Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

 

Summary (from the publisher): From one of contemporary literature's most acclaimed and beloved authors comes this magnificent new novel set in a small town in Ireland in the 1960s, where a fiercely compelling, too-young widow and mother of four moves from grief, fear, and longing to unexpected discovery. Toibin's portrayal of the intricacy and drama of ordinary lives brings to mind of the work of Alice Munro.

     Set in Wexford, Ireland, and in breathtaking Ballyconnigar by the sea, Colm Toibin's tour de force eighth novel introduces the formidable, memorable Nora Webster. Widowed at 40, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world she was born into. Wounded and self-centered from grief and the need to provide for her family, she struggles to be attentive to her children's needs and their own difficult loss. In masterfully detailing the intimate lives of one small family, Toibin has given us a vivid portrait of a time and an intricately woven tapestry of lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, and where well-meaning gestures often have unforeseen consequences. Toibin has created one of contemporary fiction's most memorable female characters, one who has the strength and depth of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. In Nora Webster, Colm Toibin is writing at the height of his powers.

Review: Set in Ireland in the 1960s, Nora has been left a widow at the age of forty. Blinded and self absorbed by her grief at the loss of the love of her life, she seems unable to connect or help her four children. She struggles to meet their needs and fumbles with how to navigate her new family and finances in the wake of her husband's death. In this novel, Toibin paints a beautiful and intimate picture of a woman struggling through a life shift. 

Toibin is a master at writing in-depth character studies. Nora is strong and fearless. She is far from the best mother and can be prickly or outright rude to her family and friends. But underneath her gruff exterior is someone reeling with pain and loss. "They believed it was time that she stop brooding and think of other things. But there were no other things. There was only what had happened. It was as though she lived underwater and had given up on the struggle to swim towards air" (86).  The author did a superb job at writing from Nora's perspective, which is not always an easy task for a male author to capture a female perspective. 

I had an immense amount of empathy for Nora, and especially her young sons, but I didn't particularly like her. She seems adept at offending everyone and incapable of bringing herself to act as she knows she ought: "Nora felt the weight of them all talking about her, all of them thinking that she might in some way object to her sister getting married or say something stinging to Una about it. She wished now that she felt like saying something helpful, but she could not think what it might be" (156). 

A beautiful portrait of the intricate details that make up a life. Nora's struggle to reinvent her life is beautifully detailed in this novel. I loved that the author skillfully embedded characters from his earlier novel. In the opening chapter, Nora is visited by an acquaintance, Mrs. Lacey, who is the mother of the main character of his novel Brooklyn. While these are obviously standalone novels, I thought the overlap in characters and social circles was a brilliant way to subtly tie the two books together. I do wish that Nora could have connected with her children a bit more by the end of the novel because their pain is so incredibly sad to witness even through Nora's limited understanding. But overall, a brilliant book by a masterful writing. 

Stars: 4

Related Title: 

• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin