here's a basic plot summary without giving away the ultimate ending of the book. our title character, felicia, is a really young "Irish girl" (she's referred to that way so many times it's a little ridiculous) who--you guessed it--falls in love with an Irish lad who's a total rake. Felicia's father tells her that she shouldn't see him because there are rumors that Johnny has become a member of the British Army. however, daddy's warning comes to late, as felicia has already been "ruined" and finds herself pregnant with johnny's baby. being the rake that he is, he's given her false information as to what he does for living and where he lives and leaves her with no address and a flimsy promise that he'll be back to see her at christmas before hopping on a bus and leaving. felicia, learning that she's pregnant, determines to go to england and find her lover and break the news and then together they can decide what to do. she goes to england, and of course can't find him. that's where the other character--mr. hilditch--comes in. she stops him for directions, and then later he gives her a recommendation for a place where she can spend the night. mr. hilditch, of course, is no good man, even though everyone who knows him would testify to that very idea. rather, he's the serial killer named on the back of the book (i don't think this is a spoiler because this is pretty obvious from the get-go). suffice it to say, mr. hilditch gets felicia to trust him and more bad things happen to her.
it's difficult to figure out which is supposed to be felicia's greatest folly in the early part of the book--getting pregnant, leaving home without knowing where she's going, or trusting hilditch. what the author does seem to be trying to convey is that all of these follies are committed due to felicia's innocence and "simple" upbringing. that she's completely naive and has been seduced and preyed upon by an unconscionable man. there is also the sense too that somehow felicia's family has failed to protect her...that they were ineffectual safeguards for her innocence. her mother died when she was a child, and her father is more concerned with felicia's state of unemployment and insists that she work part-time so that in her other time she can care for her centenarian great-grandmother and cook and clean for her two brothers who still live at home. she has another brother who has recently married, who is a plasterer by trade, but eventually gives up that trade in order to help run his wife's family's store. her father doesn't realize that felicia has been dating johnny until it's far too late, and her brothers spend their anger on johnny by beating and kicking him one night outside of bar when he finally does return to felicia's small town after she has left. all three men are made to appear useless and completely unaware of what's going on with a woman they live with and see everyday (but then again, isn't that typical?). further still, not only is felicia a good Irish girl, but she's a good Catholic Irish girl, who went to school at a convent. she doesn't go to the sisters for guidance with her trouble, and there seems to be an implication that rather than aiding her in her time of need, she'll be scorned and outcasted. what further complicates all this is the one-dimensional woodenness of felicia's character. the author doesn't do a really good job of drawing her and completing a full character. she remains fate's plaything for most of the novel until the final climactic scene, but even then, she is portrayed as having given in to her fate without any fight and without any real interest in living life.
of course, i can't comment upon this without discussing what seems to be an overt attempt to make a political statement about Irish/British relations. this book was written in 1994. but it seems to me that with the character of johnny and the rumor that he (being native Irish) is in the british army not only speaks to the lengths that irish have been forced to go in order to survive, but also it can be read as a metaphor for empire--the evil, cunning british seducing the innocent, simple irish and then walking away, feeling no responsibility at all for the destruction they've wrought, leaving the irish to deal with the ramifications and consequences of the imperial encounter. even felicia's continued passivity and hilditch's aggressive behavior (hilditch being british) only repeats that imperial encounter except in a different setting--which would seem to suggest that the irish are not safe from the british in their own country or in england. felicia's corrupted innocence and her ultimate fate seem to be inescapable and irretrievable. perhaps that's why this book doesn't have a happy ending.
while i think trevor's character development is lacking (unless of course, he intended this so that felicia could stand in for the greater idea of Ireland) his writing is beautiful and evocative. on that level, i can see why there were so many rave reviews printed on the back of this book. also, there seems something very familiar in the style of this book. meaning, this is the third book in a row that i've read by an irish writer. this book is more contemporary than dubliners, but it does have a modernist feel to it as far as the style of storytelling. i suppose as i read more contemporary irish writing i will be able to better be able to tell whether this is a tradition of irish literature. meaning, even though it's not "modern" it can be said to be a descendant of that literary genre. it's odd because here i am once more, not sure whether i liked this book or not. i can say that i liked it more than the third policeman. i can also say that it leaves me with a lot to think about and ponder over, and there was even a moment when i wondered if my 110 students would like this book. i also wonder if a lot of scholarly work has been done on this book and whether or not my reading is what everyone else sees. in any case, if you pick up this book, be prepared for the possibility of an unsatisfying ending.
next up -- brian moore's lies of silence. it seems like i can read a book every two days, so perhaps a new blog post by 8/6. but no guarantees!
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