Dublin in reverse

The Cold Eye of Heaven

CHRISTINE DWYER HICKEY really knows her Dublin. She knows its ways. It seems embedded in her soul. She wrote about it in her trilogy; it was the backdrop for her best-selling novel of childhood, Tatty. It featured in the larger scale Last Train from Liguria, and it plays such a vital role in her new novel that it’s almost a character in itself.

It’s January 2010. Clothed in snow, Dublin is at a standstill. Farley lies in his bathroom, drifting in and out of consciousness. He’s clearly had a stroke, and is near death. His mind wanders. He thinks of his feckless father; and remembers how his Da hated his job; hated his life except, of course, for fly-fishing. Farley begged to join him, but he’d head off alone and be gone, sometimes for the whole weekend.

Chapter two goes back a day. Farley wanders gingerly through snowy Dublin. He needs his suit cleaned, and a shoe resoled, because Slowey, his ex-partner and best friend has died. He feels alienated. A stranger in the city he knows so well. Everywhere there is change. And Farley is fearful. Worried about junkies, about falling in the snow. Why has nobody checked to see how he is?

Each subsequent chapter takes us back 10 years, until 1940, when Farley was five. It’s like reading a series of linked short stories, and it works wonderfully. Because when we read of the young Farley; of the hurts of the child; we understand why his life has ended in loneliness. And we gain increasing respect for the soft, rather naive man.

One chapter centres on Farley’s retirement day. We learn why he’s fallen out with Slowey. Next we see him at work, a widower, looking after his mother, and embroiled in an unwise affair. Reverse 10 years, the affair starts; another 10, and he’s crushed with grief.

Through all this, Farley emerges as kind-hearted and caring. He’s tender with his mother, even though he never got much love from her. He’s a willing accomplice for his Grand-da, and patient with his shambolic brother. He was clearly passionately in love with his wife.

As a teenager attending his father’s funeral, he’s confused by the woman in a feathery grey hat, who sits at the back of the church and can’t stop crying. He’s unsettled, too, by Concilla, a rebellious Scottish nun.

Dwyer Hickey writes with subtlety and style. She’s not afraid to let her readers think for themselves. This is a sombre book. But it’s a rewarding read and it’s Dwyer Hickey’s most accomplished novel to date.