It’s always a delight to read a debut novel from an author who already displays a strong voice or an aptitude for trying something new. That was the case with reading this debut novel from Garrett Carr, The Boy From the Sea. The book isn’t wildly out there in its style but it does have hints of working outside the norms of fiction and it is beautifully written.
The story opens in 1973 in a fishing community in Ireland when an abandoned baby is discovered on a beach. The community embraces the infant, quickly stepping up to take turns caring for the baby boy. But when Ambrose Bonnar brings him home, he quickly decides the boy will stay and the Bonnar family adopts the baby, who they name Brendan. Ambrose’s wife, Christine, is perhaps less sure but embraces Brendan and they raise him alongside their biological son, Declan. Declan, however, never accepts this new brother as truly his family and so we begin a years-long tension within the Bonnar family. Added to that are the dynamics at play with their nearest neighbours and closest relatives, Christine’s father and older sister.
The story is told by an omniscient first person plural, using “we” continuously throughout. This gives it a sort of Greek chorus feel as well as pulling the viewpoint back from only telling us the story of the Bonnars to telling a story of the whole town. We’re focused largely on the Bonnar family but this is really a novel about a community. We see the Bonnars as a sample of the town itself. Ambrose is a fisherman, one who owns his own boat and who is, initially, somewhat successful. But as years pass and the industry changes, he struggles to adapt and the family is increasingly falling behind in their finances. The Bonnars’ struggles are the struggles of a community that is facing major changes in the very way it functions and the precepts upon which it has been built.
We watch Declan and Brendan grow up into two vastly different young men and we see them through the eyes of the town. Brendan is both an outsider with a strange, unknown history, and a sort of token for the townspeople who hold him in special regard. Declan, growing up in the shadow of his brother’s past, struggles to find his place and to feel like he is equally regarded by his own family. It’s a subtle but powerful portrayal of brothers, of a family, of an industry at the cusp of huge change, and of a community.
Karissa Reads Books 