Have finally finished reading Colm Tóibín’s “The Blackwater Lightship” given to me at Christmas by Brian and Marie Smith. A nice gesture but it has taken me this long to get through it, although it is only 273 pages. Putting it down I found it difficult to pick up again and in the meantime have got through a wealth of reading elsewhere. Am I completely out of step with the literary world? This book was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and one critic wrote of it “I know of no novelist under fifty who is Colm Tóibín’s equal. In this his fourth book, his prose rises to heights of extraordinary beauty.”
Well, pardon me, I must be missing on a couple of cylinders here because I found his prose to be, could there be another word for it, ordinary? It isn’t half Marie’s book “A Place In The Choir” either in style or content and for which Douglas is having such a hard time finding a publisher. It got close with Penguin Ireland but a miss, as they say, is as good as a mile and each submission takes an eternity for a response. With “A Place In The Choir” I laughed, I cried, when I had to put it down I couldn’t wait to pick it up again and never wanted it to finish. (I’m pleased to say Marie is undaunted by its so far lack of success and is writing the sequel). Now would “The Blackwater Lightship” have found a publisher I wonder if it hadn’t included AIDS? I ask the same question of “The Island”. Would that have found a publisher if it hadn’t included leprosy? Or was it contacts within contacts? Who knows? Having not read any of Colm’s previous work I really shouldn’t judge him on this one alone but, as it is his fourth, I must presume he has found his style.
The first day of March arrived warm and sunny, at least until late afternoon so, at last, I could get a little done by starting to clear away the jungle that used to be a garden. I don’t think it has ever been so neglected for so long a time. The plum is flowering nicely I noticed so hopefully there will be plenty of fruit for Vicky’s breakfast when she comes out. The prickly pear is now of gigantic proportions and must be severely cut back but it’s what to do with the cuttings that’s the problem. Last year it bore so much fruit we could have lived off prickly pear all summer.
It didn’t rain on anyone’s parade but we’re told Kalyves cancelled their carnival celebrations because of lack of funds. If this is true it’s definitely a first and in a small way shows what a sorry state the world is in.
Another cloudless morning so it will be back into the garden. Last year in order to keep the rats off the grape vine (the previous year they ate the lot) I hung spoilt DVDs from the trellis which did the trick. We had a bumper crop. Now, as the discs exposed to the morning sun, twist and turn in the breeze they flash the brightest most wonderful
metallic colours: red, blue, purple, yellow, green. It’s no wonder they scared off the rats. Whenever I mention rats people tend to shudder but these are not those nasty big grey dirty town rats. These are their country cousins and quite beautiful in their own way. If I find a dead one in the garden I feel quite sorry for it. But we can’t be doing with them eating our grapes! I’ll have to hang a couple of discs in the pomegranate as they go for that fruit too.