The Nature of Water and Air

by Regina McBride

Book Overview

"My mother was never easy in the world of houses. She was a tinker, a traveler girl who had married a wealthy man. Her name was Agatha Sheehy....There are silences all around my mother's story."
So begins The Nature of Water and Air, set on a patch of Irish coast where, amid a flurry of whispers, we meet Agatha's only surviving daughter, Clodagh. Determined to secure her mother's elusive love and the truth about her, Clodagh is swept...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743203232
• ISBN13: 9780743203234
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A lyrical labor of love, loss and beginning...

As dense with fable and mystery as the Irish coast, this is the work of a poet whose images are cast in the clothes of her luminous prose. The recurring theme throughout is of love and death, the bonds of attachment and the anguish of loss. This tale is so seductive as to draw the reader ever closer to the line between mythology and truth, where life is divided between reality and the insistent song of the sea. "It seemed to be the nature of water and air, to be random, heartless". Not so, this novel.Young Clodagh Sheehy lives in thrall of her distant mother, Agatha, who comes from the world of itinerant tinkers, and listens carefully to the call of this wild land where they live. Agatha's actions are shrouded with secrecy and full of sexual innuendo, and she drifts just beyond her daughter's knowing, unwilling to be trapped by the child's need and loneliness. Clodagh's fragile twin sister, Mare, has died and the girl wills Mare to remain, if only as her other half, the opposite coin of her identity. She plays the piano one-handed, leaving the other part, the other hand, for Mare, and sometimes stares into the cloudy mirror, hoping for a glimpse of her other self. Their father, Frank Sheehy, dies before the twin's birth, and Clodagh, in anguished desperation, clings to the only person remaining, her mother. But like the mythological selkie, half-seal, half-woman, Agatha returns to the depths of the sea, now lost as well. Cut adrift and friendless, but for a loving housekeeper, Clodagh begins a journey toward self-discovery, often tangled between the worlds of reality and superstition. In reaching out to identify the face of her mother, Clodagh discovers the truth of herself. Her adolescence is often painful and life changing, her passion for music frequently the only solace. Clodagh's dead father Frank, her possibly-alive real father, a tinker, and her early foray into sexuality are without satisfaction until she breaks free and claims herself.McBride's novel is flooded with page after page of images. The vast canvas of such rugged, gorgeous geography serves as the background for dreams and emotions as tumultuous and changeable as the storm-tossed waves that beat along the coast. This author has accomplished more than storytelling, she has offered a glimpse of the true nature of Ireland, the very nature of water and air. Luan Gaines

Irish mysticism at its best...

The lure of the Irish tale weaves its way into the hearts and minds of even the Irish. The Nature of Water and Air paints a picture of the beauty of Ireland and its stories. One cannot resist reading further as the stage is set with ancient Irish lore interwoven with modern Ireland. Clodagh, the narrator is a girl with a troubled life. Her situation is not ideal, and one forgets when this story is set. The timelessness of Irish folklore is evident in Clodagh's own story. Her life is shrouded in myth and confusion, secrecy and lies. A coming of age tale, with an entirely different setting-- this book will move you.The nature of the Irish story is always mystery. The Nature of Water and Air definitely follows this idea. Clodagh is curious, she wants to understand her past, a past that is so secreted by her family. McBride manages to take tragedy and interweave it with Catholic culture, Pagan ritual, and Irish legend. The web created by this is an Irish story on all levels of Irish culture and history. Each step delving further into each, until one realizes it is truly the nature of water and air that drive the Irish tale. McBride has a gift for creating despair. The prose she creates whisks you into a depressing, confusing life. However, even in the darkest of times, Clodagh perseveres and wades through her life with a true strength of character. The Nature of Water and Air is truly a gift to be shared. A brilliant first novel for McBride and truly a great read. I look forward to reading many more by McBride.

POWERFULLY EVOCATIVE -- INTENSELY EMOTIONAL

This is one of the most moving novels I've read in some time -- and a difficult one to review without giving away the core of the story. Don't worry -- I'm not going to do that.McBride's writing is like filigree -- incredibly detailed and delicate, filled with much more than it would seem the words on the pages could contain. The young woman at the center of the story, Clodagh Sheehy, is made as real as the water and air of the title -- and just as hard to hold. Her mother was a tinker -- one of the traveling people of Ireland -- described so aptly as 'never easy in the world of houses'. Clodagh is one of a pair of twin girls -- her sister, Mare, is sickly and weak, and is as much her other half as could be imagined. When she dies, and Clodagh's mother turns her love away from her surviving daughter, the young girl's world is rocked and crushed. Her life becomes a struggle to reclaim the love of her mother -- and to understand this dark, complicated woman, so different from all those around her. Her quest also has at its heart a yearning to know her father. It leads her away from the comforts of her home and into the world of the traveling people -- where things she never imagined are opened to her.There is a gentle sadness that pervades Clodagh's story -- but it never becomes maudlin, and that is to the credit of this fine writer. There is also great beauty and mystery in abundance here -- told in shimmering prose that makes the Irish landscape and culture come alive for us. This book is a treasure chest filled with life and wisdom. An old tinker woman -- a character who appears only briefly toward the end of the story, says it well: 'Buadhann an thoighde ar an gcinneamhain' -- 'Patience conquers destiny'.

a gripping seductive tale

This book consumed me! I haven't read a book since Memoirs of a geisha that grabbed my attention the way this did. I can't stop thinking about it. The descriptions of Ireland put you there. You can smell the ocean, her description and detail are so intense. The feelings this book produces are so provocative and dangerous. Regina McBride is huge! Everything about the book was poetic. Can you tell I loved it!!?? And guess what? I never write reviews...

Lyrical and Devastating

An exploration of the undercurrents of human existance, The Nature of Air and Water tells a seductive and sensory tale that weaves around Ireland, the pull of the sea, and the pull of myth. Myth is, after all, a metaphor for truths in life, and the main character in this novel is nearly consumed by the search for truth of her origins. In her description of the Tinker life, McBride's prose is both lyrical and devastating - envoking a vision of Ireland that is both gritty and enchanting.