The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
My rating: 5/5 cats
this book won “book of the year” at the irish book awards in 2012. if james joyce had published every single book he had ever written in 2012, this book still would have won. hi, i’m karen – i make bold declarative statements. welcome.
this book is a stunner. like Broken Harbour, it speaks to the devastating economic and social climate in ireland after the death of the celtic tiger. in this particular, unnamed, small town, when the local construction company goes out of business and its owner skips town without paying his workers their wages, it is just one factor contributing to a series of events that will ultimately end in kidnapping and murder.
this book captures small-town life perfectly. it is told in a chorus of voices, where each chapter is narrated (in dialect ♥) by a single character, and through their individual voices, we see a whole tapestry of resentments, ambitions, yearning, grief, admiration – the shared, embarrassed past and the shining, small-scale heroes. it is so deftly handled in such a short book – it is nothing short of astonishing.
it is funny, it is sad, it is dark, it is a scattershot of singular, lonely existences that make up this heartbreaking jewel of a novel. but there is a story here – it is not just a collection of experiences, it just happens to be narrated by a number of different people and perspectives, some unreliable, for sure, but the interlocking bits do make up a cohesive story. it is gripping, it is wonderful, and i cannot wait to read more from him.
