books:

	The Blackwater Lightship: A Novel Colm Toibin Scribner, 2001 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Blackwater Lightship is a deeply resonant story about three generations of an estranged family reuniting to mourn an untimely death. In spare, luminous prose, Colm Tóibín explores the nature of love and the complex emotions inside a family at war with itself. Hailed as "a genuine work of art" (Chicago Tribune), this is a novel about the capacity of stories to heal the deepest wounds.

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Colm Toibin is a Master

Colm Toibin, author of "The Master", is an outstanding writer. After reading his novel about Henry James, I went back to read his earlier novels. I was truly moved by this book: character development was outstanding and complex, people were believable, and the intricate plot was mesmerizing. I recommend that anyone who liked "The Master" read this and his other earlier (and maybe even better written) books.


Throwing light on life.

This is a beautiful piece of work by one of Irelands finest novelists. Showing clearly just how families can be thorn assunder by lack of communication and added to this difficulty you throw in a sense that others "know best" when disclosing information on family, death and sexuality and you have a real drama on your hands. He painted a mesmerising set of characters with the background of a rural Irish landscape. One of his best works,if not his best work to date. Read it, it will throw light on on your life.

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Mother-daughter relationship

In "The Blackwater Lightship" the strained relationship between a mother and daughter is explored. The relationship is seen through the eyes of the daughter, but the mother does get to present her side in engrossing conversations with the daughter. It emerges that the mother's major problem is a lack of empathy and tact, and an inability to appreciate her young daughter's defense mechanisms for what they are. The mother was much more supportive of her dying husband than of her children who were going through the loss of a father. As an adult, the daughter still suffers from an inability to fully abandon her defenses, even when dealing with a loving, caring husband. The grandmother is an important secondary character; I was not able to get a "fix" on her, but certainly she could be tactless and insensitive at times, which is consistent with the mother's character, and the lack of warmth between them.

The novel also has an account of the son, who is dying of AIDs, surrounded by family and friends. All interact, as the reality of a very uncomfortable death is brought home.

The major problem with the novel is that the lead up, prior to the family and friends getting together, is weak.

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Creates an atmosphere better than a sense of purpose

Joyce said that the idea of Ulysses was that if Dublin were to be destroyed it could be recreated from his book; Colm Tobin appears to be trying to do the same thing in this book for the Irish family. I'm in two minds about this. The observation is very precise, everything in it rings true, and it evokes the Ireland of 1990 (when not everyone had a mobile phone) so exactly that it feels like a perfectly done period piece. And the final exchanges between the lead character and her mother are perfectly pitched. On the other hand it all seems a bit inconsequential. It held my attention well after the first 70 or so pages and then it was over.

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2.5 stars: Backstory with little present to place it in

Helen lives a happy life in a village in Ireland. She is devoted to her sons and husband and enjoys her job as principal of a local school. One day, unexpectedly, she is confronted with the news that her beloved brother Declan has contracted AIDS. She gathers with two of his friends, her grandmother and her estranged mother to spend some time with him in his final days.

I was drawn to this book because I am fascinated by stories about ordinary people in moments of vulnerability and change (I'm thinking Carver, Hempel, Dubus etc.), however The Blackwater Lightship is a competent novel and little more. Toibin obviously has a good understanding of family dynamics, however there are no moments of catharsis or great insight. Perhaps this is due to the fact that none of the characters are particularly great thinkers and the novel is primarily concerned with their thoughts. In a particularly contrived chapter, a sleepless night is used as an opportunity to give a substantial portion of Helen's backstory because this is what Helen is thinking about. This instance of backstory - as all others - is presented without benefit of foresight afforded by retrospection, but as a matter-of-fact exposition regarding what happened. Other main characters have their pasts detailed through a single instance of extensive dialogue with Helen at various opportunistic points throughout the book. I found this a very obvious, predictable and ultimately unrealistic mechanic, however Toibin seemed intent on depriving the characters of whatever sense of intrigue they may have embodied had their pasts not been artlessly exposed.

One of the more interesting scenes in the novel finds Declan sitting intently at a dinner table, staring motionlessly while all those around him try to accommodate his mood. It is interesting because it is one of the very few instances in which Toibin allows his reader to wonder and to use their own experience to guess as to what is taking place. All too often he insists on telling us what is occurring and what we should think about it, leaving no room for the reader to relate to the narrative or insert themself into it. He does this by adopting an authoritative third-person perspective. As with any novel we are free to like or dislike its characters, agree or disagree with them, however the aforementioned shallowness of thought makes this a difficult process to pursue with any confidence. Even though this is a novel that deals with life, death and the intangible machinations of human relationships Helen is not so much a poor philosopher as she is not a philosopher at all. Toibin tells us what happened and Helen tells us what she thinks of it, however the abstract process connecting event to conclusion is never so much as brushed. This makes Helen an unquestionable arbiter of truth for the purposes of the novel, which is a very poor decision on Toibin's behalf, as this is a power that should not be vested in any character.

All of this basically results in the annulment of the importance of the present, as the present becomes only a conduit for the past. Declan is not so much a character as he is an artificial rallying point for what the book's blurb itself so helpfully informed me are "six [people], from different generations and with different beliefs" that "are forced to listen to each other and come to terms with each other" and it really is as contrived as it sounds. There is no real emotional gravity attached to Declan's suffering, because even though it constitutes the rallying call, the focus of the book is on the minor tensions that exist between the people around him. In the hands of a writer like William Faulkner (just as a for instance) this would not be a problem as he has the skill to navigate these tensions and use them to provide profound insight into humanity, however Colm Toibin is not William Faulkner, and The Blackwater Lightship is not As I Lay Dying.

Toibin's prose is unremarkable with little, if any distinctive stylistic idiosyncrasies. He tells his story clearly - perhaps too clearly - however I didn't find myself very much drawn into it. His total lack of effort to conceal his narrative devices for backstory and the way he made it clear when he was speaking as a storyteller and when Helen was thinking as a character kept me constantly aware that I was just reading a book, which is hardly a glowing endorsement for a piece of literature. If you want to read an easy story with minimum challenge or investment expected of its reader, this is for you, however if you are after something that has the philosophical insight to back up its themes, there are a veritable overflow of superior writers further up the ladder.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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