Items related to The Invisible Worm
Synopsis
As government ministers and other dignitaries gather in force for a funeral, Laura recalls the two terrible events that have led her there, and considers the extent of their impact on her life.
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About the Author
Jennifer Johnston is one of the foremost Irish writers of her, or any, generation. She has won the Whitbread Prize (THE OLD JEST), the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award (for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS), the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice, for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS and HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?). She was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize with SHADOWS ON OUR SKIN.
From Kirkus Reviews
In luminous prose, with dialogue as exact as Henry Green's, acclaimed Irish author Johnston (Fool's Sanctuary, 1988, etc.) strips away the perfect outer layers to reveal "the invisible worm" that destroyed an apparently golden family that's rotten at the center. When Laura Quinlan's famous father dies, his funeral is attended by the Irish President, and the distinguished congregation seems to Laura to "dance in celebration of her father's life." But Laura, always stirred by "the tremors of memory," recalls her long-dead mother, "who didn't succumb to his enormous charm. [Or]...perhaps she had indeed succumbed, and thereafter had to protect herself from it." Increasingly reclusive now after her father's death, Laura has also suffered periodic breakdowns in the past. In the present, over the period of a year, Laura lives in her beautiful inherited estate with her husband Maurice, a splendidly realized character--part bluff businessman, part perceptive admirer; and, during this time, Laura finally comes to understand what had really happened to her family over 20 years ago. Childless and 37, she spends her days gardening, which leads to her decision to clear away the growth about an old summerhouse. As she proceeds to do this, interrupted by another breakdown, she's helped by admiring Dominic O'Hara, a former priest teaching at a local school. After a cathartic bonfire, she tells him about the fact that she'd fled to France for two years after her father raped her as a teenager--an act responsible for her mother's death (a suicide, not an accident); for her marriage of escape to Maurice; and for "the emptiness of living" that had followed. She had forgiven her dying father, but only now can she tell the story "right to the end." From a writer with great gifts: a story told with riveting intensity and a wise sympathy for the quirky workings of the human heart. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherRandom House UK
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 1856190412
- ISBN 13 9781856190411
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages192
- Rating
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