In this page turning episode written through the voice of Sheila
McGann, a teenager stricken at a young age by cerebral palsy, we learn
ironic truths about freedom. The characters could be your next door
neighbors, and yet, written against the backdrop of the upsurging Northern
Irish conflict in the 1970's, the cultish lure of the IRA, the tortuous
restrictiveness of Irish religion for modern priests and the people
of Ireland, held back while looking on feverishly through new media
to a world where artists such as David Bowie are pushing the boundaries
of personal freedom, are, for this American reviewer, almost as exotic
as a trip to the Serengheti or the Galapogos. With deep empathy and
skill, Nesbitt has created a narrator for whom we are able to acknowledge
through our minds and thoughts what through our eyes and experience
we may not have been able to, granting through the "read"
word the spectrum of human emotion to this young woman, who does not
walk or write with the usual tools, whose speech is elongated and at
times incomprehensible,
who cannot even take herself to the toilet. Here is a severely handicapped
woman reconciling her limitations to her most intimate relationship.
Episode after episode after being seen, really seen, and really loved
by other characters, Maud, Liam, Mam, Donal and Michael Daly, Sheila
finally gives up on the choices that would allow her to remain invisible.
Ironically, it is the more physically attractive and unconfined characters
in the story who do not escape their invisibility: the handsome Liam,
lured to his early demise by the cultish appeal of the IRA; Maud, the
beautiful young albeit confused teenager whose story leads the reader
to compelling conclusions about the plight of the unwed mother in Catholic
Ireland; the neglected Maisie, the quintessential Irish housewife bound
by duty and female obligations, and finally eaten away from the inside
of the physical symbols of her castigated femininity; and Michael Daly,
a young modern-thinking priest bound by his religion to a life-style
not necessarily suited to his personality. At the end of this chronicle,
we find that our coming-of-age narrator Sheila, set free to us by her
written word, is on the verge of a promising journalistic career. In
her first assignment, she finds she must reflect on her relationship
with the tragic Maud. "Why would she lie to me?" she asks
herself. For Sheila the question is "How am I worthy of being lied
to?" For the reader, by this time, the thread of duplicity points
to a rigid society that paves the way for false faces and secrets. For
Maud, a victim of that societal rigidity, the lies built that young
soul a fortress for the most vulnerable part of her human anatomy, her
heart.
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The
Cloths of Heaven transports the reader not only to a different time
and place, but also puts him or her into a different skin. Sheila McGann,
the narrator of this story, is a young girl whose body is ravaged by
the ruin of cerebral palsy but her mind, oh her mind! Her speech may
be slurred but her mind is razor sharp and the knowledge that her mind
must forever be enclosed in a body that is virtually useless only serves
to heighten the strengths of this young woman.
We first meet Shelia and her mother the day that Kitty and her daughter
Maud move into the neighborhood in a camper. Kitty, a free spirit, and
Maud, her beautiful daughter, are the polar opposites of Sheila and
Eileen - or Mam as she is called. Differences notwithstanding, or more
likely because of them, the four quickly become fast friends.
This is a different coming of age story - a story that tells of the
hopes and fears of two girls: one a prisoner of her twisted body, the
other a prisoner of mistaken ideas of love and acceptance. It is a story
of the friendship and jealousies that shape their relationship. It is
also the story of the women who are mothers to these girls, the things
that haunt them, the things that set them free, the worries they have
for their children and for themselves. Set against the turbulent background
of Ireland in the 70's and the changing ideas about the role that women
and disabled people have in the world, The Cloths Of Heaven paints a
picture that is sometimes funny, sometimes sad and always engaging.
Geraldine
Nesbitt's writing reminds me of an Irish Anne Tyler, relating a tale
of extraordinary beauty about ordinary people. This
is one you should read.
Against
the backdrop of 1970's Ireland, Geraldine Nesbitt invites us into the
lives, loves and tragedies of the residents of James Street and in particular
that of young Sheila McGann.
As
James Street is about to be demolished to make way for a new shopping
mall, Sheila reflects on the lives of those for whom it was home.
When
Kitty Phelan and her daughter Maud moved into James Street in their
camper van, no one could have known quite what an impact they would
make on the lives of the residents. For Sheila, wheelchair bound by
cerebral palsy, and her mother Eileen, they brought friendship and a
different sort of life.
Journey
with Sheila as she travels back through her childhood in James Street,
her teenage years in a home in Dublin and her holidays at a caravan
in Fanore. Feel with her as she comes to know the true impact of the
IRA and as she struggles to find her place in the world. Share her relationships
with Maud, Liam, Donal and the perfect Father Michael. Learn of their
own struggles and secrets and the impact they have on Sheila's life.
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