By Niall Williams
Warner Books
Hardcover

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.

The Fall of Light Excerpt The rain struck Teige like a hook. It hooked Teige in the cloth of his shirt, and he felt himself caught by it and being pulled backward. He went below the water. He cried out gurgles, and bubbles dark flew past his face. Then he reached a hand up and knew that he was dead or dreaming, for he felt the rain like a wire running toward the shore of Clare. And he clutched on to the line and fainted beneath a white zag of lightning and did not see the excited faces of the gathered gypsies who fished the thunder in the antique belief of landing the electric spirit of the world. ©2002 Niall Williams Published with permission from Warner Books

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.

Bookworm's Briefing
The Fall of Light is a filled with rich, complex, dynamic characters. As the Foleys are flung from Ireland and scattered across the globe, they face their trials squarely. Through freely changing perspectives, their stories are told in an effectively fluid fashion.