Todays, a little more depressing than yesterdays
Freedom. If freedom is to be able to be anywhere I wish, doing anything I wish, I am not free. But if freedom encompasses the potential to be in that state, or the belief, warranted or not, of having that potential, then I could say I am free. I’d like to maintain freedom till I die. Somewhere deep down, though, I do know that is not possible. Certain things will appear that are more important than freedom. And that moment is when I will have to concede it. All I hope for is that it would be a voluntary blissful concession. Paul Lynch explicitly paints what life has done to the Stacks family. While war and tyranny is the main cause of tragedy, it was not the window for my empathy. The factor I could relate was in fact the concessions of the mother. The decisions full of uncertainty she is forced to make in life. She has to weigh which of the invaluable options is slightly less important. It is an excruciating activity. This is a depressing read. Maybe there is no other way to show such kinds of tragedy. There is a wound on your foot and someone is pressing down on it. Lightly at first, but with increasingly growing pressure. It is this kind of journey that Lynch invites readers to partake in. A sensation not explained, but demonstrated.
Recommendation for Readers
Written from scratch by Junic Andy So – Meston Ecoa
No assistance was received from any form of Artificial Intelligence.
No assistance was received from any grammar or vocabulary enhancing software.
No Spoiler Summary
contains no spoilers
This story is about the Stacks, a family of six. Their livelihood is intruded, damaged and broken by the turn of events. It is a warning that turmoil has been and will be present in societies. The switch from normalcy to absurdity happens in a blink of an eye. It is an appreciation to a particular agent in all homes. The consolidator. The mothers that consolidate the ever greedy, unwieldy, ambitious individuals pursuit of their own dreams. The one whose dream is to serve other members’ strides. Come rain or shine.
One Paragraph Review
contains no spoilers
This is a depressing book. Period. I was one fifth into the book when I definitively made this comment. When I was passing the four fifths mark I am in awe of the author for persisting with this depressing tempo, illustrating depression followed by another. It’s the method acting equivalent. To be in sync with Eilish for the author would be as demanding physically and mentally as a method actor. The character’s shoe full of their essence in which he fully submerges himself, without regards to the his own personality. Great acting, writing, art alike in that sense has a similarity to athletics. It demands. Simultaneously, I am profoundly in awe of myself. For putting up with this book of my own accord. Winning the Booker Prize of 2023 had a lot to do with it. This is the first book I’ve read solely owing to the award it has won. I was curious the heights of contemporary literature, what it takes to get the prestigious prize. Despite the misery, I was able to have an idea of why it won the prize. The book is without much striking turn of events. Situation only gradually drenched by the encroaching tragedy. It is this dedication to portraying at a constant rate that must have received the public acclaim. Portraying a particular type of tragedy where todays are not so different from yesterdays. Just repeated little ups but slightly greater downs.
Some Information
• 309 pages, around 82,000 words
• Vocabulary level: Medium
• Library of Congress Subjects: Dystopian Fiction, Novels
• Goodreads Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Dystopia
• Meston’s Rating: 3.5
One Paragraph Summary
contains spoilers
Ireland has fallen under a tyrannical regime. Life is seemingly unchanged. However, the societal forces do not fail to wiggle its way into all corners of the life of its inhabitants – the dinner tables, workplace, school, mood, life, death. Eilish, the mom, is desperate to keep the family together. It is when government police agents came knocking on the door that the tide started to assert its presence to local waters, asking for a talk with Larry, the dad of the family. Larry is working at the teacher’s union. Later, the union organizes a protest march and Larry is taken away. Things start to happen in Eilish’s workplace. Select people get fired. Some disappear. The manager is replaced by a personnel compliant with the regime. Without losing hope for sanity to be restored, the mother struggles to work things out. Looking for her husband. Getting by at work. Taking care of the children. Until one day, she is unable to get passports for two of her children, stamping out Easter plans for the Stacks to visit Eilish’s sister Áine in Canada. Children, without proper care and discipline, grow unwieldy. Mark, the eldest comes in with a letter in his hand. He has been conscripted into the military. He has to enlist in a few weeks time, soon after his seventeenth birthday. Eilish is in dismay, but still believes that she has things under control. She even rejects Áine’s helping hand to exit Ireland’s borders to flee to Canada. But one by one things crumble. Mark has gone away, presumably to join the rebel forces. Her dad grows increasingly senile. Food is harder to come by. Bombings shatter windows and crumble cement. Bailey leaves home despite curfew and is found the next day with a wound on his head. While leaping from hospital to hospital to get the surgery her son needs, she loses him. He is found to have been tortured by the regime until death. Eilish is broken in sight of her son at the morgue. Witnessing the death of Bailey before her eyes and the atrocities apparently having deviated from her initial expectation, she finally lets go of hope. The hope of finding Larry and Mark again. The hope for the country to be inhabitable. The Stacks shrunk to half, take the risk of exiting the borders into UK.
