2023 #49: Haven (Donoghue)

 

Haven by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was close to five stars for me, but I can see why some struggle with it. It is NOT a fast-paced book, but it is the slowness that invites you to experience the intense isolation and bare-bones intensity of the story. Set on a remote "island" (more of a rock) in the Atlantic, Haven is a story about three souls, all of them bound by faith, and how those ties become challenged by religion. The austerity of the backdrop puts the psychological in the foreground, and the end result is compelling. It did not immediately engage me, but I felt it was very worth sticking with it. Donoghue really calls into being the fine threads that might tie together obedience and obsession and how our existence can sometimes sever those same threads to find our own agency and reason to live.

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2021 #17 The Pull of the Stars (Donoghue)

 

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not an easy read right now, not that it would ever be an easy read. But it is also the PERFECT read right now, in the way it reminds us that life is not 2020. It isn't 2021. It isn't 1918. Life is the maelstrom of our experiences -- messy, incomplete, unexpected, joyful, mournful. I might not recommend this book for expectant mothers, but truly a beautiful reflection on life that takes place over three days. The protagonist is who many of us are sometimes and who we sometimes wish we could be Donoghue shares lives without ceremony or overcharacterization--their stories are enough. Our stories are enough, and that is the lesson here.

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2015 #3: Astray by Emma Donoghue

I cannot honestly remember when I have so enjoyed a collection of short stories. Donoghue has so many voices inside her--each one unique, yet all united by sojourns of the soul and spirit. From the pages of history, Donoghue develops characters who are flawed in ways that we can recognize when we look in the mirror. I found this collection of short stories to be an excellent companion to A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit (review here). I'd recommend this strongly to travelers, whether their journeys are literal or figurative.