A vague Irish-American energy infuses this debut novel of familial strife and resentment from New York’s Heather Aimee O’Neill. Vague because, in one way, it’s so Irish it hurts – three sisters reunite for the holidays with their Catholic mother years after a tragedy tore them apart – and, in another way, the novel wears its central cultural identity so lightly that it rarely draws attention to itself. The result is a quiet, even understated story in which the echoes of shared tragedy percolate down through the years.
As is the way of these things, each of the sisters arrives home on the brink of revelation. Maggie is bringing her new girlfriend, Isabel, perhaps the most likable character here, home to meet her family; Cait must finally face her guilt about the events which led to their brother’s suicide; and Alice, “a master of not knowing what she knew”, is about to have her marriage and career upended by a moment’s indiscretion. Together they offer a snapshot of upper middle-class paralysis as they drift among the staff hired to cater the family’s Thanksgiving in their large and sea-weathered Victorian beach house perched on the coast of Long Island.
While setting the novel in 2015 allows O’Neill to avoid many of the world’s divisive contemporary concerns, this does leave the present day of the sisters slightly detached, less timeless than weightless (though, on the other hand, many readers may enjoy such a respite from current events). Frequent flashbacks to the characters’ youth offer meatier material. The emotions in these stretches are heightened and the sense of place is more convincing. This past is a familiar country; you might even have spent your J1 summer waiting tables here.
Thus briskly paced and resisting the ever-present lure of soap opera, The Irish Goodbye is a solid family drama which never rocks the boat in terms of style, structure, or politics (a late-in-the-day conversation about the ethics of abortion is as close to controversial as things get). The humanising challenges faced by its protagonists – unexpected pregnancies, infidelity, and the trials of parenthood – occupy much of the text but, nonetheless, it is the unresolved story of their brother and his death which provides the thoughtful and meaningful through line here.
