The Heather Blazing

By Colm Tóibín

Book Overview

The sea is slowly eating into the land and the hill with the old watchtower has completely disappeared. The nearest house has crumbled and fallen into the sea. It is Ireland in the late twentieth century. Eamon Redmond is a judge in the Irish High Court. Obsessed all his life by the letter and spirit of the law, he is just beginning to discover how painfully unconnected he is from other human beings. With effortless fluency, Colm Toibin reconstructs the history of Eamon's relationships-with his father, his first "girl," his wife, and the children who barely know him. He gives us a family as minutely realized as any of John McGahern's, and he writes about Eamon's affection for the landscape of his childhood on the east coast of Ireland with such skill that the land itself becomes a character. The result is a novel that ensnares us with its emotional intensity and dazzles with its crystalline prose. In The Heather Blazing , Colm Toibin displays once again the gifts that illuminated The South , a book described by Don DeLillo as "a grand achievement," and by John Banville as "a daring imaginative feat...a splendid first novel."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140175326
• ISBN13: 9780140175325
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

No dust jacket

This may not be the place but the book description was very good it didn't have a dust jacket

Where Is The Compassion? It Lies Under The Exterior.

Colm Toibin has written a masterpiece of understated emotions, thought provoking prose and the chill of Ireland's coast in "The Heather Blazing." As Don Delillo says. "Colm Toibin never says too much and never lets us get too uncomfortable". Eamon Redmond grew up in Dublin, the son of a school teacher and a Catholic Irish fighter. Eamon's mother died when he was a baby, and he grew up a lonely boy who learned not to ask anyone for anything. He had a comfortable existence. He was fed, clothed and educated well. He was an intelligent young man and learned to study at night while his father corrected papers. Eamon became involved in Fianna Fail, Ireland's Republican Party because of his father 's influence. His father was heavily involved and may have even murdered for the cause of Ireland. Eamon went to college, and then to law school and was promoted up into the Courts because of his support of Fianna Fail. As a young man he worked with a young people's group to further the cause of Fianna Fail. It was here that he met Carmel O'Brien. He fell in love with Carmel O'Brien, but she told him he was too withdrawn, too into himself. He never really understood what she was talking about. Or, he never really listened to what she was saying. Eventually, he won her over, they married and had two children. Eamon was used to making difficult law decisions and became the top judge in his circuit. His decisions were often controversial, and his family differed in their opinion of the decisions he wrought. He preferred to be by himself and that was often apparent to his family. He could abide his wife's company, but just barely. It was not until she had a stroke that he realized how important she was to him. He cared for her until she had another stroke and died. He felt alone, all alone, He was unable to sleep in the bed they had slept in for years. He went to their summer home, and had to sleep in the car. He could not stand to be in the same room as they had been in together. He was unable to accept his loss. All this time he thought he had never asked for anything; now, he just wanted his wife back. He did all he could to avoid being in the home. He walked miles until he was exhausted. It was not until his daughter and her young son came to stay with him that he started to understand the meaning of family, of love, of sharing, of fun and of laughter. This is a book to be remembered. The more one thinks about this book, the stronger the impression it leaves. prisrob

"A Judge in Ireland"

I didn't really like Judge Eamon Redmond until I was almost through with this book. He certainly didn't show much emotion at all through most of the story. However, my whole attitude and judgement of him changed so much by the end of this engrossing story. When Eamon was very young he stood by silently and passively watching his father die (his mother was already dead), and then when he was older and a well-respected Judge, he watched as his wife Carmel die after having a stroke. Both of these dead's and there influence on Eamon's life are minutely detailed here. Eamon seems to be an intense and very lonely person. Yes, there is some attention given to his first girlfriend, and his children (who barely know their father) but the turning point, I think, is after Carmel dies. I think Eamon finally finds his heart, and the love he was too busy to recognize before. The ending is wonderful. Colm Toibin has a way of beautifully describing family life and especially the landscape of Ireland. I learned a lot about Irish politics of that time, and how a judge makes his important decisions. A well-crafted novel from an author who has written many powerful books. I am always touched by his rich & moving novels.

A fine, glimmering brilliance

Kirkus Reviews blurb reprinted above is absolutely foolish. This is a magnificent novel, but one which, as Tobias Wolff has said, "repays attention", i.e., one must be willing to give oneself over to Toibin's deceptively simple prose. The cummulative affect of the chapters, as a picture of a life, is devastatingly poignant, but this poignance will only come through careful attention. A quiet masterpiece.

Eamon stirs excruciating sympathy through his intense loneli

The story of Eamon Redmond evokes an intense poignancy of loneliness and illustrates how this loneliness empties into the lives of those closest to him. It is a profound portrayal of constraint and struggle within those limits.