His plans change when ex-colleagues arrive to discuss a crime from Tom's early days on the job. He expects to spend his remaining days alone in a rented house near the Irish sea. It's the 1990s, and Tom, newly retired from the force, is a widower who has outlived his two adult children (the shocking specifics will emerge later). His woes, manifestations of systemic failings in Ireland, serve as a lens through which to examine the nation's fraught recent history. In the ensuing chapters, Tom will suffer numerous hardships. "Old God's Time" begins with a quote from the Book of Job - more foreshadowing, and not the happy kind. "Nothing was what it was made out to be," Barry writes. His uniform was meant to withstand the elements, but it absorbed water like a sponge. Tom Kettle, the main character of Sebastian Barry's heartbreaking new novel, joined the GardaĆ - Ireland's national police force - in the 1960s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |