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A review by kimbofo
Fools of Fortune by William Trevor
5.0
First published in 1983, Fools of Fortune, by William Trevor, won the Whitbread Prize (precursor to the Costa) in 1983.
The story, which spans the years 1918 to 1982, looks at the long-lasting and far-reaching impact of trauma on the Quinton family, who own a flour mill and live in a Big House, called Kilneagh, in County Cork. They are Anglo-Irish protestants but have Home Rule sympathies — Irish independence leader Michael Collins, for instance, is a semi-regular visitor, and a defrocked Catholic priest is a live-in tutor for the family’s young son, Willie.
But this is not a political novel. While it’s about murder and revenge during Ireland’s troubled history, it’s an examination of intergenerational trauma and follows what happens to a small cast of characters caught up in a conflict beyond their control.
The story is divided into two main sections; the first part is told through the eyes of Willie Quinton; the second is from the perspective of Willie’s English cousin, Marianne, with whom he later falls in love and bears a child.
The crux of the novel almost happens off the page: one of the mill workers is suspected of being an informer, so he is lynched by the Black and Tans, who cut out his tongue and hang him from a tree as a warning. They later set fire to the Quinton’s house, resulting in the death of Willie’s father and his two sisters.
After the devastating arson attack, Willie and his mother move to a smaller house in town. Willie is given succour by a school teacher, Miss Halliwell, who suffocates him with pity and unwelcome affection. It’s only when he is sent to boarding school that he is able to free himself from her overbearing attentiveness and fall in with a group of boys who take pleasure in sending up their professors.
It is in this short part of the novel that Trevor adds a dash of his trademark black comedy, but the humour soon gives way to romance — all beautifully evoked — when teenage Willie falls in love with his English cousin during a visit home...
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
The story, which spans the years 1918 to 1982, looks at the long-lasting and far-reaching impact of trauma on the Quinton family, who own a flour mill and live in a Big House, called Kilneagh, in County Cork. They are Anglo-Irish protestants but have Home Rule sympathies — Irish independence leader Michael Collins, for instance, is a semi-regular visitor, and a defrocked Catholic priest is a live-in tutor for the family’s young son, Willie.
But this is not a political novel. While it’s about murder and revenge during Ireland’s troubled history, it’s an examination of intergenerational trauma and follows what happens to a small cast of characters caught up in a conflict beyond their control.
The story is divided into two main sections; the first part is told through the eyes of Willie Quinton; the second is from the perspective of Willie’s English cousin, Marianne, with whom he later falls in love and bears a child.
The crux of the novel almost happens off the page: one of the mill workers is suspected of being an informer, so he is lynched by the Black and Tans, who cut out his tongue and hang him from a tree as a warning. They later set fire to the Quinton’s house, resulting in the death of Willie’s father and his two sisters.
After the devastating arson attack, Willie and his mother move to a smaller house in town. Willie is given succour by a school teacher, Miss Halliwell, who suffocates him with pity and unwelcome affection. It’s only when he is sent to boarding school that he is able to free himself from her overbearing attentiveness and fall in with a group of boys who take pleasure in sending up their professors.
It is in this short part of the novel that Trevor adds a dash of his trademark black comedy, but the humour soon gives way to romance — all beautifully evoked — when teenage Willie falls in love with his English cousin during a visit home...
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.