Irish Fiction: Rural life in Co Wexford in the 1920s is brought vividly to life through the troubled eyes of Will Byrne, the central character in A Moth at the Glass, writes Catherine Foley.
In the novel, Mogue Doyle has captured the feel ofthis almost forgotten time, when bicycles and horse-drawn carts were the main modes of transport, when Irish words were still interwoven in everyday speech (cogar-mogar, a shee gwee, his fat scrogall country (cábógs),and when dances in farmhouses were almost a nightly occurrence.
Doyle ’s lyrical writing is rich in old-fashioned speech patterns,detailed evocative descriptions and fierce action sequences.It all makes for rich, fresh and original writing –something like "an evening ’s trot over a stark mountain ",to quote one line.
When Byrne,the story 's main character, who is the ultimate outsider and the eponymous moth at the glass, seduces his friend 's long-term girlfriend, the pace gathers speed and a sequence ofterrible events is set in
train.But this pivotal and cruel betrayal of a good friend, which has fatal consequences, happens quite
late in the story.
Perhaps the reader is kept in the dark, along with the lonely Byrne, for just a little too long. At times,the slow build to the story ’s ultimate denouement,which takes place some 40 years later, in the 1960s, seems a bit delayed or lacking in tension. The significance of one character, Simon, in the story is not clear until the final chapters and the fate of some of the other characters is also delayed until the end.
Still, the read is worth the wait and there’s poetry and lyricism in the telling.
Catherine Foley is a writer and an Irish Times journalist. She is a contributor to the recently published TownHouse anthology of short stories, Irish Girls are Back in Town.
A Moth at the Glass. By Mogue Doyle, Bantam, 223pp. £9.99.