The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin

The Blackwater Lightship is a lovely book. Set in Ireland in the early 1990s, it's the story of three women (Helen, Lily, and Dora), come together to care for their brother, son, and grandson (Declan) as he suffers perhaps the end of his struggle with AIDS. Along with two friends of Declan, the six of them spend the week together, telling stories of their lives and putting old demons to rest.

This sounds like a serious book, and it is. Matters of life, death, and especially family history, shape who the characters (and we) are to a huge extent, and that's serious business. However, real life is not all drama, and neither is this book. There are very funny parts as well--Dora learning to drive a car jumps immediately to mind.

Toibin is a lovely writer. I envy his command of language; the words are chosen precisely-there is no doubt at any point what idea or feeling he is trying to convey. I love that his characters feel so very real. Lily, mother to Helen and daughter to Dora, and unrepentant homophobe, could have been an easily disliked and unsympathetic character... but she's not. Toibin makes the reader think by also making her a determinedly loving mother and daughter. She has flaws, large ones, in fact, but her redeeming characters make her difficult to hate. By contrast, as the main character, Helen would have been very easy to write as heroine: she lives as urban life, with a varied list of friends, she knew her brother was gay and didn't care, she feels herself betrayed by her mother's actions in the past... but she's also unbending in her prejudices vis'a'vis her personal past. She accepts that her brother is gay, yes... but why didn't he tell her that he had AIDS? She holds her husband and children back from her while simultaneously clinging to them. Helen is allowed to be a real woman with her own issues. 

The beauty of this story is in the backstories of the characters and how the lessons of their individual pasts are either recognized or unrecognized by the character him/herself, and how those lessons are interpreted by the others. Especially helpful is seeing a situation through multiple eyes: Helen's father's death, many years before, was formational in the lives of many of the characters, and seeing that time through multiple sets of eyes is sobering. What seems to be a given to Helen is viewed very differently through Lily's eyes, or Dora's, and is a sharp reminder that our personal perceptions aren't reality.

One thing that I'm only noticing now is that we 'hear' stories from everyone except Declan. I wonder why that is? Now I have to re-read, and it will be a joy. There are layers of meaning in this slight, 273 page book. It is a marvel. I give this an enthusiastic four coffee cups out of five.