The Blackwater Lightship

Free as a bird
by Colm Toibin | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0743203313 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingbookstogivewing of Springville, Tennessee USA on 1/16/2012
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingbookstogivewing from Springville, Tennessee USA on Thursday, June 7, 2012
Amazon Editorial Review

It is Ireland in the early 1990s. Helen, her mother, Lily, and her grandmother, Dora have come together to tend to Helen's brother, Declan, who is dying of AIDS. With Declan's two friends, the six of them are forced to plumb the shoals of their own histories and to come to terms with each other.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Blackwater Lightship is a deeply resonant story about three generations of an estranged family reuniting to mourn an untimely death. In spare, luminous prose, Colm Tóibín explores the nature of love and the complex emotions inside a family at war with itself. Hailed as "a genuine work of art" (Chicago Tribune), this is a novel about the capacity of stories to heal the deepest wounds.

Journal Entry 2 by wingbookstogivewing at Phoenix, Arizona USA on Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (9/30/2014 UTC) at Phoenix, Arizona USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing as part of the General Lit VBB, Happy Reading!

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Journal Entry 3 by tabby-cat-owner at Phoenix, Arizona USA on Sunday, November 30, 2014
I received this in the mail from bookstogive of Springville, Tennessee. I chose this from the General Lit VBB that she organizes.

Thank you for this book, bookstogive. It took me so long to make a journal entry for this book because I put it on the birthday pile. (My birthday was yesterday so it finally got opened.)

Journal Entry 4 by tabby-cat-owner at Bellingham, Washington USA on Monday, October 30, 2023
Very readable with good descriptions of the setting in Ireland. I had a hard time understanding the estranged relationship between Helen and her mother. It appears that Helen felt abandoned when her father died when she was a child, and in truth, she was. Her mother withdrew emotionally in a very selfish way. Yet, the mother makes remarks about Helen as though Helen is a very difficult person. I never read about any evidence of this. So, the mother is apparently an intelligent woman who makes a lot of money owning a computer business. Yet, the mother fails to see how she did anything wrong with her bad reaction to her husband's death. The grandmother is also a very difficult and strong woman who does not get along with her daughter. The grandmother's rickety cottage at the seaside is the setting of much of the book.

This book was left in the Little Free Library. It was released for The The Release Challenge November 2023 and the E-less release challenge. (The author's name is e-less.)

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