The Long Falling

by Keith Ridgway

Book Overview

Grace Quinn is an Englishwoman living in rural Ireland. Isolated by religion and circumstance, she endures both an abusive husband and a strained relationship with her son, Martin, whose open homosexuality her husband refused to accept. After an act of desperation, reeling with doubt and denial, she seeks out her son in Dublin. Keith Ridgway "affectingly renders the separate sanctuaries of mother and son . . .and lights the distance between them"...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395957826
• ISBN13: 9780395957820
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A gorgeously written debut

A debut novel of almost miraculous courage and brilliant lyricism. Ridgway is fearless in his exploration of the human heart; he beautifully explores the pain inherent in love and loss. This prose will haunt you. One can only hope that Keith Ridgway's career is just beginning -- he has the writer's gift of language, and a heart that's open and unafraid.

A powerful tragedy, beautifully written

As the story unfolds and the characters take on different dimensions, the reader is overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the writing. A brilliant debut by a very talented author.

Brilliant,poetic, heart-breaking first novel

This is an astonishingly beautiful novel. Anyone who has thought about their relationship with their mother..the love and the anger will undoubtly be moved by this very powerful story. The insight of character thoughts are remarkable. It is a very sad book that deserves enormous attention. Someone tell Oprah..this should be on her book club list..it is the best novel I have read in years. I'm telling all my friends..I love every page of this novel and know I will read it over and over again through the years. If you love a great story, well written and written from the heart..this book is for you.

Defining the space between people

To my mind, this is great writing. You can turn to virtually any page and find a sentence that will knock your socks off. "The warmth of the place became brazen," or "She wondered if the farm still stood - the line of trees like broccoli that cut the sunset in two. . . . She had not thought of it before. Now she knew that places were not constant. They were the inventions of minds that stayed still for a moment. They were a gathering of walls and shelters, and certain odours in the air, that served to divide and define and keep a person real."The story is of a woman who has intentionally run down her abusive husband on a road and killed him. She is trying to make a way to find a new life, but "she had not thought it through." She goes to live with her gay son, Martin, "to make out of the space at his side a place of her own." But that, of course, is not possible. Not only because she has killed his father, but also because the space at his side is filled wi! th Henry, who is soon returning from Europe. When he learns what she has done, Martin cannot abide her. He throws her out. Yet he is the only one in the book who feels no sympathy for her. Even the policeman on the case warns her to go away. Martin's friends, even Henry, want him to feel some compassion for his mother, but he won't. In fact, when he finds where she has gone, he calls the police. Relaying the plot this way does not do it justice. It's really the way the story is told that makes the book. The descriptions, the reactions of the characters, and the interior reactions they have are really more important than the plot. It's a book about the spaces between people, not about a murder.

Ridgway's first novel scores with crisp poetic style

Death, murder, and isolation. Keith Ridgway weaves all three dark themes throughout "The Long Falling" and yet the novel, the author's first, is often insightful and poetic.Grace Quinn both loses an infant child to drowning and is verbally and physical abused by an older, belligerent Irish husband. From these troubling circumstances, Grace Quinn commits a a desperate act and flees seeking refuge at the home of her gay son, Martin. (Though she tells him nothing of whats happened) Ridgway writes in the third person, telling the story from the perspective of Grace, Martin, Sean, (Martin's friend), and Mrs. Talbot, an innkeeper Grace befriends. By moving from one character's perspective to the next, the author develops a sense of intimacy between mother and son. Grace reaches out to her only adult son at a moment of desperation. Martin welcomes her but wonders at the same time what exactly she's doing. The novel's pacing, changing perspectives, succeeds in moving the reader through Grace's troubled journey.Ridgeway descriptions are poetic. Shorter sentences are often filled with strong images. He writes capturing moods, not merely stating everything in the scene. In describing a love scene between Martin and his lover Henry, he doesn't sensationalize. "He wanted to stand on the bed over Henry's body and execute a dive of some kind that would take him beneath the skin, into the dark warmth were he could not escape." Utilizing the true story of a teenage girl denied an abortion as a backdrop, Ridgeway solidifies the narrative line of the story. Sean, Martin's friend, is a reporter covering the story of X-an unnamed girl who is not allowed to leave the country for an abortion. The craziness of the X story unfolds while Grace franticly decides her next move.Powerful imagery, convincing characters, and a strong narrative make Keith Ridgway's "The Long Falling" a stirring first novel. A shorter book, the author's compact, poetic style contributes to its success! .