly overpowering with its poetic narrative.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A promising book which, for me, tried rather too hard to capture the essence of life on Skellig Michael without quite achieving it, losing its way in a surplus of words

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book of the year. I must confess that I struggled to fully engage with this and even - may God forgive me! - sped read parts of it. However, I feel that it deserves its four stars as it is beautifully conceived and written. I blame myself for reading such a quiet book at the most chaotic time of the year. Also, I know it's my fault as Harris reminds me of the wonderful Paddy Leigh Fermor whose acclaimed and hugely popular 'A Time of Gifts' was a difficult read for me too though I clung on 'til the last page. I guess I would have liked to hear more about Harris's feelings, and his personal life, to balance out his musings about the history and the birds that inhabit Skellig Michael. But I absolutely recommend it all the same. And I loved the photographs - they helped me to understand the reverence that Harris had for his 'office'. I wonder would I have enjoyed an audio edition of the book more?

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent a long time reading this book and I have to say I’m glad I didn’t read it quickly. Coming out of the pandemic there’s something very tranquil of reading about isolation in such a beautiful place. I gave the novel that space it needed and I feel like that is why I give it 4 stars.

It’s beautiful and poetic but shouldn’t be absorbed in one sitting. Reading it throughout the change of seasons definitely adds an additional dimension

[Ana-Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Returning Light: Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael by Robert L. Harris (2021)

This is a wonderful book dedicated not to a person, not to a life, but to an island. Harris, who has spent more than 30 years on this small, tree-less Atlantic island on the Irish Coast, shows his love for the sea, for the island and its inhabitants (puffins, birds, seals) in every page of this calm and calming book. This is a meditative and quiet book, inviting us to discover how many ways the light over the sea can be described or how the different states of the ocean can be described. Harris writes:

If the sea is rough, and I know that no boats are going to land that day, that can be liberating because then I know I've got time for myself.

Isn't this surprising? One would say that such a lonely occupation would make Harris look forward to each human contact, yet he shares with the reader the beauty of loneliness, the space, and the feeling of walking on clouds and in the open air when alone on that ocean stone. He also shares some historical facts about the 1000-year-old monastic settling on the island. I have also watched some videos about the island, and its beauty is, indeed, breathtaking.

The author made a lasting impression on me. I appreciated the many faces nature gives to a place that looks barren and forgotten but is full of life and personality. This is a wonderful love dedication to a unique place.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I had the magical experience in 2012 0r 2013 of making it to Skellig Michael and climbing the daunting stone steps to the monastery on top. It is truly a place of spirituality, shimmering light, and sheer magic--a peak experience in my life. However, the book is a journal of a man's life on Skellig Michael. It is poetically written, a paeon to light and the flights of birds. To have experienced that over 33 years must have been incredible! To read a journal of it that is pretty much the same in every entry becomes just too repetitive. I finally just skimmed the last 75 pages, looking for something to capture my interest. Alas, there was nothing, though the writing is beautiful. So, even though I wanted to love the book, I could barely finish it.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but it was very repetitive, overly descriptive of light effects, etc. I don't consider it to be an in-depth treatment of a special experience: spending significant amounts of time in an isolated and beautiful setting.

[Tim Devaney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious.
I really wanted to like this book, but found the writing to be repetitive, pretentious, and often totally devoid of meaning. I would have loved to read more about the history of the monks on Skellig Michael, and about Harris's daily routines and interactions with tourists and co-workers. Instead, I got page after page after page describing the quality of the light on the island and interminable descriptions of birds. I found the endless passages describing the loneliness of his life on the island extremely boring. Perhaps this is what Harris was trying to capture; the tedium of his isolation from civilization. If so, he succeeded. But that doesn't make for a very good read.

[Tricia Kyzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was like beginning a conversation with someone utterly fascinating and then realizing you didn't know how to get out of it. However, I am indebted to the author for introducing me to Skellig Michael. I was enamored with the place. The author painted a wonderful picture and occasionally interspersed just enough interesting gems to keep me reading. The main difficulty was the repetitive painting of that picture. The same strokes again and again grew monotonous. While I enjoyed the poems, they were often a repeat of the preceding prose. I sensed his love for the place was very personal, and I respected that. I just found myself wanting less philosophical light depictions and more stories of events told in his beautifully poetic voice.

[Angus McDonogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book. Wonderful writing, encourages you to read slowly and savour every word.

[Sarah Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a meditation. I particularly enjoyed listening to the author read the audiobook. His soft voice encourages the mind to quieten. I feel that I had a chance to walk with him on that extremity of an island and know what it feels like to be in a ‘thin place’. He beautifully expresses how his own contemplations might echo those of the monks who first chose to make a life there. I found myself uplifted and transported to a place that opens into other realms. A poetic and beautifully written encounter with wild spaces, humility and solitude. A book I would like to read many times. I personally have found it a great comfort in dealing with bereavement.

[Mary Burson · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I wanted to love this book. I loved my visit in Ireland and especially our drive on Valentia Island. We were interested in Skellig Michael but the day had wind and intermittent rain and right now I can’t remember if a boat was going there. This book is clearly more than a memoir; it is a love letter to Skellig Michael. From reading it one can feel what it would be like to live there and Harris’ descriptions of weather, wildlife and the isolation are beautiful. But. Is it possible to have too much description? I can see this book as a documentary film with narration. Anyway, I slogged nearly halfway through while other books were calling to me and I decided to move on.

[norma baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a chronicle of the author's thirty years on the island of Skellig Michel. He became extremely aware of the air and light on the island. He became sensitive to the change of seasons and the life cycle of the largest population on the island -- the birds (petrels, gulls, puffins). Time spent in a quiet, natural setting seems to have a profound effect on a man.

[Scott Schluter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real struggle to get through this one. I regret that I didn't just give up and read something better. Luckily I did not pay for this book, I won it.

[Dexter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think I’m spiritual enough for this book. There are some pretty prose but just could not get into the rhythm of the book.

[Andy Tuite · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that makes me realize I do not value nature or solitude or spiritual life as much as others do. An interesting journey for the author. In my opinion this book is about 100 pages too long.

[Elsbeth Kwant]

This is the story of a man, who has for 30 years been a summer inhabitant of Skellig Michael, the pyramid in the sea, where generations of men have built stone steps by hand in search of God. There are nuggets of gold and I loved the bits where the daily diary is left to speak for itself. The nun, who was defeated in her purpose to visit the Skelligs many times and was now so old, that she found she had to climb the steps on her knees, which she did, undaunted. His journeys to and from the Skelligs, without a car, make for good stories 'Being in Mayo the afternoon of the day before departure did not augur well, with half the country to cross still before me.' He writes of the light, the changing sheen on the water, 'a pool of water would glimmer, shimmering in silver. There was no other way to experience these things than to accept them as gifts, as the acquisitions of a spirit somehow emptied, at least temporarily, by its stay here.'

An interesting book, in that it illustrates the difference between a good story and a story well told. After this, I read Sea Room by Adam Nicolson, who is truly an author - where this is a very interesting local voice. I think HarperCollins could have done more in the editing of this - though I can imagine it thought the story so well-attuned to lock-down times they hurried it a bit. The good bits make up for its deficiencies though.

This idea of connection with the past and the self enhanced by solitude is a recurring theme:
'Often, no one else is there to stand beside me on the island, and the skies and surrounding rock are empty. The mind wanders; links with the past are easily made; ancient ways of viewing things come alive.'...' The monks had stood there centuries before us, establishing their own lookout upon the beyond.' 'the sea sighs quietly, endlessly; pushing me outwards, then bringing me back into myself'. There are echoes of the poetry of R.S. Thomas there.

But connection with others too is enhanced: 'This was a place for a quiet, and often unspoken, exploration of, or sharing of a common humanity. The open doorways of the cells beckoned from another time, offering glimpses of another way of seeing.' 'Each person I meet, coming up the road in the morning from the shore, becomes everyman, everywoman. Each solitary creature encountered, however insignificant, becomes every other living thing.'

The story is intermingled with his island reading. Brian Keenan and his ways of dealing with solitude. St. Brendan: 'This world is suddenly numinous. It is an element full of potential danger but, paradoxically, it is also one where the strenght and power of the Creator and the natural world is most evident. Brendan and his men get a clear view of majesty by exposing themselves to their own imperilment, by casting their fate completely upon the mercy of God.'

The wildlife: 'a skittish, small yellow bird passes quickly as a leaf driven swiftly and purposefully across the doorway ahead, then he vanishes'. 'Some four or five gannets - and then a stream of twelve, in a glistening necklace stretched low along the water - begin to accompany the boat, apparently moving faster as the islands near. The boat is pulled ahead in their slipstream. Little liquid pearls glisten on the backs and necks of these huge angel-birds, now alongside, at arm's reach. 'They carry the name 'petrel', as they are said to walk upon the surface of the ocean as St. Peter did.'

He writes about the harsh side of life: without anything to burn, without water (except wat comes down from heaven), food, shelter. The greyness: 'acciddie - dearth of colour meaninglessness' is what the Egyptian monks call it. But also of the opportunities this brings: 'A restriction, cutting away impediments, distractions'.

[Elmira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Mariner Books, and Robert L. Harris for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Returning Light is the author's account of his experiences of spending May through September/October for thirty consecutive years on the small island of Michael Skellig, eight miles off of the southwestern coast of Ireland. The island is the farthest bit of land sticking out into the Atlantic, so it is the first hindrance in the path of the prevailing weather coming off of the unrelieved ocean. Therefore, the weather can be especially harsh and changeable. There are ruins from a monastery that was abandoned in approximately the twelfth century CE. Nowadays, there are some twelve thousand tourists a year that come to visit the steep rocky island to observe the monastic remains, bird rookeries, or simply to experience the beauty of the site.

The author weaves all of these facts into his experience on Skellig Michael but even more than drawing a physical picture of what life is like on the island, the author attempts to draw a picture of what the isolation in such an unforgiving environment is like for him and also possibly for the previous inhabitants. In doing so, the author draws the reader supernatural pictures of what it feels like to be so isolated. He is especially fond of using light in his otherwordly descriptions. Some of the time, these metaphors seem overdone or forced. Certainly the author's spiritual experiences on the island are central to his experience living on it but I had a difficult time following much of his imaginings.

This book would be perfect for a reader that enjoys the style of very old texts. I think the style will seem rambling and unfocused to most modern readers, but that style is essential to tell the story of Robert L. Harris' experience alone with nature and spirits and light. The assumed foundation of godliness and the poetic inserts are quintessentially Irish and fit very well here.

If I were to be marooned on an island, this would be one of the books that I would choose to bring with me!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was in no way what I expected, which is not its fault. It's not a biographical narrative of years spent on the island (despite being filed in Biography in my library). It's not a book about the history of Skellig Michael, or its geology. It's an achronological series of impressions, moments on the island, and how Harris thinks about whatever he's seeing and whatever he knows is going on elsewhere at any given moment. As such, it is very repetitive, and I'm sorry to say most of the poetry is rather bad (not all of it; and I'm not saying I could do any better!). I often read a page and then cocked my head and thought, What is he talking about?? For example: "The rock would divide around me, throwing me always out to its extreme points: to the pier, to the edges over the sea, the empty skies over the saddle, to the lighthouse and around its ruined further access route, to the exposures of the monastery and of the peak. I was internalizing this active terrain, trying, almost without thinking, to understand and see its ways as conduits for the thoughts and activities of the soul. The soul's ways would reach ahead and beyond me, out upon the island's solid pathways, which were gleaming ahead in the afternoon sunlight." ??

The best part of it is always the birds, as the island is the perfect home for so many North Atlantic sea birds.

At once point he mentions that a helicopter was there, having brought people to work on the automated lighthouse mechanism, and then every time he mentioned not being able to get on or off the island or having supplies running low, I thought, Why not send a helicopter??

If you are interested in the Skelligs, or if the nature of monastic life is something you want to know more about, this might be to your liking. I'm glad I read it, but I wish it had had some sort of intentional overarching organization.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Irish non-fiction book group pretty much panned this book. In our fiction group, we had read Haven by Emma Donoghue. Despite the setting of Donoghue's book about Skellig Michael around the year 600, we felt we had learned a lot more about the geology of the island and its bird life, as well as other aspects of life on this stormy place.

Criticisms that we had echoed many made by other readers on Goodreads. The book is very repetitive. The writer tells us little about himself, his family, and his co-workers. One of the only stories he tells about visitors except a story about a sailboat that illegally lands on the island one evening. He spent hours eating and drinking with these lawbreakers and even considers leaving the island with them. All in all we were very disappointed.

I was fortunate to visit Skellig Michael in 1998. According to the author, after 2002, things changed, and not for the better, on the island. I feel fortunate I visited before then. With an ascent of 600 steps, it is a daunting climb. In 2009, on two different occasions, a visittor died. They were each Americans - one a 59 year old woman and one a 77 year old man. There are no safety railings, and it isn't considered really possible to add them.I was finally able to visit on my third attempt over several years. Many people describe multiple attempts to visit, and those who make it, consider themselves lucky. It is a fantastic place, and this is something that this book doesn't fully convey.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend bought this book thinking it was going to be nature writing. When she found it hard going, she passed it to me to see what I thought. There are elements of nature writing here, but I think the marketers and the cover copy got it wrong—this is a book about the spirituality of place. Specifically the island of Skellig Michael, off the coast of Ireland.

This assessment may seem pedantic, but I do read spirituality books (my friend does not) and it took pretty much until the end of the book to realize that was what this is. The sections of nature writing and history (the island housed a monastery back in the Middle Ages) are part of the memoir, but when I finished the book and wondered why I’d found it difficult to get into this bestseller, I realized it was because of the wrong expectations.

When I was a professor, I stressed to students that the genre you have in mind when you approach a piece of literature affects your experience of reading it. If you’re looking for a poetic, spiritual but not religious memoir about spending summers where monks fled for isolation, this is something you might enjoy. As I note here:
Sects and Violence in the Ancient World, the author appears to be writing about finding illumination.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that the reader must approach as something to slowly digest and not rush through. I would suggest reading it in smaller sections, perhaps at a quiet time of the day for you. I read it in the early morning when the light was just beginning to dawn.

I truly appreciate the depth of description that the author uses. Yes, there were times that it felt like a rambling of thoughts, but when one spend that much time in isolation among nature there is going to be a stream of consciousness that appears in the writing.

I think it is important to peruse the color plates in the center of the book first, and then--several times throughout the book--refer to these again. I even referred to them at the very end--as sort of a closing snapshot.

This is definitely more philosophical than many readers might anticipate. If you approach it from this perspective, I think you will glean the most from the writing.

[Genevieve Drutchas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this read though I struggled with feeling lost and at drift within it at times. Then I'd come upon a passage so beautiful and expressing something so ineffable and real that the writer captured in his musings about what he experienced in his many years as a steward living in this magnificent and extreme place that it kept me going. I was aware this feeling was likely akin to what the writer experienced in his time on the island and in this light it became of part of the read for me. I love that the writer kept it so real. There are no attempts to create artificial meaning or lessons from his time and experiences there but there's so much honesty and reality about how we feel and what we experience in these lives we live, whether we're on a remote monastic heritage site island unable to have guaranteed access to the mainland or not. I feel enriched by having read it and will return to the passages that contained so much for me in the future.

[Cecily Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

So...I had high hopes but I purchased it mostly because it's about the great "Skellig Michael" island off the coast of Ireland. Robert Harris presents a memoir of his 3 decades tending the island day and night in mild weather and storms. He encounters many birds and the spiritual effect of this ancient monastic site. He is not a professional writer so I want to give some slack.

Seems I could feel him struggle a bit too hard to capture the essence of Skellig Michael without quite getting there. He has great ambition and is just too wordy and sometimes redundant. However, having visited the island myself, I do understand the desire to try, try, try. It is a place that may indeed defy a complete understanding from words. However I think the editing could have been better and this would have helped greatly. There is not a lot written about this island. So if you can, visit and climb the 600 + steps to the monastery atop the steep cliffs. I give him credit for trying.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to review this one. I listened to it, and I didn’t listen consistently well. I wonder if there were parts on the page that looked like long poems…what I thought was prose (a memoir) would drift for what seemed like pages on descriptions of moments, shimmers and glimmers, and at times I would wonder if I were listened to the same chapter on repeat. Don’t get me wrong, the whole thing was extremely beautiful, and working on Skellig Michael for 34 years and the rhythms of season, tides, weather, birth/death, sun/moon…there is a monotony that is natural…beautiful…and boring. I loved this book and felt trapped by it, just as I’m sure I would if I were to spend time on a remote and deserted island. I loved learning about the natural world and the lovely birds, AND I now want all the visuals to accompany my learning. My imagination just isn’t that good. I’ve been to Inis Mor, but…

[Mick Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

After listening to the first few chapters, I considered moving on to something else. I thought the author's descriptions were vivid and interesting, but how much more could he say about such a small, confined place? I kept listening, though, and that's when the book began to soar. There is so much more here than an account of a lonely existence on a faraway, sometimes forbidding island. It's the story of the life of the soul and its intertwining with all other souls and the soul of nature itself. This is a feast for all the senses and a challenge to open one's mind to all possibilities. Provocative yet peaceful, it describes the author's continual search for hidden meanings and his celebrations of powerful revelations. In some ways, my experience with Returning Light was more like listening to a symphony than reading a memoir.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harris bathes Skellig Michael in light. His experience on this island is vast and his writing unveils the natural world by fragments of light. His descriptions are beautiful. It's fascinating to read about his life because of how aware he is of his surroundings. How aware are most of us of our surroundings? To the point of describing different forms of light? Harris is steeped in light and is so connected to the island, his spiritual and physical experiences become real to the reader. It seems insane that monks decided to live on this secluded rock, but it was their 'desert'. How fascinating to connect with monks that lived so long ago, witnessing the same light that lit their lives now fills Harris in this day and age. To know a place so intimately in the present and also it's history is attractive, making the world small and large at the same time.

[Kurtie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow, deliberate read of Robert Harris' many summers working on Skellig Michael of the southwest coast of Ireland.

This book is humble but it's alot: memoir, travelogue, poetry. Reminded me of Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez in which we get to know the author as well as the place.

Personal disclaimer, I visited this part of Ireland (Co. Kerry) five times over twenty years and it wasn't until the fifth visit that I was able to visit Skellig Michael. There were always issues preventing the voyage: bad weather, work on the dock, bad weather. One doesn't simply decide one day they're going to the skelligs.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book might be a delight, exploring solitude and the remote place and the birds. It did get me interested in the place and the history, so there was that. However, it just seemed to repeat on and on about the way light plays on the island and it's location, as well as the solitude. It needed more about the history to make it interesting, instead of me needing to look that up elsewhere. And the birds are mentioned often, but tell me more about them perhaps. Maybe some side information about 30 years of Ireland and how things changed. Instead it bored me to the point of skimming large sections looking for something more.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about life on Skellig Michael. I was interested in it, having visited the rock myself and found it an enchanting place. I suppose it is to be expected that after thirty summers spent in the place, a person could become obsessed with light and birds, and the book gives a fine, subjective, insight into what it must be like to live there - both now and thousands of years ago. The problem is that the effect quickly becomes repetitive. There are frequent mentions of 'lines of flight' and moving light and so on, which diminish the overall effect.