One Hundred Years of Solitude

[dotinthesky]

Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture, 2008
This Booker prize short-lister and winner of the Costa and Irish Novel of the Year award had all the ingredients to be a great read. An Irish centenarian once famed for her beauty decides to write a secret diary after decades in a mental asylum. Meanwhile, her recently widowed and bereaved doctor is drawn to the mystery of her arrival and presence in the asylum, leading him into an investigation of her past and, to a certain extent, Ireland's great dark secrets. Unfortunately, and sadly, the story doesn't quite hang together despite an easy going (and page turning) narrative. Clumsy dialogue and half-fleshed characters never come alive, the story is full of cliches explored more successfully before by other authors and films, and the ending has a twist you see coming a mile away - the sort of contrived finale that snuffs the life out of any story rather than generate great emotion or understanding. It's a good enough story if you want a hint of melancholia that will disappear within the week.