Coney Island Baby / We All Fall Medley
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"A lush, precise, poetic account of a love affair that ends the way most love affairs do. We knew O'Callaghan to be a master of the short story, and here he shows the grand reach of his powers as a novelist." Source.
One of my favourite authors praising another of my favourite authors!
- - - - - - - -
When seeking words to explore her bereavement, US poet Mary Oliver wrote*:
It's close to hopeless,John Banville's book of the year 2019!
for what I want to say the red-bird
has said already, and better,
"A lush, precise, poetic account of a love affair that ends the way most love affairs do. We knew O'Callaghan to be a master of the short story, and here he shows the grand reach of his powers as a novelist." Source.
One of my favourite authors praising another of my favourite authors!
- - - - - - - -
When seeking words to explore her bereavement, US poet Mary Oliver wrote*:
It's close to hopeless,
for what I want to say the red-bird
has said already, and better, in a thousand trees.
Billy O'Callaghan is a red bird,
singing in the trees around my home.
The circumstances of this story are slightly different from my own,
but his mellifluous melody is truer than any I can tunelessly cry.
Image: Red bird (cardinal), by http://melindaschnyder.com
I knew when I finished the second chapter (about a bereavement) that this book was one that would mark me, stay with me, and help me. "The immediate glow of [my] grief began to bruise", but I am still a "bleeding fountain inside", my "soul in haemorrhage".
We need literature like this to speak to our heart, mind, and soul, for our heart, mind, and soul, when we cannot, in ways we cannot. A step towards healing. Thank you, Billy.
More is More
I've loved O'Callaghan's shorter works (see links at the end), and in this full length novel, his artist's eye, philosopher's mind, and poet's pen have a broader canvas to paint a single bleak winter day at a seedy hotel ("An illicit bed… rented by the hour"), with dazzling imagery and insight.
His use of language burnishes an apparently simple story to shine a benevolent, cathartic light, creating something painfully beautiful, utterly believable, and profoundly true.
Plot
This is primarily a story about love (grief and regrets are backdrops). Michael and Caitlin have been meeting one day a month for around 25 years: "Lovers… learn to feed on scraps." So "Every kiss is so honed by a month's worth of anticipation that the weeks between feel like dead rancid air."
They meet in Coney Island: "A place for the damned to drift, waiting for their turn at nothingness" and where "Gazes here are trained to looseness".
The novel covers the day when each has news about their spouse that will likely change everything. Alternate chapters give backstory of their childhoods, marriages, how they met, how their relationship has evolved, and how their marriages have slowed, chilled, and fractured, until they have "Settled into a state of denial".
O'Callaghan tenderly explores formative experiences, bereavement, passion for literature, the urge to write, middle age, love, and loyalty, all without judging - because morality is rarely black and white.
The visceral but startling descriptions of light and weather that O'Callaghan always does so well have their own alchemy, conjuring something numinous and poetic in a dilapidated, prosaic setting.
Less is More
I could write pages and pages in praise of this book, but people would be less likely to get to the end of such a review, and so perhaps less likely to read the book itself. Hence my uncharacteristic brevity.
Image: View from Coney Island pier on a rainy spring day, by Sauerlandtom. (Source.)
Quotes
I could pluck a dozen beautiful blooms from every page, but they're best appreciated in their natural habitat, not cut and isolated in a cold crystal vase. Nevertheless, here are a few:
Sky and Light
• "A bullying slob of grey [sky], running into grey, slaughtering detail and definition."
• "A blanched, bulky light that thickens the air."
• "The sky is turgid with the lumpen alabaster finish of a coming storm."
• "The light of the afternoon… a soapy deadening hue."
• "The restless light, a place of uncertain colour."
• "Dawn… undoing the stitches of darkness."
Writing
• "Writing was not about money and college degrees but about seeing, and finding the right words, and about making sense of things… Writing wasn't about being good, either; it was about doing it, and wanting to do it."
• "She caught the music inside the words."
Love
• "'I love you,' he tells her, breathing the promise into her skin."
• "The hole inside her hadn't even been apparent until he set about filling it."
• "Love… is the story we make up to justify all the rotten things we do."
• "People in love… tend to live their lives with others rather than themselves in mind."
Edges
• "Not so long ago, their bodily hungers would have abided no such trifling distractions as coffee, but the gales of time have done for a lot of edges."
• "Accepting the particular edges of emotion that were starting to break the skin."
• "A new intimacy entered her writing… a realism that it had not previously possessed, and real meant all the edges, all the ugly scenes… as well as the moments of beauty."
• "At some point, her writing softened and stagnated… other things were lost. Time blurred the edges, fires burned out."
• "And in the same way that hurt lingers as long or longer than laughter, it is the more visceral winter memories, all raw edges that continue to captivate his senses… winters… drew in the edges of the world and made the existence of the old gods seem possible again."
• Irish words "without translation, hung almost shapeless between them, flushed by the air of its edges."
Miscellaneous
• "These few snatched hours, once the preserve of love or something inseparably close to love, have become a pretence at satisfaction."
• "Her beauty has always been genuine but tends towards the ambiguous, there but reliant on the moment and the right beholder."
• "Time is a shard of glass embedded in the neck of the day."
• "A Ferris-wheel candy-coloured exoskeleton."
• "Once the space for delusions had sufficiently diminished", there wasn't much point in grief counselling."
See Also
My reviews of O'Callaghan's other works:
• The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, HERE. These stories include one that eventually blossomed into this novel.
• In Too Deep: And Other Short Stories, HERE.
• The Dead House (short novel), HERE.
• A Death in the Family (shortish story), HERE
* The Mary Oliver poem quoted at the top is "More Beautiful than the Honey Locust Tree Are the Words of the Lord", which I read in the anthology, Thirst, alongside this novel. See my review of that collection HERE.
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I read an advanced copy so it's possible that these quotes may change in the final version. I hope not . The writing is beautiful and I just have to share some of it.
"This afternoon, Coney Island feels like the end of the world, the last bastion just short of some great abyss, a place for the damned to drift, waiting their turn at nothingness."
"Gleams of pleasure can be had even from those times rightfully owed to sadness. It is simply a matter of sifting for gold, and the passage of time grants wisdom of a kind."
"Time has deepened the understanding each had of the other, an understanding, free of judgement, that counts want, need, desire among its blessings, as well as a knowledge of what lies within the other's heart. Fires can blaze and fires can smolder. now though, wanting is no longer in itself enough. Something is about to be broken. "
I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
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Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes
And the glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through.
(Lou Reed)
Having read a few enthusiast five stars reviews, I decided to take this novel home from the library. As the novel is pitched as a 'piercing meditation on middle-age and the passing of time', several friends praised the masterful stylish prose of the author and the title r
Ah, but remember that the city is a funny placeSomething like a circus or a sewer
And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes
And the glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through.
(Lou Reed)
Having read a few enthusiast five stars reviews, I decided to take this novel home from the library. As the novel is pitched as a 'piercing meditation on middle-age and the passing of time', several friends praised the masterful stylish prose of the author and the title reminded me of the eponymous songs of both Lou Reed and Tom Waits, I had high hopes for this love story.
After a promising start with some thoughtful observations on dreams, time, choices and mourning, I was in the mood to simply sink into an evocation of life's bittersweetness and (why not, maybe by proxy) bask in the intimacy and tenderness of the encounter of a middle-aged man and woman meeting each other once a month for more than twenty years, be it stealthily, as Michael and Caitlin are married to others. In this stage of life I am a little more interested in reading about a relationship between people who are inevitably a bit more scarred and bruised by life than about the ecstasy of young lovers dancing with the daffodils in a lush meadow. As both lovers happen to stand on though crossroads of life having to make decisions, the theme reminded me of the epigraph Raymond Carver used for one of his poems: Now for the other life. The one without mistakes.
If you have read the book and loved it or if you plan to read it, read no further. I am aware I am in the minority on this novel. Unfortunately I have to admit it didn't work for me, at all.
This story simply fell flat for me. Despite personal stories of gloomy childhoods and loneliness, Michael and Caitlin and their dilemma's left me cold. The often pointless metaphors, pseudo-wisdoms and musings on love came to irritate me that much I had to slog myself through it. O'Callaghan's style struck me mostly as verbose, filling pages with trite observations which came in like thin air. Maybe the repetitive descriptions of decay of the middle-aged male body rubbed me the wrong way. Or the fact that both Michael's spouse Barbara and his lover Caitlin are depicted as ripe but still ravishing women (in contrast with other women in the novel, who are – o horrible! – fat – and gosh, does one really need commonplace thoughts like 'Beautiful women often age badly, and trying too hard somehow only quickens the rate of deterioration'?). To my taste the story sounded a tad too much as a clumsy attempt to reassure us - poor fragile, insecure and maybe lonely middle-aged people. Making love at middle-age, no fear, gentlemen, not all breasts suffered from the gravitational pull (yet). And don't worry, your stomach which now presses and gently pummels your lover with every embrace will be no obstacle, you will be adored nonetheless for who you really are. Though I could relate to the need of carving out precious moments when life has been mostly unfulfilling, even spending just this single long day in the company of this couple couldn't keep my interest. But I am tired and weary (and perhaps cynic) – I could sleep for a thousand years.
On the plus side, the book pointed me towards a series of atmospheric photographs of Yunghi Kim on Coney Island in winter.
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"Sometimes it seems unclear which of her two lives is the greater reality. Once she has slipped back into her homely skin, the afternoons spent with Michael, heightened by their rationing, take on the sensations of a dream. Against their memory, the world feels staid, and empty."
Caitlyn may not understand which life is the greater reality – the one spent with Michael an afternoon each month in a seedy motel room on Coney Island, or the one spent with her husband the rest of those days f
4.5 stars"Sometimes it seems unclear which of her two lives is the greater reality. Once she has slipped back into her homely skin, the afternoons spent with Michael, heightened by their rationing, take on the sensations of a dream. Against their memory, the world feels staid, and empty."
Caitlyn may not understand which life is the greater reality – the one spent with Michael an afternoon each month in a seedy motel room on Coney Island, or the one spent with her husband the rest of those days for the past twenty-five years. Michael too has a separate existence with his wife, Barb. A life that cleaved apart due to unbearable grief. Somehow it seems pretty clear that only lies prevail at home while the truths are the words expressed in that damned depressing, rented room.
"The room is clean and plain but determinedly sterile, with all trace of romance having been surgically removed, the sort of room suited to women on the run, and travelling salesmen, and those who wish to hide a while without being found, those who need time alone to think of good or even bad reasons why they shouldn't hang themselves in the closet or pull a razor blade across their wrists."
This is a highly introspective novel full of lush language and the delicious, gray moral ground between 'right and wrong.' The complexities of marriage, love and relationships are put under the microscope and painstakingly examined. You're not going to find any real answers here, however, despite the intensity of that scrutiny. Author Billy O'Callaghan, with exquisite language, tells it like it is. Love is not simple, and there is no secret formula for doing the right thing. How the hell do most of us make it through from one day to the next? It's easy to get stuck in a rut, but nearly impossible to climb back out again. The setting for Michael and Caitlyn's illicit trysts is actually quite perfect.
"Because Coney Island feels done for. A rot has set in. And yet, being out here on a day like this still feels good. So fit for broken things, it has become their place. The best may be lost but an air of romance remains, and settling is a matter of choice."
The novel spans the length of just a single day, but we get flashbacks into both Michael and Caitlyn's pasts - their difficult and often lonely childhoods leading up to their now estranged marriages. There are some very moving scenes of bereavement and regret that are written with such beautiful and heart-rending prose that I won't soon forget them.
"… her crying was unbearable, the jagged shudders of breath, the whine that came stabbing up out of her in gouts from some deep place. Her soul in haemorrhage."
Now for my one little gripe with this book. I am wild for introspection. But once in a while, even I became a bit overwhelmed by it. Michael and Caitlyn are middle-aged. Okay, I get it. No one is quite as scrumptious as they were in their twenties. But I got a little tired of hearing about Michael's extra weight and sagging and fading, while Caitlyn remains radiant, not cursed by the effects of time and gravity. I mean, I'm thrilled for her, but I couldn't help but think that a little bit of this was due to the author's fantasy of sorts. Naturally, she loved him just the same, as she should, despite his flaws ;) I really only needed to be told once!
Nitpicking aside, I was completely consumed by this book and the gorgeous writing. Like all Irish literature I've so far had the pleasure of reading, this one is laced with a heavy dose of melancholy and is a treat for those that revel in self-reflection. I would highly recommend this to anyone that delights in the same.
"Universal connectedness was a comforting thought, but the greater truth seemed to be that every soul spun through its days and nights alone."
"Don't give me those eyes 'cause you know me and I can't say no to you
We can't have each other even if we wanted to
In another life, darling, I'll do anything to be with you
We can't have each other even if we wanted to…." – Don't Give Me Those Eyes, James Blunt
I thought the writing was beautiful.... the imagery vivid... and the sensitive story so very human.
A bargain of a price.
Coney Island is their place.
"The best may have been lost but an air of romance remains".
Caitlin and Michael, both in their 40s... aware of aging ... have been meeting every Tuesday, once a month for twenty years.
They are both married to other people.
Michael's wife, Barb, is scheduled for 55 cycles of chemo therapy. Words like aggressive, and me
Kindle $1.99 Special Today...I thought the writing was beautiful.... the imagery vivid... and the sensitive story so very human.
A bargain of a price.
Coney Island is their place.
"The best may have been lost but an air of romance remains".
Caitlin and Michael, both in their 40s... aware of aging ... have been meeting every Tuesday, once a month for twenty years.
They are both married to other people.
Michael's wife, Barb, is scheduled for 55 cycles of chemo therapy. Words like aggressive, and metastasis are not encouraging.
Years ago, Michael and Barb lost their 14-week old baby boy named James Matthew. Their loss was so devastating- it changed their relationship in ways it never returned...each dealing with their loss differently. Michael turned to bodily muscle work. Later he hit the sport bars. It was at one of these places where he met Caitlin. She was just 22 when they first met and already married.
As for, Barb....the loss of their child manifested itself in small violent explosions.
When she was like that, all Michael could do was hold back and try to ride it out.
We get a background story of Caitlin... allowing us to think of why she entered the affair with Michael, too.
And more details about Michael's growing years.
Now in their forties, Michael is aware that life has shifted from thrills to comforts. Caitlin was once his thrill... and now his comfort.
Michael and Caitlin stand a while, just gazing at the ocean, holding hands.
They are sheltering themselves from a storm. And for a moment they believe that the world has been made to exist entirely for their benefit, and that nothing else matters beyond their happiness.
Coney Island feels done for. Every stall and pitch is shut down. Even during high season, the place only ever runs at half speed any more. A rot has set in. Yet their place still feels good. It's even fitting for the broken things that are happening in their own individual lives.
Winds were blowing muddy with a threat of snow. The boardwalk, with memories of cotton candy, fire eating unicyclists, fried food, sweet and salty smells in the air, and the screams of teenage boys roughhousing bikini-clad girls don't feel like that many years ago.
Caitlin knows that their day ahead holds darkness. There are things that need discussing between she and Michael.
I don't want to spoil the rest of the story other than end with this one quote.
"It's natural, of course, to reminisce, especially as a heart settles into middle-age, and regret is a flavour
familiar to anyone who is ever fled one life in the chase for another".
I really enjoyed this book.
It allowed me to think about those that cheat, lie, and deceive and how their actions cause pain to others.
.... I definitely don't condone cheaters....
but....
this book delivers on its pure humanity.
I reflected on why this couple did what they did .. my judgements at arms length.
The writing was gorgeous and intimate, capturing a very internal world. The realism is beautifully rendered, examining broken hearts and the impact that it has.
Thank you HarperCollins publishing, Netgalley, and Billy O'Callaghan
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O'Callaghan may be my new, favorite wordsmith. His writing is descriptive, sometimes one may think it overdone, but it is beautiful, emotive. These two people are committing adultery, bu
They met once a month on Coney Island. Have done so for many years now. They love each other, but both are married to other people. As we walk with them on a windy, cold day on a Coney Island that is a shadow of what it once was, as we enter the hotel room that is far from new, rather seedy, we learn their story.O'Callaghan may be my new, favorite wordsmith. His writing is descriptive, sometimes one may think it overdone, but it is beautiful, emotive. These two people are committing adultery, but the tenderness between them, the tender way they are written by the author, made me want to hear their story. His chapter on grief is the most expressive, touching that I have ever read. I read this so slowly, often out loud, many times rereading lines, paragraphs, in wonder at his talent. In many ways it reminded me of a movie I loved ages ago, called The same time next year. Loved the movie, loved the idea of the plot.
These two meet and the changes in their lives, their bodies as they age from young to the middle of their years. Their familiarity with each other, yet still the wonder. These few hours together is their time, but life so often intrudes. Very melancholy, but thoughtful, how long can they go on, together, apart?
ARC from Edelweiss.
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Read this for the words, for the turns of phrase. Risk your heart, the beauty of it is stunning. Appreciating the value of small things, tasting a word as it is spoken, a mouth finally giving up a smile, the comfort of holding hands and saying nothing at all. Couples who are together, yet separate, sharing their isolation.
And you're the only one who knows'
--And So It Goes, Billy Joel, Songwriters: Billy Joel
"The air out here is mean with cold. It was bitter on the journey out from Manhattan too, but nothing like this. This is bleakness without respite. "
So begins O'Callaghan's My Coney Island Baby which shares the lives of a couple in their middle years who have been secretly meeting for twenty-some years, once a month in a room with "a bed rented by the hour." Between
'And so it goes, and so it goesAnd you're the only one who knows'
--And So It Goes, Billy Joel, Songwriters: Billy Joel
"The air out here is mean with cold. It was bitter on the journey out from Manhattan too, but nothing like this. This is bleakness without respite. "
So begins O'Callaghan's My Coney Island Baby which shares the lives of a couple in their middle years who have been secretly meeting for twenty-some years, once a month in a room with "a bed rented by the hour." Between conversations and shared thoughts we begin to learn more of their story as a couple, and their stories as individuals married to others.
"Out here, sheltering from a storm, it is almost possible to believe that the world has been made to exist entirely for their benefit, and that nothing else matters beyond their happiness."
You might think this is a story about this ongoing affair, but there is much more to this than just this one day spent together. There is the realization that they are no longer "young," yet they are wedded to the lives they created in their early twenties. As they notice the ways their bodies have changed since those early days when they were filled with the sureness of their vision for their future, they see how their lives have changed, as well. Gone is the passion that ruled their younger years, lost in part to the disappearance of so many choices they thought would wait for them.
"Time makes us afraid. Maybe it's just that we pick up so many anchors along the way."
This seems to be the only means they have to cling to the belief that someone sees them for who they are, or who they believe themselves to be, and yet, there seem to be little regrets for the time they have not spent together. It is understood, unsaid, that these days that have shown them the only sense of being really known and understood are held as prized moments.
"The room, he decides, will be sufficient for their needs, but only because they have carried love in here with them, in them."
Both have news to share, but time passes, and other thoughts are shared, or observed. There is a sense of calm that permeates the narrative, sharing their affecting stories in quietly thoughtful moments. Thoughts that cover the years that they've known each other, their separate lives, and their respective spouses, the bruises inflicted by life, and the ever present ticking of the clock.
"So fit for broken things, it has become their place."
Billy O'Callaghan's writing is subtle but sublime, graceful, and emanates an aura of discernment and sensitivity.
Pub Date: 09 Apr 2019
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Harper Collins Publishers / Harper
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"It is almost possible to believe that the world has been made to exist entirely for their benefit, and that nothing else matters beyond their happiness". For twenty-five years, Michael and Caitlin have cherished their "couple time", sharing their most intimate memories, hopes and dreams. In Coney Island, they are far from hearth and home. They can stand gazing at the Atlantic Ocean but Barbara, a "ghostly presence...has existed along the periphery". Thomas has as well. As for Michael and Caitlin, "Time makes us afraid...we pick up so many anchors along the way". What does the future hold in store for them?
Michael and Caitlin seemed very much in love. In their twenties, their clandestine trysts were risk taking ventures. Now, well into his forties, "He watches her...and, feels himself falling for her all over again". On Caitlin's part, his now overweight frame is of no consequence. She "...savours the details of who he is..."
"My Coney Island Baby" by Billy O'Callaghan is a sensitive portrayal of middle-aged love. Michael and Caitlin were flawed individuals who accepted each other's imperfections. They were imprisoned in their marriages but arguably prisoners within the confines of their hotel room. They never had a chance to fly.
Thank you HarperCollins Publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "My Coney Island Baby".
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My Coney Island Baby is my first Billy O'Callaghan novel, and this author is highly recommended by several of my Goodreads friends.
Michael and Caitlin are each married to other people, but they have met monthly in a run down hotel in Coney Island. Their love affair has continued for years and has enabled them to stay in the comfort and routine of their unhappy marriages.
During one month's visit, there's a storm brewing outside and also a storm b
No wonder this author is well-loved! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️My Coney Island Baby is my first Billy O'Callaghan novel, and this author is highly recommended by several of my Goodreads friends.
Michael and Caitlin are each married to other people, but they have met monthly in a run down hotel in Coney Island. Their love affair has continued for years and has enabled them to stay in the comfort and routine of their unhappy marriages.
During one month's visit, there's a storm brewing outside and also a storm brewing inside. Michael's wife has cancer, and Caitlin's husband's job will be relocating him to the Midwest. It's at this juncture that the two must make a decision about their future together.
Overall, I soaked in this author's take on middle-aged, forbidden love. There's a sensitivity to the writing that I picked up on immediately, and it connected me to these characters and the author's depiction of them.
I normally might question two lovers in a lifelong affair, but when O'Callaghan navigates the storyline, I understood where each flawed person was coming from, the bits and pieces of life that add up to overbearing challenges, and the fallible decisions we all make. There is beauty here in the forlorn, in the decay of the hotel, and in the hearts of these average human beings.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
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I'm leaving this one unrated, because I have immensely enjoyed previous works by this author. This just wasn't for me.
This novel comes from a short story in the author's book The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind. I loved the short story in the previous book, but this just seemed to go on in a different way.. felt padded, as another reviewer stated... when I saw that word mentioned, I'm like, yes... that's exactly it, just going on to fill pages.
This one was rough for me to r DNF at 38%
I'm leaving this one unrated, because I have immensely enjoyed previous works by this author. This just wasn't for me.
This novel comes from a short story in the author's book The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind. I loved the short story in the previous book, but this just seemed to go on in a different way.. felt padded, as another reviewer stated... when I saw that word mentioned, I'm like, yes... that's exactly it, just going on to fill pages.
This one was rough for me to review, as I wanted to love it!
I do want to thank Edelweiss and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this Arc!
...more Michael and Caitlin are each married to other people, but they have met monthly in a run down hotel in Coney Island. Their love affair has continued for years and has enabled them to stay in the comfort of their unhappy marriages.
During one month's visit, there's a storm brewing outside, and also a storm brewing inside. Michael's wife has cancer, and Caitlin's husb
My Coney Island Baby is my first Billy O'Callaghan novel, and this author is highly recommended by several of my Goodreads friends.Michael and Caitlin are each married to other people, but they have met monthly in a run down hotel in Coney Island. Their love affair has continued for years and has enabled them to stay in the comfort of their unhappy marriages.
During one month's visit, there's a storm brewing outside, and also a storm brewing inside. Michael's wife has cancer, and Caitlin's husband's job will be relocating him to the Midwest. It's at this juncture that the two must make a decision about their future together.
Overall, I soaked in this author's take on middle-aged, forbidden love. There's a sensitivity to the writing that I picked up on immediately, and it connected me to these characters and the author's depiction of them.
I normally might question two lovers in a lifelong affair, but when O'Callaghan navigates the storyline, I understood where each flawed person was coming from, the bits and pieces of life that add up to overbearing challenges, and the fallible decisions we all make that may also add up to equal challenges. There is beauty here in the forlorn, in the decay of the hotel, and in the hearts of these average human beings.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
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For twenty five years, Michael and Caitlin have been meeting secretly once a month on Coney Island. Both are unhappy in their married lives and the monthly rendezvous is the lifeline that keeps them afloat. A story like this gives a real face to the fragility of marriage even for couples who lov
My Coney Island Baby captured an afternoon of a couple's tryst in a dingy pit-stop hotel room on Coney Island. O'Callaghan told a non-judgmental and tender story about adultery and the complexity of love.For twenty five years, Michael and Caitlin have been meeting secretly once a month on Coney Island. Both are unhappy in their married lives and the monthly rendezvous is the lifeline that keeps them afloat. A story like this gives a real face to the fragility of marriage even for couples who love each other dearly. Michael and his wife Barbara lost their infant son. The enormity of their grief entrenched each of them in their isolation. Caitlin and her husband too led separate lives with their own preoccupations casting them adrift. For Michael and Caitlin, it seems 'Love was real, but a delicate flower in need of constant nurturing. It bloomed for a while in brilliant ways, but too easily wilted.'
What does the future hold for Michael and Catlin who are now in middle age? On the domestic front, new challenges are beginning to test the tenacity of their love and the durability of their monthly trysts. O'Callaghan's opening lines foreshadowed what was to come: 'This afternoon, Coney Island feels like the end of the world, the last bastion just short of some great abyss, a place for the damned to drift, waiting their turn at nothingness.' We are reminded that Coney Island is no longer a popular attraction as in its heydays: 'Coney Island feels done for. A rot has set in... So fit for broken things, it has become their place.'
The reader is put in a difficult place in relation to the protagonists. Michael and Caitlin have a love for each other that is genuine and appears even needful. To Caitlin, 'You learn to make the best of any situation, or else there is death.' And 'The hole inside her hadn't even been apparent until he set about filling it.' For Michael, 'Until he met her, he was the living dead, and the only time he wanted to be himself instead of someone else, anyone else, was when she stepped into his day.' And yet, breaking faith with a spouse is never right. They do not deny it. From Caitlin's perspective, 'What she and Michael have together could very well pass for love, but it is also, by its very definition, adultery. They might prefer to define it otherwise, but there can be no denying the fact of that dirty little word.'
Michael and Caitlin's quandary was skillfully unraveled and we are offered glimpses to both their early family life that afforded some understanding of their emotional vulnerability. The back story of Michael's relationship with his father in Inishbofin, a small island off the coast of Connemara in Ireland was especially moving.
O'Callaghan writes beautifully and there are prose passages I read and re-read for their ability to give expression to the intractable and unutterable complexity of human emotions. This is my first book by O'Callaghan and I look forward to reading more of his work.
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The substance was however not really for me. Michael divulges that his wife Barb has cancer and with exquisitely written and yet sensitive flashbacks we are kept informed of the progress of her disease and how it affects the lives of the pair of them.
Caitlin also has her ghosts with her husband and his rather discreet affairs. Nevertheless
This is a beautifully written book about a couple who, to escape their unhappy marriages, have been meeting once a month for twenty-five years on Coney Island.The substance was however not really for me. Michael divulges that his wife Barb has cancer and with exquisitely written and yet sensitive flashbacks we are kept informed of the progress of her disease and how it affects the lives of the pair of them.
Caitlin also has her ghosts with her husband and his rather discreet affairs. Nevertheless, I loved this personality.
I just feel that this is such an excellent writer, with obviously joy in his soul purely by his writing style, that he needs to reach out in another direction. Where, I don't know but I have no doubt he will find it.
When one has a writing talent such as Mr O'Callaghan, he will soon appear with the right "positive" book.
Bravo!
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She finds his tongue and rolls it gently with the tip of her own, forces its pulp against the rim of her upper front teeth. He goes willingly. Her mouth has the heat of tea
Nope, sorry bookclub I can't do it.
Well that was the quickest abandonment in history (pg 4)She finds his tongue and rolls it gently with the tip of her own, forces its pulp against the rim of her upper front teeth. He goes willingly. Her mouth has the heat of tea
Nope, sorry bookclub I can't do it.
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Michael's wife has recently received a grim diagnosis and Caitlin could soon be relocated out of state if her husband receives a promotion. On a bitter winter day, the couple discusses things that have been avoided for decades and the possibilities in their future.
My Coney Isla
For 20+ years, Coney Island has been the secret rendezvous for Michael and Caitlin. Each is in an unhappy marriage and once a month the pair escape for a few short hours to make love and consider their lives and choices.Michael's wife has recently received a grim diagnosis and Caitlin could soon be relocated out of state if her husband receives a promotion. On a bitter winter day, the couple discusses things that have been avoided for decades and the possibilities in their future.
My Coney Island Baby is intense in a very quiet and subtle way. Over the span of a few short hours we learn the histories of Michael and Caitlin, the tragedies that have defined their lives and brought them together, and what has kept them apart but devoted to their enduring affair.
I love a book that delivers both the past and present in a way readers can understand the actions of the characters over the course of time. There were endless layers to peel back and examine the sorrows and desires of these two people and it was absolutely fascinating.
A solid story of two people's lives and the decisions they've made, My Coney Island Baby is a book I recommend to readers who love literary fiction and character studies.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
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What is wrong with me?
I simply cannot get my head around this book!
Two middle-aged lovers meet the first Tuesday of every month on Coney Island, Brooklyn. They have been doing this for twenty-five years. Michael and Caitlin are the two lovers. We share their hours together on one cold, damp and windy Tuesday in January, in a hotel room rented for one day. It is off-season. The deserted, ramshackle one-night stand has seen better days.
Neither
It's depressing not liking what everyone else loves!What is wrong with me?
I simply cannot get my head around this book!
Two middle-aged lovers meet the first Tuesday of every month on Coney Island, Brooklyn. They have been doing this for twenty-five years. Michael and Caitlin are the two lovers. We share their hours together on one cold, damp and windy Tuesday in January, in a hotel room rented for one day. It is off-season. The deserted, ramshackle one-night stand has seen better days.
Neither Michael nor Caitlin have a happy marriage. Michael's wife is battling cancer. Catlin's husband has announced that he will be offered a promotion, a promotion that will demand that they move to Peoria, Illinois. This we are told at the start. What does the future hold for Michael and Caitlin and their relationship and love for each other?
Many state that the author's prose is beautiful. I disagree. It rubbed
ME in all the wrong ways. I find it wordy. Sentences are too long. Ideas are not clearly expressed. The lines are supposed to sound profound and deep, but often they say absolutely nothing of consequence. What is said is alternately convoluted or trite! The metaphors are bad. My distaste for the prose hit me right off the bat.Once married, one can of course, still feel an attraction for others. Attraction is not something one can turn off and on like a spigot. It happens, and when it does, it envelopes one. A person does however not lose all control. Over a period of twenty-five years, there is sure to arise an opportunity to remedy an intolerable situation. Spontaneous physical attractions may occur, but that they fail to be uncovered and continue for a quarter of a century is unbelievable. Living with such dishonesty for such a long time is incredible, unfathomable.
I am a thinker. I analyze things to pieces. When something happens, I instinctively line up alternatives, analyze the situation and make choices. Life is all about making choices. The consequences of our choices are what we must live with. It is beyond my imagination that Michael and Caitlin behave as they do on the one Tuesday in January which we spend with them. I cannot believe they do not sit down and talk rather than hop into bed. Despite that I know others are not necessarily like me, their behavior boggles my mind.
This is a very, very, very sad story. This doesn't bother me, but a prospective reader should be told. Yes, there is love, but love does not solve everything.
How is the story told? We are in Michael's and Caitlin's heads. This is how we become acquainted with their pasts. As we learn of them, we get an inkling of why they behave as they do. I do not like how the telling flips around in time. Much time is spent describing how each sees the other's body. I did not find these portions even titillating. For me the text was tame, certainly not tantalizing, just plain boring. There is a minimum of conversation between Michael and Caitlin, which for me is utterly bizarre and incomprehensible! When they do finally speak to each other, what they say is revealing and to the point. Finally, a plus for the book.
Plus number two--the ending is good. The story could not possibly end in any other way, considering who these characters are. That it is open-ended I appreciate too.
Courtney Patterson does a very good job reading the book. She modulates her voice appropriately. It is certainly possible to very much like a narration and still not fall for the book. Four stars for the audio narration.
I will not be reading more by this author. The verbosity of the prose annoyed me. Michael and Cailin's behavior is incomprehensible. How can it be possible for their relationship to go on so long?! It seems I am one of the few with such views.
************************
*My Coney Island Baby 2 stars
*Life Sentences maybe
There are two pages (80 & 81) that I liked so much I copied them and show them to people. Caitlin's frank observations of Michael's aging body and her love for him touch me deeply.
This novel is astounding. Not much happens - two middle-aged lovers (heterosexual, white) spend one winter day together in Coney Island, where they have met monthly for 25 years. The exquisitely detailed story of the day is broken up with background about his childhood in Ireland and both of their continued marriages.There are two pages (80 & 81) that I liked so much I copied them and show them to people. Caitlin's frank observations of Michael's aging body and her love for him touch me deeply. One sentence follows. "It is there, twisted into the details of his features, in the shadowy furrows beneath his eyes, in the shifting pinch of his narrow mouth, and it reveals him in full, a childlike innocent needing her as no one ever has, a man still strong to an inch beneath the skin but weak with insecurity that she will one day see him for what he has become, and reject him."
The author digs deeply and beautifully into the characters' feelings, connections, insecurities, and thoughts. Readers are pulled into their lives.
I received an Advance Readers Copy of My Coney Island Baby, which will be published in January 2019.
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In Billy O'Callaghan's novel, his merging of marvel with a seedy underbelly is on display in this tale of illicit love. Michael and Caitlin, two lovers in their late 40s, escape their tedious marriages to revel in each other on a monthly basis. Michael, a fastidious salesman, experienced tragedy early in his
My grandmother lived near Coney Island and when I was a child, I was always a bit in awe of its magic and enchantment, always undercut by a prevailing sense of menace an a hint of unreality.In Billy O'Callaghan's novel, his merging of marvel with a seedy underbelly is on display in this tale of illicit love. Michael and Caitlin, two lovers in their late 40s, escape their tedious marriages to revel in each other on a monthly basis. Michael, a fastidious salesman, experienced tragedy early in his marriage; Caitlin, a writer, subsists with a seemingly good husband who may have had his dalliances. These regular trysts are what keeps them going.
The author is a master wordsmith and in dissecting the several hours that Michael and Caitlin share on a cold January afternoon, we get a clear sense of their interactions—their aging bodies, their "survival fueled on denial and made bearable by meeting once a month to pleasure in lighting one another's fuses, that four week integer tried and tested to perfection in their game of lust gap enough to hone the appetite to aching, to hold excitement at a dizzying height."
The descriptions of the repeated physical connections—at first luminous—begin to feel repetitive and I suspect deliberately so. The acceptance of the aging process (Michael now carries an excess of weight and his stomach pummels her during lovemaking) is objectively displayed. These are two people who know each other's imperfections and provide a safe haven. But like any affair, theirs is now at a crossroads, due to external factors on each of their sides. A question looms through this book: what do they have a right to choose?
As decisions loom, time is slowed down and each detail becomes intensely described, which is one of the beauties of Billy O'Callaghan's writing. Although the author refuses to judge his characters, the reader may see differently. "Love…is the story we make up to justify all the rotten things we do," Caitlin says. Is that, indeed, the definition of love? Or is it the inertia and lack of courage that keeps them tied to dying marriages? There is, of course, no clear answer.
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It didn't grab me in any way. It's my fault, probably, because I knew this wasn't written for me to begin with. I have no doubt that certain readers will arrive at this book and be absolutely awed by everything contained within.
Me?
I'm alright, ta.
3.5
No doubt this was well written, but to what end?It didn't grab me in any way. It's my fault, probably, because I knew this wasn't written for me to begin with. I have no doubt that certain readers will arrive at this book and be absolutely awed by everything contained within.
Me?
I'm alright, ta.
3.5
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The Affair
Michael and Caitlin are long time lovers. They developed an instant connection at first sight and wer
Nice work. Not brilliant or beautiful but a pleasant read. The approach to the book needs to be framed though; otherwise the story would seem a bit directionless. This is a more reflective and introspective piece. So if you prefer more action and narration, give it a miss. Centered on a single illicit tryst, not a whole lot happens with the plot. But the writing is fluid and not draggy.The Affair
Michael and Caitlin are long time lovers. They developed an instant connection at first sight and were already married to other people. They have a level of intimacy which is absent from their respective marriages. Despite this exclusive connection, they maintain close relationships with their spouses and have no desire to leave their spouses to be with each other. This adulterous affair is presented as natural and essential to them. You might question the morality of it but I suppose the point is the possibility of such relationships. What surprises me is how long they kept their affair a secret. Wouldn't they have been spotted in public at some point?
Loss
The affair is but the scaffolding for a number of other themes which the writer incorporates very seamlessly into the story. Many of the themes centre heavily on loss and grief. One of the motivations of the writer was the loss of his own brother at a very young age.
(view spoiler)[
Death of a child. Michael and Barbara lose their baby within a few months of birth. It has a profound effect on them and their marriage for the rest of their lives.
Death of a parent. Michael loses his mother. We see the effect on him and his father.
Death of a sibling. Michael loses his sister, his last remaining tie with his home in Ireland.
Absent father. Caitlin grew up without a good father figure.
Terminal illness. Barbara's cancer.
(hide spoiler)]
Other Themes
While some of the hourly rated hotel room passages describe the sensual side of the affair, much of it is not. As Michael undresses, the story focuses on the effects of ageing on him. For Caitlin, it delves into the emotional significance of the affair to her. Oddly, there is a fair bit on their coffee drinking.
(view spoiler)[
Child abuse. Her mother's partner Peter came close to being her father figure, but after gaining her trust he turns out to be a monster. I felt that it was incongruous that the effect on Caitlin turned out to be less than devastating. The guilt on her mother was also implied.
(hide spoiler)]
Background
There are strong Irish ties in the story. Two main characters are of Irish stock. Perhaps that underlies the closeness which the two lovers have. Comparisons are also made of the small rural Irish island of Inishbofin, where Michael grew up on, which stands in contrast to modern bustling New York. The choice of Coney Island as the setting is curious. I've never been to Coney Island, but it seems to be past its heyday. (view spoiler)[Coney Island is perhaps set as a parallel to the relationship between the lovers, which is also past its prime and may soon be coming to an end with Caitlin having to move away. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, a thoughtful read but I was not quite moved by it.
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"Forty-eight is no age anymore, not the way it once was
For the most part I depend on books to hook me from the start, so I almost gave up on this one. The poetic language felt almost ponderous with metaphors on top of adjectives on top of similes on top of adverbs, but I am so grateful I stuck it out. Once I succumbed to the denseness of the writing I fell hard for these two middle aged lovers who meet once a month on Coney Island to spark love and meaning in their lonely (albeit married) lives."Forty-eight is no age anymore, not the way it once was, but lack of sleep, added to the many other extenuating factors, has caused rust to set in."
The "action" of the story takes place over a single afternoon so this is not for readers who need plot-driven storytelling. This book is, however, for those of us who treasure deep forays into the lingering effects of memory and guilt; those of us who don't mind page-long paragraphs as long as they are stippled with phrases like, "her puncture wound of a mouth was set full of tiny grey and always gritted teeth;" those of us who are willing to suspend our moral judgements to fall in love with characters who do wrong.
O'Callaghan's writing, his broken hearted characters and his detailed descriptions of time and place continued to pull me in more deeply with every turning page. Even knowing there would be no tidy endings, I remained captivated by the possibilities.
"The great wide open awaits, even now, rare with hope and possibility. But the time has already passed for leaps of faith. The world, too fast in spin, has slipped its moorings. Now they are merely hanging on, braced against a different kind of fall."
Ultimately, a winner.
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His novel, 'My Coney Island Baby', was published in 2019 by
Billy O'Callaghan was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1974. His books include the short story collections: 'In Exile' (2008, Mercier Press), 'In Too Deep' (2008, Mercier Press), and 'The Things We Lose, the Things We Leave Behind' (2013, New Island Books/2017, CITIC Press, China); and a novel: 'The Dead House' (2017, O'Brien Press/Arcade, USA).His novel, 'My Coney Island Baby', was published in 2019 by Jonathan Cape (UK, Ireland & the Commonwealth) and Harper (USA), as well as in translation by Grasset (France), Ambo Anthos (the Netherlands), btb Verlag (Germany), Paseka (Czech Republic), L'Altra Editorial (Catalonia), Jelenkor (Hungary) and Guanda (Italy). Further translations are forthcoming from Ediciones Salamandra (Spain) and Othello (Turkey). The novel was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award.
A new short story collection, 'The Boatman, and Other Stories' was published in 2020 by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Harper Perennial (USA), and is forthcoming from btb Verlag (Germany) and Sefsafa (Egypt - Arabic).
His latest novel, 'Life Sentences', published by Jonathan Cape in January 2021, is a #3 Irish fiction bestseller. 'Life Sentences' will be published in the U.S. by David R. Godine in April 2022, and editions are also forthcoming from btb Verlag (Germany), Grasset (France) and Paseka (Czech Republic).
His work has been recognised with numerous honours, including Bursary Awards for Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and the Cork County Council, a Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award, and Encore Award and Costa Short Story Award shortlistings, and his short stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and literary journals around the world, including: Agni, the Bellevue Literary Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Kenyon Review, the London Magazine, Narrative, Ploughshares, Salamander, the Saturday Evening Post and Winter Papers.
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Coney Island Baby / We All Fall Medley
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