* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *
Reading the sample chapter of The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer gave me goosebumps and reminded me of the fable at the beginning of The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott. The fact that Australian literary author Robbie Arnott (also the author of Limberlost) was involved in the launch of this book speaks volumes about the confidence Text Publishing and this wildly successful author have in Kruckemeyer's debut.
I usually need a clear structure and detest a dreamy narrative, but somehow in The End and Everything Before It Kruckemeyer has produced a loosely structured dreamlike group of stories connected by geographical proximity through time and I loved it!
An intergenerational saga that is far from linear, each generation offers a parable within their tale, yet this happens without clear dates to place characters in chronological order. The reader is left to realise in their own time, oh, that must have happened when the building on the hill was a hospital, or I think this character is the granddaughter of that one.
These kinds of literary feats are usually beyond my intellectual ability or exceed my willingness to surrender to the narrative, but here the author surprised me with this highly original - and accessible -offering. Additionally, I never re-read books because I always worry that I could be wasting an opportunity to discover a new favourite, but I found myself wanting to read The End and Everything Before It again before I'd even finished.
Enough gushing, let me share some quotes with you, because the writing was sublime. When describing a feast, the host remarks that it's a great success, not because he's the best host but because of the parts that make the whole.
"The tables are busy thoroughfares along which the things of life pass back and forth - salad bowls, misplaced forks, conversation, bottles of ale. And laughter. Laughter ringing off glasses, clattering onto plates, making eyes shine, cheeks crease. I sit in the laughter, happy to have set the table that holds it." Page 16Doesn't that just make you warm and fuzzy inside? It makes me wish I could attend this feast while simultaneously thinking of Christmas.
When Emma the Greek meets Conor the orphan and his daughter, she tells them about her adventures at sea.
"If they'd had a question she'd given detail. If they were silent she'd pushed on. And it felt like a shedding - like standing on a porch when you've run through the rain, and stepping out of boots, and stripping off each layer, and shaking loose your hair, and wiping down your face with a sure, strong hand before you open the door and step into a warm room. It has seemed that she couldn't enter into that warm-room comfort until every tale was told, until every memory - still dripping - was hung upon its hook." Page 62-63Moments like this made me pause and reflect on the perfect imagery and the character descriptions - while sometimes brief - managed to convey both depth and meaning.
By contrast, one moment had me snorting at the sheer unexpected nature of the character in question. A lady's maid is speaking to her widowed mistress on the one year anniversary of her husband's death.
"'Like how we got in that yellow wallpaper, the day of the... seeing how yellow's your colour, and how it wasn't so much his colour but now that's not so much of an issue. And we thought, if the wallpaper went up all right, then maybe... maybe we could give everything a... a good old spring-clean. And some of his things. His hat there by the door, his overcoat, the pipe there where it lies on that round low table in the library. Well maybe those things could--' I hit Betty so hard in the face her glasses bounced off the nearby wall." Page 72Poor Betty, she didn't make a sound. Despite her cruelty, the wealthy widow was a favourite character and provided the dark side to some of the more wholesome characters in the novel.
Birds and nests are an important thematic reference in the novel and a lonely stone building on top of the hill is another marker of time as the reader notes the changes in purpose from prison to hospital, to immigration facility and juvenile home.
Booklovers will treasure the history of the town's bookshop and story connections:
"And on the bus back to the home I read the book. And that night I finished the book, and put it on my shelf. Then I slept the sleep of someone who's just finished a story, one where half your dreams are there already." Page 142-143That's exactly how I felt about this book! Born in Ireland and now living in Adelaide, it's a little easier to believe this is Kruckemeyer's debut novel when you discover he's an award winning playwright. The End and Everything Before It is a literary fable about love, loss, legacy, purpose and community. It's an uplifting allegory rich in meaning that makes you appreciate the importance of love and remember the passage of time; we're here for such a small time and we all need to make it count! And the ending - gasp - was just sublime.
The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer was unforgettable and a definite contender for my Top 5 Books of 2024 this year. Highly recommended!
This is a new author to me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and for your ongoing participation!
Thanks Marg, new to me as well but wow, what a first impression!
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