Book Review - 10: Galore by Michael Crummey

“The complications and disappointments and modest epiphanies of those disparate lives seemed part of a single all-encompassing story that had swallowed him whole.”

In Galore, the author narrates how the whole world is going around in full circles. It takes off when there is a new entrant to an otherwise unknown land and how he joins in the flow of life. Largely narrating the family members of two families, who are connected together by love and hate, it also speaks about other inhabitants of the place.

Set against a fishermen community in Canada, the book is divided into two parts, covering almost two centuries.  The people are mostly English or Irish who either migrated or were brought. While the first part ushers the reader into the lives of the local community and takes it into the hinterlands, the second part brings the reader back where it all started, though it breaches the borders of the country.

The reader really needs the family chart of the protagonist families in the initial pages, to keep track of the characters in the book. Still, the characters in the other families, who do play significant roles in different instances, can leave the reader confused, if he tries to map the relations.

I found the first part slightly lethargic as compared to the second part. The reader may find the narration tiring in the initial chapters but I assure that it picks up pace to keep the reader engaged. But for the big picture, nothing is concentrated upon in the narration. Just when you feel that a certain character maybe the central point, the focus shifts. This can be initially tiring and distracting until the reader finds the groove for such fiction. However, the deft handling of change in focus, subtle and oblivious is something to watch out for in the book. This is a well - planned book, for if otherwise, the book could have extended to infinite pages.

I like the descriptions like

“That eating the bounty of the sea was a choice rather than a necessity.”

“…left her staring out the window, the stars being choked by frost creeping across the pane.”

“It was the oddest expression he’d learned on the shore. Now the once. The present twined with the past to mean soon, a bit later, some unspecified point in the future. As if it was all the same finally, as if time was a single moment endlessly circling on itself.”

I feel the entire meaning of the book lies in the lines,

“Alone he could turn his back on the absence, look at the world as if there was nothing to it but surface, the endless present moment. A trick of shadow and light.”

I did not understand the idea behind the title, but I guess it was an indication that it was a story of people when there were fishes galore and otherwise. The language is not straight forward and needs careful reading lest you may miss context or detail.

Overall, it is a good read with enough to chew and digest.