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A review by saareman
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
5.0
Lovers in a Dangerous Time
Review of the NetGalley eBook ARC downloaded June 7, 2024 of the Penguin Random House / Knopf Canada hardcover / eBook and the Random House Audio audiobook to be released July 9, 2024.
This was a propulsive western saga with two star-crossed lovers making a break for a new life out of the mining town of Butte, Montana in 1891. Tom Rourke is an Irish immigrant who could not cut it in the mines and now works as a photographer's assistant while doping and drinking in his spare time while writing ballads and the occasional letter for illiterate hopeful husbands in search of a mail-order bride. Into his life walks Polly Gillespie, the newly wed wife of mining captain Anthony Harrington and an infatuation soon follows which is returned when Polly is repulsed by her new husband's self-abasement rituals.
A plan of escape unfolds and soon the lovers are on the run with a stolen horse and the savings from a rooming house. But Harrington enlists a rather perverse posse of three Cornishmen to make pursuit. The lovers carelessly linger on their road to San Francisco when they come upon an idyllic abandoned cabin, allowing the posse to close in. Tom is beaten and left for dead while Polly is abducted. Now Tom is the one in pursuit to attempt to save his new love or die trying.
This was one crazed adventure with a compulsive flow to the words, often written in a rough frontier language in a mix of old world balladry and new world slang. It was impossible to stop reading as the chapters unfolded with cliffhangers which then continued with the further suspense building through flashbacks and flashforwards. The mark of a true 5-star is when you simply have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.
A view of Butte, Montana in the late 19th century. Image sourced from the Times Literary Supplement.
Soundtrack
I immediately thought of the Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" from the Stealing Fire (1984) album. A 2011 live performance of the song can be seen on YouTube here.
Trivia and Links
There is no mention of it in the Acknowledgements but I have to imagine that the escaping lovers theme must have been at least partially inspired by the 10th century Irish mythology of the lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne which is also considered to be the basis for the later 12th century Tristan and Isolde story.
Review of the NetGalley eBook ARC downloaded June 7, 2024 of the Penguin Random House / Knopf Canada hardcover / eBook and the Random House Audio audiobook to be released July 9, 2024.
This was a propulsive western saga with two star-crossed lovers making a break for a new life out of the mining town of Butte, Montana in 1891. Tom Rourke is an Irish immigrant who could not cut it in the mines and now works as a photographer's assistant while doping and drinking in his spare time while writing ballads and the occasional letter for illiterate hopeful husbands in search of a mail-order bride. Into his life walks Polly Gillespie, the newly wed wife of mining captain Anthony Harrington and an infatuation soon follows which is returned when Polly is repulsed by her new husband's self-abasement rituals.
A plan of escape unfolds and soon the lovers are on the run with a stolen horse and the savings from a rooming house. But Harrington enlists a rather perverse posse of three Cornishmen to make pursuit. The lovers carelessly linger on their road to San Francisco when they come upon an idyllic abandoned cabin, allowing the posse to close in. Tom is beaten and left for dead while Polly is abducted. Now Tom is the one in pursuit to attempt to save his new love or die trying.
This was one crazed adventure with a compulsive flow to the words, often written in a rough frontier language in a mix of old world balladry and new world slang. It was impossible to stop reading as the chapters unfolded with cliffhangers which then continued with the further suspense building through flashbacks and flashforwards. The mark of a true 5-star is when you simply have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.
A view of Butte, Montana in the late 19th century. Image sourced from the Times Literary Supplement.
Soundtrack
I immediately thought of the Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" from the Stealing Fire (1984) album. A 2011 live performance of the song can be seen on YouTube here.
Trivia and Links
There is no mention of it in the Acknowledgements but I have to imagine that the escaping lovers theme must have been at least partially inspired by the 10th century Irish mythology of the lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne which is also considered to be the basis for the later 12th century Tristan and Isolde story.