The Boatman by Billy O'Callaghan

Even without Mei in the room, her presence blocked out the space the way sand fills an hourglass, turning everything slow. That's how I wanted it to be, and that at least was what I'd have, but I knew from before, from having already lost her once, such ghosts tormented as much as consoled. We'd taken an important step in reconnecting and had sworn we wouldn't let that flag, so that it would be different this time, better even if still a long way from ideal, but keeping our promise meant condemning ourselves to a famished life, to the scraps that could nourish only the most fragile of hearts. 

~from "Ruins", p. 44 of The Boatman

I chose an excerpt from the story "Ruins" in The Boatman by Billy O'Callaghan at random because when I was reading I was so immersed that it never occurred to me to get up and look for flags to mark favorite passages. Instead, I read them over and over for their sheer beauty. But, this is what you most need to know about The Boatman: it is carefully, meticulously crafted, rhythmic and melancholy and absolutely stunning.

A few of the stories:

"The Border Fox" - A young man goes over the border into Northern Ireland with a group, to make a delivery. A tense story of subterfuge, violence, and budding romance. 

"The Boatman" - Two men walk to a graveyard to dig the grave of the boatman's daughter, who died very quickly after becoming ill. "She was only young," her uncle keeps repeating. A heartrending tale of grief and the physical labor that becomes a part of the grieving process. 

"Beginish" - A young couple, madly in love and still newlyweds, work hard at two jobs each to save money for a proper holiday. When they decide to stay close to home and camp out on an abandoned island, the man from whom they rent a boat is friendly though mildly concerned. But, neither he nor the young couple expect the tragedy they're about to encounter. 

"Love is Strange" - A teenager is compelled to help an elderly neighbor who regularly struggles up the hill to her home with her purchases. A few years later, he goes out with a neighbor girl and they talk about the old woman. 

I realize, after writing about these 4 stories, that all of them are favorites from the dozen in the book. But, I can't think of any story in The Boatman that I disliked. "Beginish" was the one story in the collection that I could imagine expanded to novel length and perhaps even turned into a movie. It's tragic, as are many of the stories. But, I was so swept away by the incredible beauty of O'Callaghan's writing that for once I thought more about the sound, rhythm and uniqueness of his wording than about the direction each story took. Having said that, all are compelling and at least two had an "edge of your seat" feel. 

Speaking of tragedy . . . if you've hung around here for a while, you know I generally rate anything tragic that lacks a glimpse of hope lower than I do those that give you some sense of light at the end of the tunnel. I gave The Boatman 5 stars, which just goes to show that truly amazing writing will win out, even if a story is gut-wrenching. That surprised me, actually. 

Highly recommended - This one's going on the good shelves and I will definitely return to it for future rereading. 

Important note: I posted about this book on Instagram, yesterday, and one of the photos I posted was of the book posed with a record album (vinyl, that is) and music box that my mother brought home from Ireland, way back when I was a tiny tyke. I listened to the album as a child and remembered the tune to the title song but none of the words. After I posted, I found the title cut on YouTube to listen to and hoo boy, it could be considered extremely offensive in some quarters. It's about a man going off to join the IRA. Since I don't mean to take sides in any way, that post will come down. I was really shocked. It has such a jaunty tune that I had no idea what it was about. In fact, the words "where the helmets glisten in the sun" was one of those phrases that my little-kid brain turned into something else, although there is no such thing as a "Hal man" that glistens in the sun . . . and I didn't remember what my mind had turned it to till I heard the song for the first time in decades. Apologies to any Irish citizens who may have seen that post and found it offensive. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Mini Reviews - In Another Time by Jillian Cantor, The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

More minis! And, all of these were excellent, all from my own shelves. Although Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an ARC, I didn't receive it from the publisher.


I just wandered around my house, looking for In Another Time in all the usual places for books I've read but not yet reviewed, and then it came to me . . . oh, I put it on the favorites pile. I loved In Another Time that much.

Hanna is Jewish; Max is not. When they fall in love in 1930s Germany, Max is worried about the growing anti-Jewish sentiment and Hitler's rising power. He wants to marry and leave the country. But, Hanna's musical education is too important to her and she's not concerned about Hitler. She thinks the Nazi party's rise is a passing phase.

In 1946, Hanna finds herself alone with no memory of the past 10 years of her life. Though she doesn't seem to know about it, the reader knows that there was a time portal in Max's bookshop. Did Max send Hanna into the portal and save her from the Nazis? If so, how did she lose her memory and what happened to Max? Why isn't he there with her?

Highly recommended - An utterly captivating and unique WWII story with a sci-fi twist. I went into the reading of In Another Time blind and was pleasantly surprised by the time travel aspect. I love a good time travel book. You don't know the truth of what happened till the end. Cantor kept me guessing all the way through the book.

The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich is a book that I bought and read at the request of a friend who wanted to hear my thoughts. I love it when that happens (a valid excuse to acquire a book I wanted to read, anyway). It's a book that was once offered to me for review but I presume I wasn't aware of how fabulous Louise Erdrich is, at the time.

When a woman is brutally raped and beaten, she is so traumatized and depressed that she can't talk about the rape and retreats to her bed. The police investigate but don't seem to be getting anywhere and her teenage son, Joe, is unwilling to accept the lack of progress.

Determined to solve the crime himself, Joe begins to investigate between biking around with his friends and working at his uncle's store.

Highly recommended - The crime is truly shocking but even more appalling is the fact that the raped woman is the wife of a judge and even he can't make sure that when a suspect is found he remains behind bars. Joe, meanwhile, is a fascinating character because he is so beautifully drawn. The story is told from his point of view and besides being very angry and confused about the crime and lack of progress by police, he's a typical teenage boy who is not a little obsessed with women and food, which took me back to the days when I had teenage boys of my own sticking their heads in the fridge all day long. I was very impressed by the authenticity of Joe's point of view.

My copy of The Roundhouse was published by Corsair, a British publisher. In the US, the publisher is HarperCollins and the cover is quite different.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is one of those WWII books that I have wanted to read for years. Why didn't I get to it, before now? I have no idea.

The story of Henry Lee, a Chinese American, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet goes back and forth between 1986 and the 1940s. In 1986, Henry finds out the Panama Hotel at the corner of Seattle's former Japantown has a basement full of luggage left there by Japanese-American citizens who were rounded up and sent to internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In the 1940s, Henry and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese American, are outsiders at an elementary school and lovers of jazz who become fast friends. When people begin to panic after Pearl Harbor, worried that Japanese Americans will side with the Japanese, Henry's father forces him to wear a button saying he's Chinese to prevent trouble with authorities. His father dislikes Japanese people and insists that Henry stay away from Japantown. But, Henry values his friendship with Keiko and wants to help her in any way he can.

Back in 1986, Henry gets permission to search through the luggage to see if he can find a prized possession that he gave to Keiko. Henry is widowed and was happily married but he has never forgotten Keiko. Will the discovery of the luggage lead Henry to finally seek out Keiko? What drove them apart, years ago?

Highly recommended - A lovely and, yes, bittersweet story about friendship, music, racism, and the power of memories. So lovely. I didn't realize Jamie Ford is such a romantic. I expected something a little different, less sweetly touching. I'm glad I finally got around to reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and I will definitely read more by Jamie Ford.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Forbidden Area by Pat Frank

Forbidden Area by Pat Frank is the only book I managed to finish during last week's mini-slump and it's a good one but it took me the entire week to get through it because I was struggling to even talk myself into reading. The story eventually became exciting enough that I had trouble putting it down, thank goodness, thus ending the slump (for good, I hope).

Published in 1956, this Cold War era novel by the author of Alas, Babylon is about the run-up to a nuclear attack and the effort by a team of brainy people to prevent the destruction of the U.S.

The first chapter is dramatic, tense, and nerve-wracking, so I was disappointed when the story shifted from the edge-of-your-seat landing of Russian spies witnessed by two teenagers who were not where they were supposed to be to the perspective of Katy Hume, an extremely smart woman who serves in the Intentions of the Enemy Group within the Atomic Energy Commission. Katy and a handful of men are tasked with determining what the Russians are up to, their objective being to avert potential nuclear war. As the only woman in the group, she has to deal with sexism and the attention of two men who are both in love with her. Yawn. While they eventually figure out the Russian plan of attack, there's a lot of fairly dry description of their discussions and Katy dealing with men, both those in love with her and those who talk down to her.

While the people in the Intentions of the Enemy Group are dickering about what's of concern and what's not, planes are disappearing. Are they suffering from metal fatigue or has something else gone wrong that's causing them to crash? Could it be sabotage?

The knowledge of the teenagers on the beach, the investigation of the blown-up planes, the predictions of the Intentions Group, and the actions of a traitor who runs a bank all eventually intersect and once that happens and you realize that the clock is ticking, the book becomes pretty suspenseful, again. But, parts of Forbidden Area are a bit of a slog. Still, I enjoyed it immensely, once I got over my slump and when I closed the book I was so satisfied that I looked to see what else Pat Frank wrote that's still available.

Highly recommended - Although it could be slow and at least one of the storylines was protracted, Forbidden Area is also occasionally heart-pounding and it has that, "You know enough to want to holler at the characters to just freaking look over there" attribute (fun, but nerve-wracking). So, it's really satisfying when the threads eventually are tied together.

After reading my review of Alas, Babylon, I'm pretty sure Forbidden Area is almost on par with the classic post-apocalyptic novel that is so much better known. You do have to be patient with the slower sections, but it's worth sticking out.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.