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Soldier Sailor: 'One of the finest novels published this year' The Sunday Times

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Some Overall, I can’t recommend this book, but I’m clearly in the minority here, so don’t let it deter you. Many thanks to Faber&Faber for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. How to sum this up? Brilliant, just brilliant! I loved this book so much. As a mother it was so utterly relatable. The intensity and relentlessness of the early days of motherhood was perfectly captured. The dark thoughts, the exhaustion, the loneliness, the feeling of being lost in a new role that is much more consuming than you expected it to be.

Langan, Sheila (17 February 2011). "Young Irish Writers Part 2: Claire Kilroy". irishamerica.com. Irish America LLC.I wish the beautiful ending of the book was sprinkled a little bit more throughout the story. But maybe that could be the whole point of the story. The beauty of raising a child comes as time passes? Soldier Sailor, the new novel by Irish writer Claire Kilroy, is all about voice. And what a voice it is! It is never made clear why the narrator is named Soldier, or why she calls her son Sailor, but there may be a clue in the way that she says repeatedly that she would kill for him. He goes missing in Ikea and is later reprimanded by a witchy woman in a charity shop for feeding chocolate to a dog. These are minor threats but Soldier has to be vigilant on her son’s behalf. She also uses militaristic language to capture her husband’s infuriating habit of blithely offering parenting advice: “How much easier being the general in command headquarters than the soldier in the trenches.” Oh it was all so stupid. My husband would complain if his dinner was late. He would actually complain. And I would actually want to walk out. The carrots and potatoes were already peeled. I had chopped them and put them into saucepans of water while you napped. ‘When you get in the buggy, then you can play with your cars at home.’

We found ourselves in front of the spinning carousel, waiting for it to stop. A little girl was already on board. The etiquette surrounding communal rides was awkward at best. The wheel had to be dragged to a halt to allow you to board, then all the sorrys and say thank yous to the other mother and child. ‘I don’t want the little boy,’ the little girl said to her mother, who told her to be nice. In Soldier Sailor she joins the litany of literary mothers who interrogate this, armed with a writer’s tools – language, intelligence and empathy – to illuminate the daunting task at hand, the all-consuming love, the sudden willingness to kill for their child. "I swear every woman in my position feels the same", her unnamed narrator says at the novel’s start. Kilroy won the Rooney Prize for her debut novel, All Summer, published in 2003 just before she turned 30, and delivered her next three, all for Faber & Faber, at three-yearly intervals: Tenderwire (2006), shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year; All Names Have Been Changed (2009); and The Devil I Know (2012). Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she has “nothing to hide” but repeatedly refused to say whether she deleted messages sought by the UK Covid inquiry. The former first minister was challenged over reports that she destroyed communications that have been requested by the investigation. The Scottish... Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she has “nothing to hide” but repeatedly refused to say whether she deleted messages sought by the UK Covid inquiry. The former first minister was challenged over reports that she destroyed communications that have been requested by the investigation. The Scottish... Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she has “nothing to hide” but repeatedly refused to say whether she deleted messages sought by the...You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. Wow, this was intense. I'll never experience motherhood, but after reading this novel I'm quite relieved about that fact. Claire Kilroy imagines it all as psychological horror in this raw and visceral tale.

As a young woman, I distinctly remember passing women pushing prams, thinking that’s not going to happen to me. I thought I had better things to do, now I realise that is the best thing to do, why was I so patronising? I put it down to ideology, the way I was raised in school. Part of the book is to confront that. This is not undemanding, it is the most demanding work.” Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another’s arms. The Earth rotates beneath us and all is well, for now. . . The novel is dedicated to her father Jim, who was a very hands-on dad, and to her friend and fellow writer Sarah Bannan, head of literature at the Arts Council, whose son Ruairi tragically died in February. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Soldier Sailor is about motherhood and the loss of self (or identity) when a woman has a baby and sheds her old life to become a parent. Kilroy exposes the intensity and bittersweet emotions this can generate.

Valerian, campion, speedwell, vetch. There are gentle things in this world. Gentle but resilient. Be one of them“ Unflinching and honest - a book about the fierce love of a mother for her son. Every mother has been there - I smiled at the descriptions of toddler group and swing park politics - and we have all come out of the other end older and wiser. A novel every new father should read! The impulse to shove my husband hard in the chest was so strong that I turned and staggered away to thwart it, grappling with the doors and bannisters that came rearing up at me as if I was on a conveyor belt because I wasn't in my right mind any more." If Kilroy’s novel ended here, it would have done more than enough to locate her among the ranks of motherhood’s laureates alongside the likes of Helen Simpson, Rachel Cusk and Sarah Moss. But it doesn’t. The final section expands – abruptly, beautifully, agonisingly – to grapple with the true existential crisis at the heart of motherhood: the understanding, born with the baby, that we’re all time’s prisoners and “it will do us in in the end”. We crawl out, ultimately, from the chaos of early motherhood, but the love continues to obliterate us. “I wasn’t scared of dying until you were born,” Soldier says towards the novel’s close. Forget the sleepless nights; that’s the real horror, right there.

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