book review: A Swift Pure Cry

taken from Goodreads:

"Ireland 1984.

After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, who is charming, eloquent, and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the center of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

This is a story of love and loss, religious belief and spirituality—it will move the hearts of any who read it. "

Siobhan Dowd was a great YA writer (I say "was" because she died from cancer before her most recent novel, Bog Child, was published); I think she had a natural gift for capturing a time and place -- in this instance, Ireland in the 80s and 90s -- through dialogue and description. What holds this novel back is the fact that, despite the specifics of the true story this is based on, this is a story that almost falls into cliche, because the details are so predictable. The dead mother, the alcoholic father, the poverty, the innocence of the main character (trapped in a woman's body), the pregnancy -- all of it combines into a story that has been told over and over. It's a grim story, grim and heartbreaking and utterly depressing (and not for the faint of heart, at all).

Still, Dowd is able, through Shell's character -- her thoughts, her actions, her reactions -- to bring a new light to this story. Despite the familiarity of the situation, as a reader I was caught up in Shell's conflict. I think Dowd did a fantastic job of making what could've been a "local" story a much more universal story. The situation Shell finds herself in -- no mother to offer guidance and advice, no father to offer comfort or love -- makes me think of the stories I hear about young girls in the eastern part of Kentucky, over in the Appalachian mountain area. Of course, it's a story that finds form everywhere, but many of the details in the setting seemed to recreate this area for me.

This isn't a story for everyone, but it's a fine exampe of the talent and ability that Dowd went on to perfect in her later novels.

Comments

[staceymichu]

thanks for the review!