elainemullane's review
4.0
3.5
This book was provided to me by Netgalley and by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. I want to thank both for the opportunity to read this.
[a:Molly McCloskey|808203|Molly McCloskey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s newest novel may seem like a simple read given its sparse length, but what is contained within this book's pages runs so very deep. When Light is Like Water is a hugely intimate portrayal of passion, love and the darker shadows both cast on our lives.
Our protagonist, Alice, an American, sits in her mother's condo in Florida after her funeral. She looks back on her life, how its ebbs and flows, and we are drawn into her memories: of being raised alone by her mother in America; of her first summer in Ireland and moving there in her 20s; of meeting her husband, Eddie, in Sligo and their few years together; and her subsequent passionate affair with Cauley, which leads to the crumbling of her marriage. At the same time her affair is revealed to her husband, her relationship with Cauley dissipates, leaving her alone and with the realisation that the feeling of unrest, anxiety and dispassion you sometimes feel in relationships cannot be erased by someone else.
I am not giving anything away here: the author reveals when this book opens that she is no longer with Eddie and alludes to her affair with Cauley. This story is not plot-driven, but more an exploration of the memories and experiences of a woman and how it impacts her life and her future. And it works really well. Alice's narration effectively captures the person she is: at the start, she is aimless, unsteady, cocky almost, but by the novel's close she has been granted a sense of profound maturity and acceptance. Her story is compelling and we are drawn easily into her world, regardless of whether we can relate to her situation or not.
The revelation of Alice's affair, which you would expect to be the ultimate climax of the novel, doesn't have the drama you would imagine. It is dealt with briefly and not given the attention some may feel it warrants, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As I mentioned before, this book isn't plot driven. We stay with Alice when she recounts the end of her marriage; the exploration of it is insular, as I expected. There is a simplicity to its closing; an acceptance.
As the novel ends, Alice is looking towards the future, having come to terms with what has happened in her life and committing herself to not being bound by the habit of reliving her past. Our changed narrator has a more mature and steady mind, showing a progression that is rare for such a concise story.
I really enjoyed When Light is Like Water. It is a tender and intimate look at love - love for a mother, love for a husband and love for a lover, the value of family and connection, and the notion of home. It is as personal as a memoir and as powerful as a novel twice its size. Beautifully written and wholly absorbing.
This book was provided to me by Netgalley and by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. I want to thank both for the opportunity to read this.
[a:Molly McCloskey|808203|Molly McCloskey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s newest novel may seem like a simple read given its sparse length, but what is contained within this book's pages runs so very deep. When Light is Like Water is a hugely intimate portrayal of passion, love and the darker shadows both cast on our lives.
Our protagonist, Alice, an American, sits in her mother's condo in Florida after her funeral. She looks back on her life, how its ebbs and flows, and we are drawn into her memories: of being raised alone by her mother in America; of her first summer in Ireland and moving there in her 20s; of meeting her husband, Eddie, in Sligo and their few years together; and her subsequent passionate affair with Cauley, which leads to the crumbling of her marriage. At the same time her affair is revealed to her husband, her relationship with Cauley dissipates, leaving her alone and with the realisation that the feeling of unrest, anxiety and dispassion you sometimes feel in relationships cannot be erased by someone else.
I am not giving anything away here: the author reveals when this book opens that she is no longer with Eddie and alludes to her affair with Cauley. This story is not plot-driven, but more an exploration of the memories and experiences of a woman and how it impacts her life and her future. And it works really well. Alice's narration effectively captures the person she is: at the start, she is aimless, unsteady, cocky almost, but by the novel's close she has been granted a sense of profound maturity and acceptance. Her story is compelling and we are drawn easily into her world, regardless of whether we can relate to her situation or not.
The revelation of Alice's affair, which you would expect to be the ultimate climax of the novel, doesn't have the drama you would imagine. It is dealt with briefly and not given the attention some may feel it warrants, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. As I mentioned before, this book isn't plot driven. We stay with Alice when she recounts the end of her marriage; the exploration of it is insular, as I expected. There is a simplicity to its closing; an acceptance.
As the novel ends, Alice is looking towards the future, having come to terms with what has happened in her life and committing herself to not being bound by the habit of reliving her past. Our changed narrator has a more mature and steady mind, showing a progression that is rare for such a concise story.
I really enjoyed When Light is Like Water. It is a tender and intimate look at love - love for a mother, love for a husband and love for a lover, the value of family and connection, and the notion of home. It is as personal as a memoir and as powerful as a novel twice its size. Beautifully written and wholly absorbing.
wordsofclover's review
3.0
3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a quiet, character-driven story about a woman called Alice and her time married to an Irish man and the affair she has that subsequently destroys the union. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going into this book but it ended up being a rather lovely-told story about a woman who loved her husband but just didn’t quite seem to fit in to married life as well as she thought. One of the things I liked about this book was that there was nothing particularly nasty about it even though the main plot was about the breakdown of the marriage between Alice and Eddie. They both obviously love each other, they just couldn’t make it work and it was a quiet ‘uncoupling’ I guess even though Alice had done a bad thing.
I liked her examination of her marriage and her actions years later following the death of her mother which appears to make her think a lot about the past. I also liked the inclusion of her new friend and confidant Harry, who to me appeared to be a mix between Eddie and Cauley and therefore a perfect romantic partner for her. There is some examination of her relationship with her mother and i liked this as well.
This book isn’t some action-packed crazy tale. It actually reflects its cover a lot - it’s quiet, calm and oddly serene and beautiful.
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a quiet, character-driven story about a woman called Alice and her time married to an Irish man and the affair she has that subsequently destroys the union. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going into this book but it ended up being a rather lovely-told story about a woman who loved her husband but just didn’t quite seem to fit in to married life as well as she thought. One of the things I liked about this book was that there was nothing particularly nasty about it even though the main plot was about the breakdown of the marriage between Alice and Eddie. They both obviously love each other, they just couldn’t make it work and it was a quiet ‘uncoupling’ I guess even though Alice had done a bad thing.
I liked her examination of her marriage and her actions years later following the death of her mother which appears to make her think a lot about the past. I also liked the inclusion of her new friend and confidant Harry, who to me appeared to be a mix between Eddie and Cauley and therefore a perfect romantic partner for her. There is some examination of her relationship with her mother and i liked this as well.
This book isn’t some action-packed crazy tale. It actually reflects its cover a lot - it’s quiet, calm and oddly serene and beautiful.
lonesomereader's review
5.0
Any tale that describes an American’s permanent move to the UK or Ireland will immediately grab my attention because of my connection to this experience. In Molly McCloskey’s novel “When Light is Like Water” Alice travels to Ireland to live and work there while she figures out what to do with her life. She ends up falling in love and setting there. It’s so difficult to resist the charms of Irish men! However, the majority of the novel relates an account of the dissolution of her marriage through an affair and her present life sorting through her emotionally-broken past. In doing so, McCloskey creates a powerful account of the complexities of Alice’s wayward love life and the difficult grief-laden process of moving forward when she’s lost the people who are closest to her. This novel is a deftly told story of painful heartache told as if looking through soiled panes of glass.
Read my full review of When Light is Like Water by Molly McCloskey on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of When Light is Like Water by Molly McCloskey on LonesomeReader
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