Review: Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin: Nora Webster, recently widowed, lives in Wexford, Ireland in 1969 with her two young sons, Donal and Conor. She also has two older daughters who now live away from home. As the story opens, Nora is enveloped in her grief over the recent loss of her husband, Maurice, to a long illness and is facing the practical challenges of being a widow. She worries about needing to sell a seaside property that has special meaning for her children and at which she has wonderful memories with her late husband but she cannot afford to keep the small cottage now that she must support her family alone. She faces the pitying looks of her neighbors and the constant flow of people stopping by to check on her. She worries about her young sons and how they are adjusting to this loss but mostly she is blinded to the effects by her own grief. As Nora moves through her grief, she gradually discovers herself.

 Nora is in a fog following the death of her husband Maurice. She is haunted by his last days which were spent in pain and in a hospital where she felt he got little support from his doctor. Everyone has an opinion on how Nora should move forward - from her sisters, to Maurice's brother and his wife to her Aunt Josie. Nora finds all their opinions intrusive and no help in determining her path but she is unable to state her point of view. In an effort to keep her emotions in control, she is almost shut down and appears passive. Amid this passivity, however, there are glimmers of her will. At her sister's home for the weekend, Nora takes to the formal front room and reads for an afternoon alone much to the bewilderment of her sister who hurried around the home preparing meals and heading into town to shop. While on vacation at the seaside with her Aunt Josie, Nora strikes out and finds another place to sleep in order to escape her older aunt's snoring. A big part of Nora's movement beyond her grief was getting a job. She returns to an office job at Gibney's where she worked before her children were born. She is initially cowed by the powerful Gibney family and a controlling office manager but slowly but surely she asserts herself and develops a confidence in her skills. Piece by piece, Nora emerges from her grief and returns not to the woman she was before her husband's death but becomes a new woman who knows her mind and isn't afraid to follow it.

My Thoughts
Typical of Toibin's style, this novel is quiet and unassuming. Despite Nora's grief being so central to the story, there is no melodrama and a notable lack of emotion on Nora's part. She suffers quietly and only with fleeting connections to her own emotions and certainly to those of her sons. At times, the distance from her young sons is hard to understand especially given that they are obviously so affected by their father's death and its effect on the family. You do see, however, the fierceness of her love for her sons as she musters up the courage to defend Conor to the Christian Brothers at his school who think he should be demoted a grade. There is a passion there but it is buried beneath her grief and some expectation that she not express her emotions or overtly display her affection for her children.

Nora is an ordinary woman; it is Toibin's skill as an author which brings her to life as she proceeds through mundane activities. He artfully offers glimpses into the woman that Nora is becoming and peeks into her internal dialogue. I was quite impressed by this book and reassured by Nora's ability to emerge from her grief. This is not, however, my favorite book by the author.  The Blackwater Lightship still holds that position but I highly recommend Nora Webster.