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 His belief that love is magical and spiritual is illuminated by details like the scent of crushed roses emanating from the lovesick Nicholas, the climatic appearance of birds inside rooms, and the veils of music wafting from the last painting left by his father. Those scenes may sound odd but within the context of the book they are perfect.
Reviewed by Grace Tierney
Four Letters of Love
by Niall Williams
Picador
ISBN : 0-330-35269-5, $11usd
With the rise of e-mail I hear often that the art of letter-writing is dead. I think that’s a shame. Niall Williams agrees because he has crafted his novel ‘Four Letters of Love’ around the influence letters have on a love affair. However this isn’t a pale imitation of Jane Austen’s epistolary novels. He has created his own Irish version of magic realism which is akin to the style of Paulo Coelho’s fable ‘The Alchemist’, and yet is truly unique.
His short but lyrical chapters chart the childhoods of Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore, one in Dublin and the other on a remote island. Nicholas has a father who rebels against his government job and becomes a painter at the personal request of God, while Isabel struggles with the fading love between her parents and her own misplaced guilt over her brother’s illness.
The compelling story propelled me to the point late in the book where the link between Nicholas and Isabel becomes clear but not in time to save her from an ill-fated marriage to another man. Williams takes the brave step of waiting until this moment to introduce his main characters and then he doesn’t even describe the meeting! By now I was hoping for the passionate Isabel to find love with kind, romantic Nicholas. When her mother prevents his four love letters being delivered I rooted for the couple even more.
The quality of this book lies beyond the carefully constructed plot however, it is in Williams’ words. He honours the natural landscape of Ireland - rain clouds become ‘God’s dreams’ and marriage’s inevitable compromises are represented by the treacherous bleak ‘bogland’. His belief that love is magical and spiritual is illuminated by details like the scent of crushed roses emanating from the lovesick Nicholas, the climatic appearance of birds inside rooms, and the veils of music wafting from the last painting left by his father. Those scenes may sound odd but within the context of the book they are perfect.
If you want to read a book that will remind you of the beauty of life and love then look no further, this is the one for you. Now where is my letter-writing paper and can anybody lend me a stamp? I’ve a love letter to write.
About the reviewer: Grace Tierney (www.gracetierney.com) is a freelance writer who lives in Ireland and enjoys reading anything from chick-lit to James Joyce. Her book reviews, short stories, and non-fiction have been published internationally in print, online media, and anthologies. She is a staff writer with Writer Online Writer Online (writeronline.us) and Netsurfer Digest (www.netsurf.com). She is currently reading 'So Sleeps the Pride’ by Finbarr Dowdall.
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