TROUBLES

by J. G. Farrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 1971

The title to the contrary, the festering troubles between the Sinn Fein and Home Rule will be viewed at some distance, narrowing certainly by the close of the book but reduced throughout to occasional scattershot incidents and rumbling commentary in this little village of Kilnalough. Dominating Mr. Farrell's sad, sometimes funny, and always marvelously particularized novel is the Majestic, once a grand hotel but now sliding imperceptibly toward ruin -- prefiguring the collapse of Empire while paralleling Ireland's ""vast and narcotic inertia."" One wanders endlessly through its gloomy carpeted corridors where the dust has settled on gilt cherubs; a drawing room ceiling falls; a peahen wanders through broken French windows; cats are everywhere and a wretched old dog Rover must be put out of his misery. English, Protestant and intransigent, Edward Spencer. its owner, has a certain grandeur in his crumbling domain and sharing the premises of the book is an English Major who has returned from World War I having come there to marry Spencer's oldest daughter. She retreats wordlessly to her room and dies. For some reason (he's not a very enterprising sort) the Major stays on with the few elderly permanent residents, with the other children, and joylessly and unrewardingly courts another young woman. But the world, the new world, slowly closes in on the Majestic and when it burns to the ground, it can only be a happy release. . . . Farrell has written a novel of considerable substance and character which somehow manages to stay altogether alive in the midst of its desolation. An achievement in itself.

Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION