The Tragic Muse Book

At the end of life what do we single out and hold up as our finest achievement? For Molly Allgood, an Irish actress, it's her relationship with the playwright John Synge. Ghost Light is narrated, often in the second person, by Molly during a single day at the end of her life. Molly is down on her luck and something of an alcoholic. Therefore, not perhaps the most reliable of narrators. Prone to flights of lyrical beautification, Molly, one suspects, has idealised Synge. What we learn about him, between the lines, isn't always likeable. He's reluctant for example to make their relationship public. This isn't one of those explosive soul-searing literary couplings. Molly and Singe's relationship is perhaps, behind all Molly's poetic waxing, a rather lacklustre affair, only made legendary in her mind by his early death. Yet it's this relationship she calls upon as her last will and testament. I have to confess at times I wasn't quite sure I believed this premise. There was a suspicion that this is a female sensibility interpreted (and distorted) through the lens of a male. Molly has been a successful actress yet dwells little on her professional achievements. Nor does she appear to have made any close friends or been bewitched by places she's visited. Obviously the author wanted to write about her brief relationship with Synge but perhaps the form he chose wasn't the best option. I'm pretty sure at the end of my life I won't be editing my life down to one person I briefly loved and devoting all my energy to recreating our story. I often found Molly more compelling as an old woman than a young girl. Joseph O'Connor writes very well - another lyrical Irishman - and though it went a bit flat towards the end there was still lots to admire in this novel.