Customer Reviews

The Fall of Light

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Fall of Light is an honest story of the Foley family in 18th century Ireland. In relating the dire situations the family members face, Williams hides nothing.

Compared to the comfort of today's technologically advanced society, life in Ireland was far more potent and painful. They were dirty and poor, yet each day they lived life with a dogged determination to make a better life. From the setting to the characters, this story had the ring of truth.

Unlike the typical, tightly plotted novel, The Fall of Light, remained believably unpredictable. Every family member acted and grew according to their complex natures.

None of the characters could be pigeonholed with a single phrase.

To describe Teige, the youngest brother, merely as a horse tamer neglects the passion that smoldered for years before he dared reach above his station in life. The act of pursuing the love of his life had more profound ramifications than the taming of any horse. In a more typically plotted novel, it would have been the taming of the horses that determined the course of Teige's life.

Through the course of the story, the focus continually shifts from a tight, close-up view to broad panoramas. In one paragraph, you see every drop of blood that drips into the muddy street outside a Limerick whorehouse. In another, years pass without incident on a gypsy caravan.

Occasionally, brothers have true visions of lost siblings, seeing them as through a telescope, compressing years into moments. These transitions, instead of having a jarring effect, give the narrative a dreamlike quality that infuses everything Irish.

This is a well-crafted tale. The narrative wove a coherent pattern out of the chaos of life. Spanning decades of time, sometimes in great hurdles of years, the members of the Foley family persevere against harsh reality to find a peace of sorts. Life in those simpler times was in no way less complex than today.

There are, for the most part, only minor flaws with the book. One small error was of the astronomical variety. This story takes place firmly in the 18th century.

Much of the narrative occurs after the 1849 California gold rush and before the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. At one point, Francis Foley, the patriarch of the family, studies a star chart that lists Pluto as one of the planets. Unfortunately, Pluto was not discovered until 1930, long after the end of the tale. This was the only minor distraction in an otherwise well told tale.

This book is a treat for those who enjoy reading about realistic characters striving to survive the turmoil of their lives.

Niall Williams' novel is a joy. He has taken us back to a world, amazingly enough, in the not-so-distant past in Ireland. The episodic journey of the Foley clan does not come with a blazing climax, but is a replete telling of the tale of Francis Foley, his wife and four sons. Consistent with the Irish history of that period, all four sons leave Ireland, two to North America, one to Africa and one all about Europe, especially France. Francis' journey of discontent and pride washes him up on an island that becomes like a Celtic Eden of the heart, an asylum for lost hopes and dreams, a resting place for a Paradise lost. The stories of each of the sons is touching. Teige, the youngest, is the most closely followed; but each receives a special telling. Emer the wife and mother also weathers years of isolation before reunion with Francis and two of her sons. "The Fall of Light" is rich with Irish emotion, gypsy temperment, love, passion, and even the lure of the wild west. This is a tale that gathers you in its grasp, holds you in its grip until depositing you on the last page. Enjoy & savor!

Although I admit it took me just a bit of time to get used to the author's style of sometimes convoluted sentence structure, I could hardly put this story down.

After a fight with this wife, Francis Foley steals a telescope and leaves his Irish home with his four sons. The four sons are then scattered after they think their father has drowned while attempting to cross the Shannon River. The story of each son is remarkable in that each finds himself following a separate road yet never forgetting the others in the family. The father's search for the boys seems to provide a sense of magnetism which draws them all to seek each other.

Each son has a different story and all are followed to one extent or another throughout the book. Although the story of Teige, the youngest son, takes most of the story, the life of Finbar who follows the gypsies is especially well told. The author takes the reader from Ireland across Europe and across the Atlantic to the wide west of America. The potato famine, immigration to America, and the exploration of the West all provide backgrounds for the telling of the Foley boys' stories.

As I read this book, I couldn't help but think of my own ancestors as they traveled from Europe, some to the US and some to New Zealand. Although not Irish, I'm sure each family member left home with his or her own set of troubles and hopes. sometimes conscious decisions were made and other times they were just swept along by circumstances. The road has not been straight as so well described by the Foley family. Highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever wondered about how their own family has fit into the history of the time.

When I saw this book at the aitport bookstore some weeks ago I knew it was a treasure I saw. Having read Niall Williams' two previous books this could be nothing less than a masterpiece.

And I were right. The book took me from the first page, following Francis Foley and his four son's in their search for Emer, Francis' wife, and also their search for life.

We follow the family to several continents, from Ireland to south Europe, to Africa and to America. But above all the book is a story about love. Eternal love. The love between two people, and the love inside a family.

When we meet Francis and his four sons they have lost their home, but what is more fatal, they have lost the beautiful Emer, the wife of Francis, the mother of Tomas, Finbar, Finan and Teige. We follow all these people, through Ireland, through love and loss, through fatal incidents. Through a scattered life, where each has his own road, and his own future to walk.

This is a book for laughter and tears, a book that captures you totally. A book to teach you about love, and how you spend your life. A book hard to put down, and a book that will live with you for a long time. A strong book, a marvellous book. And I can make Guardian's words mine - Williams really does write like an angel.

I absolutely loved this book. To begin with, the writing is exquisite. Williams' prose is so gorgeous he could probably turn a trip to the drug store into a meaningful, heartrending story. The plot is interesting in itself, but takes secondary importance to the writing and the atmosphere: this isn't so much of a novel as a story in the old oral tradition, and was clearly written out of love for Ireland and Irish mythology. For days after I put this book down I was seeing beauty in the most ordinary things.

Understanding Ireland in the desperate years of the middle nineteenth century gives a better understanding of the Irish today and the immigrants who settled throughout our country. Through this deeply felt and achingly written portrait of impoverished life, the reader travels the broken land and immerses herself in the journey. I will reread this again and again.

Covering a span of years that encompasses the Potato Famine, this is the tale of Francis Foley, his wife Emer, and their four sons, as their lives drift apart and re-converge in 19th century Ireland.

At times I felt that the plot held a few too many coincidences to be veracious, but that is the single factor which kept this book, which I gave four and a half stars, from being a five star read.

The prose itself was laden in pathos, gorgeous. I fell in love with Niall Williams' writing in a way I have not fallen in love in quite some time. The style was absolutely perfect for the subject matter. It is very seldom that I quote from novels in my reviews, but this time I really want to share:

"He thought of the old man's boast that their country was bigger than the map-makers had drawn it and he suddenly saw it so. He saw the vastness of the sea was itself part of that wild country as was its great and million-starred sky and he dropped to his knees there in the sand and felt the despair of loss. He put his hands together to pray and turned to the constellations that were cold and impassive and falling through the darkness ages away, and, knowing no God, who knew him, he looked to Pegasus in the south and to it prayed the wordless prayers that rose off his soul." (page 80)

"He imagined them, those gaunt figures with ghosthood already immanent, their long thin arms holding cradled the bundle of their world, their hunger and frailty, the mewling of their children, the ragged faded worn quality of their spirits as they journeyed homeless toward the impossible idea of home." (page 224)

A reader who wants a plot that moves quickly towards a crashing climax will not find that here. This book is carried by luminous wordsmithing and characters that draw you along on their wrenching journey. For the right reader in the right frame of mind, it is an unforgettable experience, and I highly recommend it.

Estate gardener Francis Foley becomes upset with his absentee employer. He sets fire to the manor house and steals a telescope from the estate where he worked. Taking his four sons ranging in age from twelve to nineteen, Francis flees across Ireland. However, fortune fails to shine on the five males as Francis is swept away by the current of a river they were crossing. His traveling companions assume their father died.

The four lads continue the journey. After meeting Blath, Tomas joins the New York Fenian movement. Teige becomes a Canadian horse ranch owner, but his love for Elizabeth appears doomed. Finbar marries a Gypsy and soon becomes head of her band. His twin Finan goes to a monastery in France before becoming a missionary in Africa.

THE FALL OF LIGHT is an epic nineteenth century family drama that follows the wanderlust of four siblings across the globe. Each subplot is cleverly intended to serve as a lyrical metaphoric symbolism of Ireland. However, though the design is often brilliant and for the most part accomplishes the objective, some subplots seem unnecessary and slow down the adventure. Still fans of sweeping Irish tales will enjoy Niall Williams' latest novel.

Harriet Klausner

After reading some very positive reviews, I grabbed this book with much expectation. What a mistake that turned out to be. More than anything else, I found the author's prose superfluous -- that the sentences were *overwritten* simply for the sake of sounding nice. Unlike McEwan or Chabon who would easily leave me in awe, I found myself bemused and cringing from the apparent "over-effort" on William's part. I also found it difficult to relate to the characters who seemed all too eager to abandon their family in the time of need. How likely was this in the first place? There were also many episodes along their adventure which were disjointed and seemingly unnecessary. And o yes, this is the first book EVER that I couldn't finish (left it with 100 pages to go).