The Nature of Water and Air

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 23, 2001

Combining elements of a gothic novel and a folktale, this lyrical coming-of-age debut is set in a luminous Ireland. Clodagh Sheehy, who narrates the story in a poised, clear-eyed manner, is the stronger of twins born to teenage Agatha. A former tinker, Agatha grew up on the west coast as wild as a "selkie," or sea sprite. After her husband's untimely death, she inhabits uneasily a decrepit estate house by the sea with her daughters and the pious housekeeper, Mrs. O'Dare. When the weaker twin dies at age five, Agatha rejects Clodagh and begins frequenting the tinker camps again, visiting her mysterious lover there. When she is 13, Clodagh, still hungry for her mother's love, yet unsparing in her judgment of her, dispassionately watches as Agatha commits suicide by walking into the sea. "It seemed to be the nature of water and air, to be random, heartless," she thinks. The novel is paced with gentle insistence, tracing Clodagh's journey from her harsh convent education into young adulthood. She becomes an accomplished pianist, but her ill-fated passion for a copper-haired tinker, Angus Kilheen, leads her to give up her music. McBride, an American poet and teacher, lyrically describes the dramatic sea-swept landscape of Ireland. Occasionally, however, she veers into portentous sentimentality, identifying Agatha repeatedly with the selkie myth. The essential tragedy here is not so much the discovery by Clodagh of her father's true identity though McBride handles the complicated plot line with fluid tenderness but the girl's abandonment of her musical gift. Finely wrought and deeply felt, the novel is a work of supercharged imagination, in which the presence of sea spirits, ghosts and the dire workings of fate contribute to an atmosphere of brooding mystery.