Riven Rock Book

So, I've had a few days to think about this one. An oddity. Off-kilter and skewed in more ways than one. But I liked it! So, yes, odd is good.

And this is one of the oddest (and saddest) of love stories. The power of love (whatever that is) unites Stanley and Katherine, and a peculiar, unidentified force (call it madness, insanity, dementia praecox, schizophrenia, or the prescribed treatment of said diagnoses)keeps them apart for ...decades. The long, mostly uneventful saga moves forward in time only. Little or no 'progress' is ever made, and Boyle's fictionalized account of the McCormick's lives feels as slow and drawn-out as the long, unconsommated marriage and prison sentence that it portrays. In a word: frustrating. And this is where, as a reader, I think, damn, this isn't going anywhere!! My patience is limited! But looking back at the lack of progress made in Stanley's treatment, strangely echoed in the stunted romantic and business aspirations of his head nurse, O'Kane, I feel a little overwhelmed by such a crushing sensation of frustration, as well as a gentle, inevitable decline and decay.

But we're in Boyle's territory here, and the exuberant language and playful tone (yes, he occasionally overdoes the comical similes, but I, for one, love them) offset what is ultimately a story of grim destinies.

Strange and touching, and definitely worth reading,