The Song of the Tide

Rating:
Summary: Dark, Poetic, and Meaningful
Review: A falling down Irish castle, a fey little girl with a host of brothers and an unfilled mother and traditionally clueless father. A rebellious aunt and American cousin come to visit and nothing will ever be the same. Aunt Isabelle warns the tiny and already dramatic ten year old Aine that "Men ... eat feelings. They have none of their own and live off other people's." As Aine approaches womanhood, ancient childhood fears haunt her, as does the prospect of life. Her unconventional and unfulfilled mother equates marriage with "mortgaging your life," and then makes a very dramatic exit. As Aine's very difficult life unfolds, the constancy and concern of cousin Rupert Bear for Tigerlily is an inspired touch, but (as in life) happily ever after is more than a bit of a fantasy. This is a pretty yet dark and multi-layered poetic tale that keeps hopefulness on the horizon, and has a lot to say about families and coming of age. The author is extremely talented, and the reader will feel pulled into this living, breathing family and the various landscapes.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, Poetic, and Meaningful
Review: A falling down Irish castle, a fey little girl with a host of brothers and an unfilled mother and traditionally clueless father. A rebellious aunt and American cousin come to visit and nothing will ever be the same. Aunt Isabelle warns the tiny and already dramatic ten year old Aine that "Men ... eat feelings. They have none of their own and live off other people's." As Aine approaches womanhood, ancient childhood fears haunt her, as does the prospect of life. Her unconventional and unfulfilled mother equates marriage with "mortgaging your life," and then makes a very dramatic exit. As Aine's very difficult life unfolds, the constancy and concern of cousin Rupert Bear for Tigerlily is an inspired touch, but (as in life) happily ever after is more than a bit of a fantasy. This is a pretty yet dark and multi-layered poetic tale that keeps hopefulness on the horizon, and has a lot to say about families and coming of age. The author is extremely talented, and the reader will feel pulled into this living, breathing family and the various landscapes.

Rating:
Summary: The Haunted Irish Lass
Review: Aine O'Malley is the only daughter in an Irish family with four boys, and is neglected, insulted, lonely and highly imaginative. The story opens when she is 10 during a summer in their Victorian castellated house built above the rocky mainland shore. The Dunbeg castle, a crumbling old wreck built nearly 150 years earlier by her great-great-grandfather O'Malley, has its share of family ghosts and legends. Aine's cousin from America, Rupert - her father's brother's son, visits them for the summer, and she finds a rare ally in him even though he's several years older than her. While her brothers ignore her or taunt her and her parents virtually ignore her, Rupert finds time to talk and explore with her, and achieves a real rapport with Aine. They continue to correspond when he returns to Virginia.

The women in this novel are all deeply troubled and unfulfilled. Aine's mother is distant and troubled by her lack of power in her typical Irish marriage where the man rules the roost. Rupert's mother has a similar marriage, but it's further complicated by the fact that her husband is a pedophile and philanderer. Both seem trapped and helpless in their marriages, which creates negative examples of female vulnerability and dysfunctional relationships for Aine.

Aine is haunted by unexplained nightmares, shadows and visions, and is constantly criticized and ostracized by her family for her imaginings; but only Rupert seems to understand her. They don't see each other again for years, when she is 13 and he is leaving for college. An awkward and uncomfortable event causes a rift between them, and they lose communication for several years while he is away at college. They meet again when she is an adult and attending drama school in London, but he is engaged and she is angry and disappointed in him. She agrees to marry Nigel soon after meeting him in London, mainly as a negative reaction to Rupert's engagement.

Aine's intense feelings for Rupert are eventually resolved in a surprising manner, and she eventually faces her demons and ghosts and learns how to deal with them.

The themes of oppression and haunting are mirrored in the splendid, vivid descriptions of the Dunbeg castle and rocky seashore and of the humid, sultry surroundings in Virginia. The author allows us to empathize with Aine and be fully engaged with her environs. We feel we know her before the end of the novel, and want her to find healing and peace of mind in a world that so far has been hostile and insensitive.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific prose and chacterization
Review: By the time Aine turns ten in 1986, she is a loner in spite of two brothers. She enjoys and hates the summer visits to Dunberg, the haunting family castle in Ireland. However, this year, things are different as her aunt and cousin arrive from Virginia for a visit. Her cousin Rupert is four years older than Aine, but the two hit it off immediately. When Rupert rescues Aine from a nasty situation, he becomes her knight in shining armor.

Over the years, Aine recognizes how dysfunctional her family truly is. Even more so, she realizes she deeply loves her first cousin. However, he is engaged to someone else, any sensual relationship with him is taboo, and someone wants to simply destroy Aine, leaving her choices very limited. Of course, there is Nigel to consider.

THE SONG OF THE TIDE is a modern day Gothic drama that captures the essence of the genre. The story line works because the plot adheres to its roots of an atmospheric location, ancestral curses, insane people, and brooding individuals whose forbidden love divides their family even as society condemns them for it. Mary Ryan paints a powerful portrait of an angst-laden woman that will bring her a stateside audience who will want more of her works published here.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Terrific prose and chacterization
Review: By the time Aine turns ten in 1986, she is a loner in spite of two brothers. She enjoys and hates the summer visits to Dunberg, the haunting family castle in Ireland. However, this year, things are different as her aunt and cousin arrive from Virginia for a visit. Her cousin Rupert is four years older than Aine, but the two hit it off immediately. When Rupert rescues Aine from a nasty situation, he becomes her knight in shining armor.

Over the years, Aine recognizes how dysfunctional her family truly is. Even more so, she realizes she deeply loves her first cousin. However, he is engaged to someone else, any sensual relationship with him is taboo, and someone wants to simply destroy Aine, leaving her choices very limited. Of course, there is Nigel to consider.

THE SONG OF THE TIDE is a modern day Gothic drama that captures the essence of the genre. The story line works because the plot adheres to its roots of an atmospheric location, ancestral curses, insane people, and brooding individuals whose forbidden love divides their family even as society condemns them for it. Mary Ryan paints a powerful portrait of an angst-laden woman that will bring her a stateside audience who will want more of her works published here.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and atmospheric coming-of-age story
Review: Evocative and engrossing, Mary Ryan's The Song of the Tide creates a story with complex layers, emotions, and settings, describing them with skill and sympathy. The heart and soul of Ryan's heroine, Aine O'Malley, reveal a flair for the dramatic, a vivid imagination, and a keen perception or prescience that become a burden as she grows older. The lessons Aine learns about women's roles in society and the source of their satisfaction or power -- whether it is derived from domestic dominance or the ability to escape such ties -- runs in tandem with Aine's own struggle to escape her obsessions and ghosts. Aine's folly results from her belief that her power to control situations or people's opinions is derived by what she leaves unsaid, and more often her reticence or lies create further turmoil and obstacles for her.

Aine's family owns a crumbling castle called Dunbeg, where the story begins with the arrival of Aine's American-born cousin, Rupert and fraternal aunt, Isabelle. Even to 10-year-old Aine's perception, it soon becomes apparent that Aunt Isabelle is on the lam, running away from her husband. Aine immediately forms an alliance and deep attachment to Rupert, her gentlemanly cousin from Virginia who is the first male that didn't pick on her (Aine comes from a family full of brothers). In their explorations of the land surrounding the castle, Aine and Rupert fall afoul of a local resident tramp named Aeneas Shaw, a silly childhood misadventure with surprisingly far-reaching consequences. Aine, already a martyr to nightmares and insomnia, privately adds her new Nemesis Shaw to her list of fears, but recants her initial reporting of Shaw's attack on her to the police because she feels sorry for him and does not want to be the cause of his confinement to a mental home or to prison. In this one act, Aine establishes a pattern that will follow her throughout her adolescence and young adult years, in which she subverts her own fears about her safety, or allows others to convince her she's crazy or has an overly-vivid imagination, to the detriment of her well-being.

When she is 10 years old, Aine suddenly faces down the taunts of her brothers, screaming "From now on, I want some respect!", but it is not until a decade later that she realizes the power to gain freedom from such bad treatment is actually in her own hands, not in the hands of her tormenters both real and imagined. Aine's role models, after all, are her aunt, who after fleeing her abusive, lecherous, alcoholic husband, returns and submits to his will, and her mother, whose attempts at an intellectually-satisfying life are thwarted by her husband's need for clean shirts and who ultimately turns to an unsatisfying and unsuccessful adulterous liaison as a means of escape. Aine's Aunt Isabelle advises her thusly, after her outburst demanding respect:

"'You must never, ever let them see it . . . Aine, darling,' she whispered. 'You must never show them!' My mouth opened. 'Show them what?' 'You must never show men what you really feel,' she repeated. 'Men . . . eat feelings! They have none of their own and they live off other people's.'"

Aine seems to take this advice to heart and begins a lifelong habit of leaving things unsaid, lying to hide the truth, and being evasive with everyone, including herself. The one constant in Aine's life is Rupert's friendship, and her one goal as she travels through puberty into womanhood, is to win his love. What she finally realizes about herself as a woman and as an individual in her quest for his love makes for fascinating, dramatic reading.

The Song of the Tide is a lushly descriptive, hauntingly beautiful tale set in Ireland, England, and America, and each scene has an all-encompassing quality that surrounds the reader in a tangible atmosphere. The reader is a witness, not only to the beautifully-described exteriors, such as the eerie castle Dunbeg and the sultry state of Virginia, but is also privy to the interiors of Aine's mind and even her dreams. The story succeeds on all levels to draw in the reader to a well-constructed plot, a complicated conflict, and a satisfying denouement.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and atmospheric coming-of-age story
Review: Evocative and engrossing, Mary Ryan's The Song of the Tide creates a story with complex layers, emotions, and settings, describing them with skill and sympathy. The heart and soul of Ryan's heroine, Aine O'Malley, reveal a flair for the dramatic, a vivid imagination, and a keen perception or prescience that become a burden as she grows older. The lessons Aine learns about women's roles in society and the source of their satisfaction or power -- whether it is derived from domestic dominance or the ability to escape such ties -- runs in tandem with Aine's own struggle to escape her obsessions and ghosts. Aine's folly results from her belief that her power to control situations or people's opinions is derived by what she leaves unsaid, and more often her reticence or lies create further turmoil and obstacles for her.

Aine's family owns a crumbling castle called Dunbeg, where the story begins with the arrival of Aine's American-born cousin, Rupert and fraternal aunt, Isabelle. Even to 10-year-old Aine's perception, it soon becomes apparent that Aunt Isabelle is on the lam, running away from her husband. Aine immediately forms an alliance and deep attachment to Rupert, her gentlemanly cousin from Virginia who is the first male that didn't pick on her (Aine comes from a family full of brothers). In their explorations of the land surrounding the castle, Aine and Rupert fall afoul of a local resident tramp named Aeneas Shaw, a silly childhood misadventure with surprisingly far-reaching consequences. Aine, already a martyr to nightmares and insomnia, privately adds her new Nemesis Shaw to her list of fears, but recants her initial reporting of Shaw's attack on her to the police because she feels sorry for him and does not want to be the cause of his confinement to a mental home or to prison. In this one act, Aine establishes a pattern that will follow her throughout her adolescence and young adult years, in which she subverts her own fears about her safety, or allows others to convince her she's crazy or has an overly-vivid imagination, to the detriment of her well-being.

When she is 10 years old, Aine suddenly faces down the taunts of her brothers, screaming "From now on, I want some respect!", but it is not until a decade later that she realizes the power to gain freedom from such bad treatment is actually in her own hands, not in the hands of her tormenters both real and imagined. Aine's role models, after all, are her aunt, who after fleeing her abusive, lecherous, alcoholic husband, returns and submits to his will, and her mother, whose attempts at an intellectually-satisfying life are thwarted by her husband's need for clean shirts and who ultimately turns to an unsatisfying and unsuccessful adulterous liaison as a means of escape. Aine's Aunt Isabelle advises her thusly, after her outburst demanding respect:

"'You must never, ever let them see it . . . Aine, darling,' she whispered. 'You must never show them!' My mouth opened. 'Show them what?' 'You must never show men what you really feel,' she repeated. 'Men . . . eat feelings! They have none of their own and they live off other people's.'"

Aine seems to take this advice to heart and begins a lifelong habit of leaving things unsaid, lying to hide the truth, and being evasive with everyone, including herself. The one constant in Aine's life is Rupert's friendship, and her one goal as she travels through puberty into womanhood, is to win his love. What she finally realizes about herself as a woman and as an individual in her quest for his love makes for fascinating, dramatic reading.

The Song of the Tide is a lushly descriptive, hauntingly beautiful tale set in Ireland, England, and America, and each scene has an all-encompassing quality that surrounds the reader in a tangible atmosphere. The reader is a witness, not only to the beautifully-described exteriors, such as the eerie castle Dunbeg and the sultry state of Virginia, but is also privy to the interiors of Aine's mind and even her dreams. The story succeeds on all levels to draw in the reader to a well-constructed plot, a complicated conflict, and a satisfying denouement.