Goodreads Ireland discussion

I know it's super early to post about this as many people are waiting on hold copies at the library, but I had 3 hours on a train yesterday so I managed to get through it.

I can't say I enjoyed the book at all. It felt like the main man Vlad was shoehorned into a story that would have been far more touching without him.

Also I kind of felt like the quotes from other books or poems were like that author in Little Britain who would begin a novel and then just quote endless reems of what her characters were reading. Having read O'Brien before I was very disappointed in the novel.

Emma wrote: "I've been processing my thoughts on this for the past few days and I think you've pretty much nailed it Emmet. The issue is Vlad. Overall I enjoyed the book and the writing style hence my good rati..."

I am glad I'm not alone in thinking this way Emma! I had heard the Guardian Books Podcast with O'Brien either late last year or early this one and it sounded like she tried really hard to make the story cohesive. I would recommend listening into that podcast because she's so eloquent and funny in it.

Interesting podcast. No, I haven't read the book and do not plan to do so. I have never liked ednas work, but i was curious to see how she was going down with the group.

One thing she said did touch a nerve me was trying to imagine not being to read. I've been there after my brain injury and it has been the most horrendous experience of my life. Far worse than waking up to find I couldn't walk, was waking up to find I couldn't comprehend the notices on the hospital walls.

I just finished the book and all I could think about after reading it is why is it so praised. I just don't get it. The characters seemed to come from a different era than the 1990's. Fidelma talked about putting on her headscarf. In the book she's only 40, I just don't recognise or believe in her.

I don't get why she went off with three strange men in their car. Why? Because she didn't want her husband to find she was pregnant by another man. That makes no sense to me. She acted like a ghost. She let things happen and she did nothing to save herself.

I could go on all day about this.

Sherry I totally agree that the book is scatterbrained and Fidelma is insanely passive. However I felt more like this was due to the fact that O'Brien is 85 years old and from a different time. Not an excuse for such poor novels but don't write off the early stuff.

I just didn't understand how Fidelma and Vlad suddenly became lovers as she rebaptized herself i the bog. I struggled to understand that scene and reread it like 4 times to be sure I'd understood.

The praise the book gets its undoubtedly based on reputation of the author and shock value as well as a heavy push from the editors. I think I've seen a lot of this lately, especially with The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney which was praised quite highly but turned out to be utter muck. I guess it's also a big personal preference thing too. Maybe we are all too cynical and not at all romantic!

I'd be interested to hear Emma and Barbara's take on this book. Judging by their ratings they really enjoyed it. Seems to be a marmite read

I have never read Edna O'Brien before and I wish I hadn't started with this one. The first part was somewhat interesting and then it went down rapidly. I agree that the book read like it was from the 50's and there where way to many characters introduced that had no point such as James and who give her 2600 pounds a month ? I hated the ending and I felt the novel was pointless. Very little was made of little red chairs.I didn't care about Fidelma and so much of what she did had me shaking my head in disbelief...I had no connection with this novel.I read a review that said that Fidelma was one of girlsfrom The Country Girls and is there any chance I would like that one any better? I try to give authors a couple of chances before I write them off. I'm sorry I nominated this one.

Did you like anything about the book, Sherry? I thought there were some beautiful sentences and I didn't hate it completely. If the book had been set in the past I would probably have liked it better.

Everybody seemed to know about the affair. Her friend set the 3 thugs on her but Fidelma must have made a protective gesture over her stomach. That's what I think happened.

I have given the book back to the library as there was a demand for it.

My main feeling about the book is that it was a literary exercise instead of a cohesive novel. I don't know if that is her regular style; I will try The Country Girls sometime and give her another chance.

Country Girls is the best of her work that I have read and I'd rate that 3*. I think she writes excellant prose but her dialogue leaves me cold and I find many of her charactors pantomimish. These are general comments however, I haven't read this particular book. I was curious to see how Edna want down with the group ;-)

So this novel won't make my list of top reads of the year, but I have to say I'm a bit surprised at how much some folks didn't like it. To each their own I guess.

I'm particularly dismayed at at the level of vitrol some of you have directed at Fidlema. Plenty of women fall for men who are completely unsuitable, abusive, and/or evil. We can see plenty examples of this in the real world with victims of rape or abuse, or even in the wives of serial rapists or killers. Dismissing Fildema doing so as "skanky stupidity" feels like blaming her for her own victimization, which is the whole attitude O'Brien is trying to fight back against with her work.

I actually like the bits with the secondary characters although I wish O'Brien had focused on just a few of them, as I would have liked to hear more of their stories, particularly of the other refuge women.

Okay, bringing up the end of the line here....I finished the novel last night, and I'm glad that I read it, but it was difficult to get through at certain parts because of the brutality. I had to put the novel down for a bit (the scene where Fidelma is abducted and attacked). I imagine that's what O'Brien wants her readers to confront. I also like that O'Brien doesn't make it easy to read. She's never been one to sugar coat anything.

I thought it was part fairy tale/fable/allegory--all of the descriptions of the natural world, the fog, the rivers, her self-baptism--and part of it was bleak realism. Now to read everyone's comments; I made myself wait until I finished the book.

Emma wrote: "For anyone interested I think this is the podcast Emmet is referring to.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/audi..."

Thanks, Emma. I'll have a listen.

Interesting to read the range of responses on this novel.

I read Fidelma as a sympathetic character. She was a young, very young, beautiful woman (the "town beauty") who was "courted" by Jack in way that was reminiscent of 19thc courtships. She was not at all worldly and married a much older man. He treated her more like a fragile object than a woman; it reminded me of A Doll's House. Once she got older, and realized that their marriage was routinized, sterile, she started to feel the dissatisfaction that catalyzed everything else.

I also thought that being childless, both because of her own desire and longing for a child--as well as the social stigma of being a childless woman, could certainly make a woman make decisions, that in retrospect, would be catastrophic. Some women could have negotiated that affair, but I think her lifetime of docility and unworldliness influenced her choices and behaviors. And once she felt (her first ever?) sexual attraction to Vlad, that desire drove her, the "madness" of love.

I think Vlad was crucial in the book, a Svengali, who had the power to mesmerize even those who were the moral compass for the whole community. The chapter where Sr. Bonaventure got a massage showed the reach of his power. Beyond his sexual magnetism, he is a war criminal, a man who has no moral core, delusions of grandeur, the epitome of the banality of evil. I thought the last section of the book was chilling.

I do want to think more about the novel, and I'm glad it was such a challenge. From a structural standpoint, I'm curious about O'Brien's decision to include part 2 and Fidelma's peripatetic existence. I could see that that was part of her rehabilitation and development, but I'd be curious to know what else motivated O'Brien and what else she intended that section to serve. I know it was a political statement, but I also wonder if it completely worked in terms of the structure of the novel. Lots to think about. Very glad I read this novel.

Brief review : disjointed, jarring, and grisly without being as effective as one would hope.

It feels as though O Brien stretched for a new literary style, as if her former works needed to be redone, undone, or outdone. Perhaps age is nibbling at her confidence.

I find the anger against Fidelmia quite mystifying. I felt for her so much. She wanted a baby more that anything and went after that. She had an one night affair. Everyone seems to want to hang her for a one night affair. She didn't know Dr. Vlad was a war criminal. She didn't kill anyone. She wasn't one of those women who go to prisons and marry mass murderers like the Mendoza Brothers. She wasn't part of the Peterson fan club, an awful man who murdered his 8 month pregnant wife.

She was then taken and raped with a crowbar, a truly horrific act, and everyone turns against her. I don't get it. Plenty of people used Dr. Vlad's services including the nun. I was surprised to read later she had her period. I would have thought she would have required a hysterectomy.

I found the ending with her husband was very weak. I also don't understand why she got in the car with the men but overall I found the book immensely moving.

Seraphina wrote: "I'd be interested to hear Emma and Barbara's take on this book. Judging by their ratings they really enjoyed it. Seems to be a marmite read"

A marmite read?

Love it or hate it :)

Aw. Thanks.

I deleted my comments. I don't want to squelch positive reviews.

Sherry you shouldn't delete your comments just because they weren't positive. Their your thoughts .

Thanks but my thoughts were VERY negative lol.

My thoughts on the book were pretty similar to you but I like a good argument. It keeps things lively☺

It would be a boring discussion if everyone agreed. I'll have to go back and see my comments . I know the novel wasn't what I was expecting.

The blurb didn't match the story.

I'll remember that in the future. Thanks Emma.

No it didn't and the title was misleading . I went back and read my 1st comment and I was harsh on Fidelma. I will never understand why she got in the car but I do understand her overwhelming need for a baby.

I understand wanting a baby. I don't understand begging a stranger to get her pregnant. The other option is to accept that you can't have kids. I don't think going to a sperm bank or adoption were options given her marriage. I wouldn't want to bring a child into an abusive home if I were her.

I think she wanted someone to love and that was never going to happen with her husband . I don't know how she thought she could get away with considering it does seem they don't have Sex. Also like someone else said how did the thugs know unless they just wanted to hurt her bad . What was the point ? She wasn't with Val . I think this book has a lot of loose ends and extra characters.

Yes it does. It was a mess.