Book Review - Nora Webster

Nora Webster by Colm Tobin

Book 2 - Autumn 2015 TBR list

I have only previously read one book by Colm Tobin - Brooklyn - which I loved a lot, and I am really excited to see the film, which stars Saoirse Ronan and comes out this autumn. So I went into Nora Webster with high hopes and a lot of excitement.

Excitement is definitely the wrong emotion with which you should approach this novel, it's definitely a slow burner and much more a character-led novel than a plot-driven one. Which isn't a slight at all, just perhaps not the story I was expecting given Brooklyn. There is something magical about an author that can take you by surprise and not give you exactly what you expect, though.

Nora Webster tells the story of a middle-aged Irish woman, recently widowed and dealing with bringing up four kids in Ireland. The story is set in the 60s or 70s - the timing is never fully disclosed, and the reader picks up from the events that are unfolding in Northern Ireland on the characters' TV screens. We meet Nora as she has just been bereaved, and the best way I can think to describe her character is like when a bomb goes off in a movie and everyone's ears are ringing. Nothing gets in and nothing gets out. She's numb and doesn't know her place. The reader goes with Nora  on her journey of discovery.

Tobin's writing never disappoints me. His descriptions of small town Irish life are vivid, colourful and engaging. "She had known her all her life, like so many in the town, to greet and exchange pleasantries with, or to stop and talk to if there was news. She knew the story of her life down to her maiden name and the plot in the graveyard where she would be buried." Everything about this sentence screams rural Ireland. Everyone knows everyone else, and knows where they are headed - on a daily basis and in the grander scheme of things! I thought it was typical of Tobin's excellent ability to say an awful lot, while not saying very much at all.

The slow pace of the novel ties the reader in with the pace of Nora's development. Nora breaks from the claustrophobic network of people she has - including her husband's brother Jim - and joins a gramophone society, as well as a trade union. She starts to develop a taste for music, and starts to learn more about the music and about herself as a woman - her likes, dislikes, and her own opinions. I enjoyed the scene where Nora is talking with Jim and Maureen about Charles Haughey and Irish politics, something Maurice (Nora's late husband) would have discussed with him, while Nora busied herself making tea and doing what good wives do. Jim has to learn to cope with a woman having an opinion, probably for the first time in his life.

Overall, the writing was great - Tobin doesn't seem to get it wrong. I watched him do a reading of the book on Youtube, and it's worth looking at if you are interested, he talks about how Nora's character was based loosely on his own mother, and how some characters were lifted straight out of his past. He's a brilliant author and I really look forward to discovering more of his work. I wasn't as fond of the characters in this book, and as they are the main feature, I wasn't racing to pick it up each time I did. I think I liked it more in retrospect than at the time.

Overall score - 3.5/5