Reviews for Four Letters of Love

The average rating for Four Letters of Love based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-06 00:00:00 Marina Sergej "Falling slowly sing your melody I'll sing along" -- Falling Slowly, Songwriters: Glen Hansard / Marketa Irglova Almost two years ago I read Niall Williams History of the Rain, which I loved, it remains among my favourites. Last year, I read the first of a series of four books he wrote along with his wife, which share their experiences of leaving their life and careers in New York City and moving to a small cottage in the land of their ancestors, the everyday ins and outs of life in their little corner of Ireland. I felt the call to return to the magic of his stories, and to revisit the magic of County Clare, Galway, and the Western Isles. ”When I was twelve years old God spoke to my father for the first time. God didn’t say much. He told my father to be a painter, and left it at that, returning to a seat amongst the angels and watching through the clouds over the grey city to see what would happen next.” Until that day, his father had spent his weekdays inside his office as a civil servant. Their lives would change overnight. His father would leave his wife and son, Nicholas, to fulfill this command over the summer months. Two years pass with no income, and then his mother is gone. When another painting trip to the western coast comes up, Nicholas manages to convince his father to allow him to come along. It will prove to be a memorable trip in many ways. ”The words have vanished and I am left mostly with pictures of my early childhood: my father in a grey suit coming in the front door from the office in the fog of November evenings, the briefcase flopping by the telephone table, the creak in the stairs and across the ceiling above the kitchen as he changes into a cardigan and comes down for his tea. The great shelf of his forehead floating up above the line of a newspaper in response to some question.” After a few years spent in his own civil service office job, Nicholas goes in search of one of the paintings that his father painted on that trip to the coast, where so many of his memories pull him back to now and again, hoping to purchase it back from the man, a poet, who won it in a raffle. He meets not only the man, but also the man’s wife and their son. The son is wheelchair-bound following an incident involving his sister, Isabel, who is no longer living at their parent’s home. Eventually, Nicholas will meet her after an occurrence that can only be described as inexplicably wondrous. Isabel, now attending a convent school, seems to have developed a rebellious side, and life in this convent sends her in a decidedly un-nun-like direction. ”It was the game she loved at first... She would hear the footsteps and laugh, putting a hand to her mouth to catch it quickly, throwing back her hair and standing up to get ready, holding off that look in her eyes that was proud and victorious until she was already down the corridor and out through the front door once more, feeling the wind like an embrace and the raw kiss of freedom.” Life. Death. Nature. Destiny. Devotion. Art. Facing our doubts. Faith - in ourselves, our abilities, our choices, and in the spiritual sense, and Love being the ultimate expression of our faith. The choices we make, as well as a sense of spirituality are a significant part of this story, but with a bit of magical realism woven throughout. The lyrically rhythmic writing took my breath away, made my heart ache and then melted it all over again with the beautifully descriptive imagery, and an enchanted story that is filled with sad moments, but, oh, so much love. Five magical(-realism)ly delicious stars

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-01 00:00:00 Richard K. Lemley I liked this book very much. It is the second book I read of Niall Williams’ oeuvre, the first being his most recent work, “This is Happiness” (2019), and I liked that one a great deal too. This is his first work of fiction (1997)…he had 4 previous works prior to “Four Letters of Love” that were co-authored with his wife Christine Breen, and memoirs of living and traveling in Ireland. I read this book in one sitting perhaps in part because I was struck by a comment on the inner front cover by Marianne Faithfull, an English singer, songwriter, and actress who became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States (As Tears Go By): “I never thought I would find such an honorable and well-written book about love and truth, men and women, heart and despair — Four Letters of Love is a joy, an acutely evocative and sexual story…and my God, I wouldn’t put it down.” So if she could read it in one sitting, then I could too! 😊 But it turned out it wasn’t a challenge I made with myself that made me read it in one sitting…I did so because it was such a satisfying read. In reading his most recent novel (This is Happiness), I was struck by the beautiful prose so much I bookmarked different passages. I did not do any such bookmarking in this read – I was content with just marveling at some sentences and passages as I read them. There are two central protagonists Nicholas and Isabel, and to give away the circumstances under how they met would give away pretty much the main point of the novel. We learn a great deal about them, however, before they meet. We learn about their parents who also have their own interesting stories to tell. We learn of Isobel’s little brother Sean who one day has an accident on the beach when he is 10 and Isobel is 11. Once a lively chap, he is struck dumb with some mystery illness and is never the same again. She harbors a great deal of guilt for that, although nobody blames her for it. But it influences her choices later on in life. Nicholas was a young boy when his father was told by God to paint…and so the father obeyed God but by doing so caused a great deal of pain for Nicholas and his mother. Or as Nicholas in the first paragraph of the book put it: When I was 12 years old God spoke to my father for the first time. God didn’t say much. He told my father to be a painter, and left it at that, returning to a seat amongst the angels and watching through the clouds over the grey city to see what would happen next. The last sentence of the book was so important and so beautiful I read it 3 times. I’ll probably return to it (13 lines of text!) because it brought so much satisfaction and pleasure to me (now that’s a way to end a story!). Random notes: • I ordered this book a long time ago from abebooks.com after reading his latest work “This is Happiness.” I wanted to read all of his works. When I pulled it out of its mailer yesterday something struck me about the book jacket like I had seen it before. So eventually I went to one of my bookcases where I have Irish and UK literature and sure enough there it was — I already had the book! I even had a November 1997 book review of it from The New York Times (reviewed by Katharine Weber, author of “Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear” and “Music Lesson”) nestled in its pages. But I had never read the book. • Marianne Faithfull on April 21 was discharged from the hospital following a three-week hospitalization from COVID-19, having fully recovered from the virus. Reviews: • “Four Letters of Love is formed with an unusual authority and grace, and it is filled with marvelous characters, large and small, all depicted with an understated veracity.” – Notable Book of the Year, The New York Times Book Review • “A compelling meditation on love, art and the vicissitudes of fate.” – San Francisco Chronicle • “While a wealth of impressions linger from this debut, two words come most often to mind in describing it: Spellbinding. Brilliant.” – starred review, Kirkus Reviews • “This book can rightly claim its place among the classics of Irish literarure. A wonderfully affecting love story.” – Belfast Telegraph • “A breathtaking affirmation of magic, miracles and the power of human love.” – The Times • “Thoughtful, wonderfully wrought passages that soar and soar. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal