Trudie's Reviews > The Colony
The Colony
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Well, three days out from the 2022 Booker prize longlist announcement and this is the novel I have seen as most tipped to be on that list. I don't believe I have seen a single negative review at least amongst my colleagues here. So it is with some puzzlement that I found myself underwhelmed by this story of island life, interleaved with reportage of "The Troubles".
The opening scenes of Mr Lloyd bumbling around in a currach for his crossing to the island were beautifully done. The initial descriptions of the villagers, the windswept cliffs, the puffins, rabbit stew, how to make an Aran jumper- all good. Where I started to get restless probably coincided with the introduction of the French linguist. There were now little asides about the history of the Irish language, coupled with the reportage from the mainland - it became a real question of why I might not just prefer reading a book on Irish history instead.
I understand this is a novel about colonialism, language, art and sectarian violence. But my memories of it were mostly about James bringing people an inordinate amount of tea and me waiting for some moment of, well, excitement? A cliffside tumble, a fist fight, the willful destruction of one of these damn paintings... spoiler alert: none of this occurs.
Oddly enough in what is a very positive review of The Colony in the Guardian* I nevertheless find sentiments I can agree with :
Audrey Magee likes to keep her readers at arm’s length - Tick
emotions were bleached from the page, forcing the reader to dispassionately observe action and reaction - refers to Magee's first novel but is equally applicable here. Believe me, I dispassionately observed the skinning of rabbits and the sketching of birds and I come away unmoved.
Characters do very little very slowly and discontents are expressed sardonically or obliquely, if at all. - Ding, ding YES exactly
I will volunteer to place myself in the literary time-out corner until I can sort myself out and get prepared to face disgrace should this win the Booker ;)
*https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
The opening scenes of Mr Lloyd bumbling around in a currach for his crossing to the island were beautifully done. The initial descriptions of the villagers, the windswept cliffs, the puffins, rabbit stew, how to make an Aran jumper- all good. Where I started to get restless probably coincided with the introduction of the French linguist. There were now little asides about the history of the Irish language, coupled with the reportage from the mainland - it became a real question of why I might not just prefer reading a book on Irish history instead.
I understand this is a novel about colonialism, language, art and sectarian violence. But my memories of it were mostly about James bringing people an inordinate amount of tea and me waiting for some moment of, well, excitement? A cliffside tumble, a fist fight, the willful destruction of one of these damn paintings... spoiler alert: none of this occurs.
Oddly enough in what is a very positive review of The Colony in the Guardian* I nevertheless find sentiments I can agree with :
Audrey Magee likes to keep her readers at arm’s length - Tick
emotions were bleached from the page, forcing the reader to dispassionately observe action and reaction - refers to Magee's first novel but is equally applicable here. Believe me, I dispassionately observed the skinning of rabbits and the sketching of birds and I come away unmoved.
Characters do very little very slowly and discontents are expressed sardonically or obliquely, if at all. - Ding, ding YES exactly
I will volunteer to place myself in the literary time-out corner until I can sort myself out and get prepared to face disgrace should this win the Booker ;)
*https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
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Roman Clodia
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rated it 2 stars
Jul 24, 2022 03:03AM
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