Daniel Shindler's Reviews > Clear

“ Clear” is a beautifully written novel that fuses the politics of economics and religion to create an undercurrent of ethical and moral questions that permeate the novel’s core. The thematic elements are delivered through the story of two men whose lives are altered by the convergence of two consequential events in nineteenth century Scotland.

In 1843, the rapacity of Scottish landowners was in the culminating stages of the century long land Clearances, which removed small tenants from their land to replace them with sheep farming. In the same year, over four hundred ministers separated from the Church of Scotland, protesting the landowners’ stranglehold on the clerical appointments on their estates.

The intersection of these two events affects the life of recently married John Ferguson, a minister in the newly created Free Church of Scotland. His devotion to his new calling has left him impoverished and struggling to support his bride.Thus he agrees to a paid job that sends him to a distant island in the Orkneys to survey the land and persuade the one remaining inhabitant to relocate within the month. Having arrived on the island, John’s fortunes take an unexpected turn when he is injured and subsequently rescued by Ivar, the person John has come to remove. Ivar installs John in his meager home and begins to oversee the healing process.

The two men begin to form a bond that is the framework of the novel’s narrative and ethical strands. Ivar speaks Norn, a language that has become” lost” as the islands have been cleared of inhabitants.John begins to compile a dictionary of Norn words that slowly allows the men to communicate. This gradual and hesitant process shows in human terms the impact of colonialism and avarice upon culture and, in Ivar’s case, language. Both men grasp a reality that they are unable to articulate. They are both outsiders whose previous support systems no longer exist. They must strive to overcome the uncertainty of each other’s motives and create a new set of social bonds that will enable them to function with a level of dignity.

An element of suspense accompanies the men’s attempts to formulate a workable social contract. John has never revealed the true purpose of his visit to the island. Ivar has in turn been circumspect in revealing his emotional yearnings to John. They lurch forward in their nascent yet unarticulated social framework while still beset by inner uncertainties.

The novel moves towards its ethical denouement with the approach of the vessel that transports John’s wife Mary to accompany the men off the island. Mary becomes the catalyst of a triangular relationship that triggers the novel’s societal and moral reckonings. The resolution leaves much unanswered, prompting speculation about the viability of the newly formed relationships once settled on the mainland.

There is much to admire in the novel’s masterful blend of history, language, culture and politics. The prose blends the reticent warmth of the men’s emerging bonds with the stark beauty of the island landscape.While reading, I felt cocooned in a unique world as I witnessed the development of a fragile emotional and social bond.Many of the thematic elements that drive the novel resonate in our current geopolitical dilemmas. The author has created a work that entwines simple and complex layers that enrapture and stimulate.4.5 stars.