Reviews
Miraculous… a strikingly restrained novel about a woman awakening from grief and discovering her own space, her own will…extraordinary... [Toibin] portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding., A deeply moving portrait of the flowering of a self-liberated woman, Nora Webster tells the story of all the invisible battles the heart faces every day., [A] quietly moving study of a complex character and her ambiguous feelings toward the web of family and neighbors surrounding her in the small town of Enniscorthy…. All his books share precise, restrained prose, which can, in its simplicity, reach elegance., Miraculous... a strikingly restrained novel about a woman awakening from grief and discovering her own space, her own will...extraordinary... [Toibin] portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding., Toibin's restraint, sly humor and gentle prose cadence echo those of another Irish master, William Trevor. So does his affection for his characters… How Nora chooses to make her voice heard and how her children find ways to express their own pain provide Nora Webster 's plot and pleasure…a so-called average life can make for a thrilling read…Toibin presents one woman's life keenly observed and honored with compassion. With Enniscorthy, he also creates a town, constrained and forever behind the times though it is, that feels like the whole world., Toibin artfully shows us a Nora unmoored...This quiet, wrenching novel conceals considerable human turbulence beneath its placid surface. So Toibin has learned well from Henry James...In many ways, Nora Webster would bring an admiring smile to the Master's lips., [ Nora Webster ] may actually be a perfect work of fiction… There is no pyrotechny in the writing - just compassion and shrewd insight. Which is where Toibin's brilliance lies… People call Toibin a beautiful writer because they don't know how otherwise to classify such a delicate talent, such empathic simplicity. Some mysteries can't be deciphered by criticism. Colm Toibin is not a beautiful writer, he's merely a great one., The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked… Completely absorbing [and] remarkably heart-affecting., [A] quietly moving study of a complex character and her ambiguous feelings toward the web of family and neighbors surrounding her in the small town of Enniscorthy.... All his books share precise, restrained prose, which can, in its simplicity, reach elegance., A high-wire act of an eighth novel... Toibin's radical restraint elevates what might have been a familiar tale of grief and survival into a realm of heightened inquiry. The result is a luminous, elliptical novel in which everyday life manages, in moments, to approach the mystical... There is much about Nora Webster that we never know. And her very mystery is what makes her regeneration, when it comes, feel universal., The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked... Completely absorbing [and] remarkably heart-affecting., Toibin's restraint, sly humor and gentle prose cadence echo those of another Irish master, William Trevor. So does his affection for his characters... How Nora chooses to make her voice heard and how her children find ways to express their own pain provide Nora Webster 's plot and pleasure...a so-called average life can make for a thrilling read...Toibin presents one woman's life keenly observed and honored with compassion. With Enniscorthy, he also creates a town, constrained and forever behind the times though it is, that feels like the whole world., Momentous, made with consummate art... It does everything we ought to ask of a great novel: that it respond to the fullness of our lives, be as large as life itself., Momentous, made with consummate art… It does everything we ought to ask of a great novel: that it respond to the fullness of our lives, be as large as life itself., Fascinating... Revelatory... More thoughtful than Emma Bovary and less self-destructive, in the end far and away a better parent than the doomed Anna Karenina for all the latter's dramatic posturing, Nora Webster is easily as memorable as either--and far more believable. To say more would spoil a masterful-- and unforgettable--novel., [ Nora Webster ] may actually be a perfect work of fiction... There is no pyrotechny in the writing - just compassion and shrewd insight. Which is where Toibin's brilliance lies... People call Toibin a beautiful writer because they don't know how otherwise to classify such a delicate talent, such empathic simplicity. Some mysteries can't be deciphered by criticism. Colm Toibin is not a beautiful writer, he's merely a great one., Toibin artfully shows us a Nora unmoored…This quiet, wrenching novel conceals considerable human turbulence beneath its placid surface. So Toibin has learned well from Henry James…In many ways, Nora Webster would bring an admiring smile to the Master's lips., Each paragraph of these pages rewards rereading, so deftly are they composed, and so full of pathos and insight., Fascinating... Revelatory... More thoughtful than Emma Bovary and less self-destructive, in the end far and away a better parent than the doomed Anna Karenina for all the latter's dramatic posturing, Nora Webster is easily as memorable as either-and far more believable. To say more would spoil a masterful- and unforgettable-novel., A high-wire act of an eighth novel… Toibin's radical restraint elevates what might have been a familiar tale of grief and survival into a realm of heightened inquiry. The result is a luminous, elliptical novel in which everyday life manages, in moments, to approach the mystical… There is much about Nora Webster that we never know. And her very mystery is what makes her regeneration, when it comes, feel universal., [ Nora Webster ] may actually be a perfect work of fiction... There is no pyrotechny in the writing -- just compassion and shrewd insight. Which is where Toibin's brilliance lies... People call Toibin a beautiful writer because they don't know how otherwise to classify such a delicate talent, such empathic simplicity. Some mysteries can't be deciphered by criticism. Colm Toibin is not a beautiful writer, he's merely a great one.
