This quiet, reflective novel is a
portrait of an ageing couple who have been married “for a protracted period.” Gerry and Stella Gilmore travel to Amsterdam
for a few days. Gerry sees the trip as a
holiday, but Stella has another agenda: she
wants to explore how “to live a more devout life,” a life which may not include
Gerry whose excessive drinking troubles her.
They have many shared experiences and obviously love each other, but
there are fissures in their relationship which may mean they will not be able
to continue living as a couple.
This is a tender, sympathetic
examination of that relationship and the complexity of love. Gerry and Stella love each other. They hold hands, kiss whenever they’re alone
in an elevator, and make love regularly.
Their familiar bantering suggests they enjoy each other’s company. They even have the same mannerisms: “Gerry joined his hands behind his back as he
walked” while “Stella stood almost on tiptoe with her hands joined behind her
back.” Stella does things to make life
easier for Gerry and he is attentive to her:
“her hand-eye co-ordination was a lot poorer than his, so generally he
travelled behind her [on an escalator] in case she stumbled. If they were descending he would go in front.” Gerry’s extended interior monologue about
what he knows Stella knows reads like a love poem, and the closing lines of the
book may inspire tears.
Nonetheless, there are
problems. Just as “nobody could peer
into a relationship – even for a day or two – and come away with the truth,”
Gerry looks at Stella and sees her “Like someone he did not fully know.” This image is repeated: “Seeing her as if he didn’t know her well”
and “He was seeing her as someone he didn’t fully know.” And Stella does not always help Gerry
understand her; when he asks about a conversation she had with someone, she
replies that it “’would be of little interest to you.’” When she feels Gerry is dismissive of her
views, she gets up and leaves, thereby dismissing his opinion.
Gerry and Stella’s shared history
includes a traumatic experience in Northern Ireland during The Troubles; that
incident, which they do not directly discuss, affected them deeply. They cope in different ways but their lack of
communication means there are unresolved issues and a lack of
understanding. Gerry’s drinking is also
driving a wedge between them; Gerry describes their “skidding off each other”
and their becoming “ships that pass in the night.”
The husband and wife are quite
different in some ways. Stella is very religious;
she prays daily, attends Mass every Sunday, and is a Eucharistic minister in
her parish. In fact, “Her church was her
everything” and she tells Gerry, “’Mass is the most precious thing in my life.’” Gerry, however, is a non-believer who thinks
religion is “’the greatest deception of our lives’” and often mocks Stella’s
piety. His devotion lies elsewhere: “A poured, but as yet untouched, pint of
Guinness has a slight dome to it which reminded him of the faint curvature of
the outer wall of Burt Chapel.”
This is not a plot-driven book. There are no dramatic incidents except one
event described in flashbacks. It is
very much a novel of character. Both are realistic characters with positive and
negative qualities. Gerry, for example,
is not a caricature of a drunk, and Stella, though focused on living a good
life, is not perfect. Since the
perspectives of both are given, the reader gets to know them better than they
know each other.
This understated novel about ordinary
people with everyday frustrations is definitely worth a read. It is relatively short, but with its careful
attention to detail, it packs an emotional punch.
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