Bernard MacLaverty

Today I am looking at the contemporary Irish writer, Bernard MacLaverty.

He wrote two early novels, Lamb and Cal, both of which were made into films. And he has published five volumes of short stories, which are among the very best I know. But it is his last three novels, Grace Notes, The Anatomy School and Midwinter Break that I want to discuss.

The first two are largely set against the background of Northern Ireland at the time of the Troubles. In Grace Notes, Catherine, a young Catholic woman, becomes estranged from home life and escapes to university in Scotland to study Music. When as a postgraduate she wins a travel scholarship and rings her parents to tell them she’ll not be coming home that Christmas her father is angry. “Her father was silent at his end of the line…(and on learning she had not been to Mass) …he said he was glad she wasn’t coming home…the house would be a better place without her…he wouldn’t care if she never came home again.” The novel opens with her first return since then, to attend her father’s funeral, and moves backwards and forwards from that point as we learn how and why Catherine came to break with her family.

The Anatomy School focusses on Martin, and two of his sixth form friends at a Catholic grammar school in Belfast. All three feel alienated by its strict regime and, like Catherine in Grace Notes, rebel. In their case it takes the form of a plan to steal their A-level exam papers. In a series of tense though comical scenes the boys achieve this. The novel captures the preoccupations of their adolescence – friendship, sex, religion, exams

MacLaverty’s descriptive writing is exceptional. “Walking along the corridor past the classrooms was like turning the tuning knob of a radio – you heard only bits and pieces”. His dialogue always sounds natural and I am surprised he has never written for the stage.

In his most recent novel Midwinter Break (2017) Stella and Gerry, a retired couple, go to Amsterdam for a long weekend. Belfast is again the backdrop to the story, and Stella in particular is scarred by her experience of the Troubles. She retains her religious faith; he has long abandoned his. We observe growing tensions between them, but also many instances of tenderness; and until the very end the reader is unsure whether they will continue to stick together.

The writing is compact, continually adding to our knowledge of the two characters and their relationship, as MacLaverty deftly unpicks their emotions. The dialogue always reveals more than it says. The descriptive writing again is exceptional: “We flew over tulip fields. From the air they looked like freshly open plasticine. Rows and ridges. All primary colours.” Midwinter Break a great and memorable novel, and for anyone who has never read Bernard MacLaverty, I would recommend reading it first. Though I think it is his best, I feel sure it would lead on to wanting to read some of his other works.

Lance Christopher

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