All love is treachery in a time of war
Ah my friends, I have mixed feelings about this one.
Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses brings us to Northern Ireland during The Troubles – the decades-long period of conflict marked by violence between the largely catholic nationalists (who sought a united Ireland) and the predominantly protestant unionists (who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom).
The novel is told through the eyes of Cushla Lavery, a 24 year old catholic woman living in a small town outside of Belfast. When she’s not taking care of her deeply alcoholic mother, she works as a primary school teacher by day and helps her brother in the family’s pub by night.
“Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb.
Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard.
The vocabulary of a 7-year-old child now.”
1970s Belfast was a place of fear, anger, and defiance. Everyday life was shadowed by bombings, shootings, and checkpoints. And the book captures this grim reality with uncomfortable clarity. Through Cushla’s eyes, we see how the conflict seeps into every aspect of life.
But at the heart of this novel is a love affair between Cushla, and Michael Agnew, a middle-aged, married protestant barrister. Their secret affair forms what is supposedly the emotional core of the novel, but to be completely honest with you, that aspect of the story left me pretty cold.
The cliché of “young naive girl falls for sophisticated old guy, and even though he’s married, slightly gross and actually not very nice, she loves him dearly”, just doesn’t sit too well with me. And if the story had not been set in such interesting circumstances, it would not have gotten many stars from me.
However it was the heartbreaking story of Davey and his family that kept me reading – Davy is one of Cushla’s pupils, a sweet, intelligent 7 year old boy, whose family is targeted and relentlessly harassed because his family is mixed – his mother being protestant and his father catholic.
Cushla takes Davey under her wings, and tries to help the family – with completely devastating results. For me this made the romance between Cushla and Michael feel very pale in comparison. It is Davey and his family who stay with me after I closed the last page of this book.
“A booby-trap bomb that was intended for a British Army foot patrol exploded prematurely, killing two boys near the border. They died instantly.”
I was completely unfamiliar with the history of The Troubles, before reading this book. And though I can’t say I completely understand the intricacies of it now, I do feel like the author does a pretty good job of conveying the realities of such a conflict for the people who live it.
The book does not take sides, but the oppressive atmosphere of Belfast is palpable and the simmering mistrust between neighbours is very well portrayed.
The juxtaposition of the daily “latest news” with its cold, clinical reports on murders and bombings, with the people’s personal experiences is powerful. The reminder that behind every headline, there are real people living with the consequences feels like a very relevant reminder in today’s climate also.
For this I would recommend the book. For the love story not so much.
