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Revision as of 08:14, 28 February 2014
, 08:14, 28 February 2014no edit summary
Barnabas attempts to recover from the loss of his cattle and rebuild the byre so he and his family can get back on their feet. We follow him through depression and periods of strong motivation and optimism and we also follow his wife and how the events and her husband’s moods affect her. The family unfortunately are forced to deal with many setbacks and tragedies and as a reader I really felt the highs and lows with them, especially the lows which make up the bulk of the story.
This is the second novel Paul Lynch has written with his debut being the fantastic [[Red Sky in In Morning by Paul Lynch|Red Sky in Morning]]. I loved the first book and the incredibly original and quite poetic use of language and sentence structure and so was expecting great things of the second. I am really happy to say that the unusual sentence structure and language are continued in this offering, although less prevalent than in the first and the descriptive style of the book is incredibly absorbing. The style is quite different to the first story though and overall the delivery is a lot more conventional and less poetic than its predecessor.
All of the speakers feel genuine, with sentences often missing connective words in a way that makes reading them like reading actual thoughts or notes taken by the narrator. The language is very descriptive and Barnabas’ initial love of his surroundings shines through and makes the change and bitterness that taints firstly his wife and then him all the more disturbing.
Overall I really enjoyed reading Lynch’s second book; it was bleak and depressing but quite beautifully so. I was however more impressed by his first book as its lyrical quality was mesmerising and although passages in this story were much the same it wasn’t as consistent. That said I think Lynch could write any style of novel and I would thoroughly enjoy it for the mere thrill of the language he uses; I can’t wait to read more."
Paul Lynch’s first novel [[Red Sky in In Morning by Paul Lynch|Red Sky in Morning]] is an absolute must read for the innovative use of language and will be a difficult book for the author to ever surpass.
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