On Canaan's Side [Hardcover]

Sebastian Barry (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 8, 2011

Told in the first person, as a narrative of her life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side is the heartbreaking story of a woman whose capability to love is enormous and whose compassion, even for those who have wronged her, is astonishing.

Sebastian Barry returns with the extraordinary story of Lilly Bere. Forced to flee Ireland with her fiance' as a teenager, under threat of death from the Irish Republican Army, Lilly discovers herself in America. Her rich and tragic life takes her from Chicago, where her fiance' is brutally murdered, to Cleveland, where she marries and finds happiness even as she survives the Great Depression and World War II. Joyfully pregnant at forty-three, Lilly moves to Washington, DC, after her husband mysteriously disappears, where she finds work as a cook for one of the most prominent families in the country. Lilly follows the family to Bridgehampton, and there she raises her son, Ed, who at eighteen is called up to Vietnam and vanishes on his return to America. Mr. Nolan, a close friend, is dispatched to find him and returns from the Smoky Mountain wilderness not with Ed but with Ed's young son, Bill, whom Lilly will raise and adore--until tragedy strikes.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A marvel of empathy and tact." --Joseph O'Neill, author of the PEN / Faulkner Award winning novel "Netherland" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include Boss Grady's Boys (1988), The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998), The Pride of Parnell Street (2007), and Dallas Sweetman (2008). Among his novels are The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), the latter shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His poetry includes The Water-Colourist (1982), Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever (1989) and The Pinkening Boy (2005). His awards include the Irish-America Fund Literary Award, The Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award, The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, and Costa Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year. He lives in Wicklow with his wife Ali, and three children, Merlin, Coral, and Tobias.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (September 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670022926
• ISBN-13: 978-0670022922
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His play, The Steward of Christendom, first produced in 1995, won many awards and has been seen around the world. His novel, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, appeared in 1998. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 87 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars From the opening line on, this is superb writing August 30, 2011

By Ripple

Format:Kindle Edition

Full of exquisite writing and compassion, this is a remarkable story from a believable narrator to whom unbelievable things have happened. Each chapter of "On Cannan's Side" represents a day after the death of the narrator, Lilly Bere's, grandson, Bill. Initially the reader is bombarded by a stream of half thoughts but soon Lilly begins to outline her own life story from being the daughter of a police officer in Ireland at the end of the First World War, her subsequent flight to the USA, to ultimately living in retirement as a domestic cook to a wealthy American. It's a remarkable story, full of tragic events, but for all its hardships, Lilly is from a time when such things are to be endured rather than dwelt on.

If you are looking for a book with a fast plot line, then this isn't for you. However, if you enjoy sumptuous prose and compassionate stories then this is an absolute joy to read. The opening lines, "Bill is gone. What is the sound of an eighty-nine-year-old heart breaking?" give you a strong sense of the beauty of the prose and the sadness of the narrator's life. I was hooked from that point on.

Lilly and her beau (Lilly is of an age where she might indeed use such a term) are forced to flee Ireland and to disguise their identities on arriving in the US. Indeed, poor Lilly doesn't have a great track record with her choice of male friends it turns out, not least because she is so keen to hide her own past that she is often blind to the fact that the men she encounters are usually hiding something of their own, and often this is far more damaging than Lilly's own secrets. The loss of her grandson is the final straw though. Now, she's ready to tell her story.

What is striking is the apparent authenticity of the narrator's voice. She's not just any elderly lady, but her voice is completely consistent with her past and her perceived status in life. Arguably this comes as a cost in that although we get her life story, we don't always get much of her character, but the point is that is who she is. She is of a time when problems were kept private and the difficulties of life were to be endured.

As with all good literary fiction, there are deeper questions and issues here. Various relatives fight in a series of wars (World Wars One and Two, Vietnam and the Gulf) all in the name of their country. But to what extent do their countries represent their interests? Moreover, while the USA is the land of Canaan of the title, where identities can be changed, no one ever escapes where they came from in life.

While the experiences of Lilly's life are pretty horrific, and there's plenty of sadness in her life, it's not a depressing read as such. Yes, you feel for her, but she often recalls the moments of happiness in her life. She is often a victim, but never sees herself as such.

The most striking thing about the book though is the quality of the writing. It's unmistakably "Irish literary fiction", full of beautiful descriptions and stunning use of the language. You might feel that some of the descriptions slow down the pace of the book, but when they are that good, it's easy to forgive the author this minor observation.

My heart fell slightly at the publisher's blurb that used the old cliché that the book is "at once epic and intimate", but I have to say that this perfectly sums up this book for once.

160 of 170 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting August 3, 2011

By Julia Flyte TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

The story is narrated by Lilly Bere, an 89 year old Irish cook living on the East Coast of the US, who is mourning the sudden death of her grandson. It starts off as a jumble of memories, a raw stream of consciousness and I feared that this was going to be one of those impenetrable books that Booker Prize judges always seem to like so much and which leave me feeling cold. However the story soon starts to develop and pulls you in.

Lilly was born in Ireland and her early life is marked by her mother and then her brother's deaths. As a teenager she is forced to flee to the US ("Canaan's Side"), where she will live for the rest of her life. So it's the story of her life, but anchored in the present day loss of her beloved grandson. There are themes of war, loss, racial tensions and betrayal than recur, lending the story some genuine tension at times. However what really stands out is the achingly beautiful writing. Lilly's memories are like your own memories: sometimes events get jumbled together, sometimes events remain so acutely with us that you can still remember what the temperature was and the scent in the air and the music that was playing on the radio, even many years later. I liked the way that the writing doesn't always spell things out but allows the reader to make connections in their own mind. And the ending is perfect. This is a book to read slowly and savor.

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking Prose September 8, 2011

By Lakis Fourouklas

Format:Hardcover

To put it simply: Sebastian Barry writes so beautifully, so poetically, that when I read his books I find myself almost ashamed to admit that I'm also a writer - and a jealous one at that. His prose is so deeply humane and so well-crafted that almost reads like verse; verse that makes you want to cry; no, not from sorrow, but from joy, for having the privilege of reading it. I'm not implying that the subject matters with which the good author is preoccupied are pleasant, quite the opposite, they float in sadness, yet the way he narrates them do not bring much sorrow to the reader's heart. He seems, in a magical way, to grab the latter by the hand and lead him on to a journey through the wide paths of history, a history that touches everything and everyone in different ways; personal and impersonal at the same time.
This is the story of Lilly Berre, an eighty-nine year old woman, whose grandson Bill just died, and who now just sits and writes down her memoirs, reliving through them a long life full of sorrows and a few touches of joy. The narrator talks in a direct and almost oral way about love and war, about country and home, and about loss, old age and death. And she doesn't complain about anything, even just a little bit, although she has every right to do so, given the way the fates have treated her.
Her memories, despite her age, are crystal clear, as they are deeply engraved on her tortured soul. She remembers a father whom she loved too much, but whose choices have caused her endless troubles but also saved her life. She remembers her first big love, the man with whom she escaped from Ireland to America, just after the First World War, and whose face reminded her of a Van Gogh painting. She remembers her brother, like a hazy picture of times long gone and who died during that very same war. She remembers everything, and everything she writes, like a living testament, even though she says she hates writing. She needs to tell everything, to get it out of her breast, because: "We are not immune to memory."
Even though "the past is a crying child", as she writes somewhere in this seventeen day long monologue, she never cries: "I am cold because I cannot find my heart," she's quick to point out. However, she's not really cold, she's just hurt, as she's lived an eventful life, but nevertheless poor where results were concerned. She worked a lot, she fought hard for a better tomorrow, she spent years and years in fear and whatever she won she lost, whomever she loved she buried. And yet not a single word of complain ever escapes her lips. Lilly is a woman full of patience, one of those unique and rarely met souls that can only feel compassion for the others, and who know how to forgive. One could say that her way of thinking and living sounds kind of fatalistic, and one would be wrong. Her memories are sad, but not bitter, and her memories are her life. Writing them down is what keeps her alive; her resilience is her power.
"Tears have a better character cried alone," she thinks, and that's why she mourns her loss on her own and in the quiet. And her tears turn into pearls of wisdom and humanity. As Joe, one of the main characters says, we "live in a big box of fear." Lilly takes this fear and turns it into power; she takes that power and turns it into a story - the story we are now holding in our hands.
Absolutely brilliant.