The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

This is one of the most remarkable books that I've ever read. Miss Hearne, mannered and facade-driven, is an outcast even to herself. She moves from boarding home to boarding home because she is a severe alcoholic and is running out of money. She gets in trouble in the boarding houses because of her drinking or she doesn't have enough money to pay her rent. She spent most of her youth caring for an unthankful and difficult aunt and when her aunt died, Ms. Hearne was left no inheritance and had no chance of marrying because of her age and plainess. At the most recent boarding house she is in, she takes a liking to the owner's brother. Sadly for Miss Hearne the feelings are not reciprocated. At first the man is nice to her because he thinks she has money. As soon as he finds out that she is nearly destitute, he is uninterested in her. Miss Hearne is a regular church goer. However, the priest at the church she attends is not able to answer her questions about faith and God. Her only connection is to her fantasy life and some distant friends of her aunt who dislike, mock and pity her. She hides herself from others and once she loses her faith in God, all is lost to her. Her decline, as narrated by the author, is brilliant. There is not one wasted word.

This slender novel is a master class in fiction writing. I've read it at least ten times, and every time I learn something new. Mr. Moore's command of fictional technique is astonishing. He uses the basic elements of the craft (point of view, narrative voice, recurring details, etc.) like brushstrokes in a painting. Bit by bit, sentence by sentence, Judith Hearne and the people around her are revealed. The plot moves forward with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy, and when the climax comes, we are devastated. We know everything there is to know about this plain, brave, flawed woman, and we know that things could not have turned out otherwise for her. In addition to its flawless execution, this book reveals an almost unbearable depth of compassion for human weakness and a keen understanding of human nature. While Judith Hearne may seem to belong very much to a particular time and place, we should not be so quick to label the book a period piece. We are still struggling to connect to each other, to find love and security, to reconcile faith and fact. Mr. Moore's themes are timeless. As long as there are human beings, Judith Hearne will have something to teach them. Her story gives us much to mourn about who (and what) we are, but in revealing her to us, Mr. Moore also gives us much to celebrate. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Please read it.

It cannot be emphasized enough what a masterpiece this book is. It is packed tight like a little bomb and like a bomb it explodes in your hands. Writers especially should take note of this book: not a single word is wasted. Every sentence furthers the plot -- that of a desperate and near-hysterical drunken Irish spinster who is feebly holding onto her faith. It is also one of those rare books that manages to be both literary and plot-driven. Merciless tension is sustained throughout. The writing will remind you of early Joyce (Dubliners) coupled with the pained humor of Chekhov. It is rich in imagery and detail and the pacing is perfect. Unforgettable characters abound, from the Yank-wannabe cripple James Madden, to the pudgy, poetaster Bernard Rice, to Judith herself, a shabby-genteel dame who only wants to be loved. This is classic writing by a great writer who deserves a wider audience.

What a novel! Here in a tantalyzing weaving of different characters' perspectives, we learn about the various levels of Belfast society and its intolerances. The main character is an Irish woman who let her shorthand slide, so she teaches piano for a living, and continues to lose her students steadily as the children's parents discover she has alcohol on her breath. Surreptiously she takes long bus rides to the edge of town for whiskey-buying expeditions, and has to take the clinking bottles back up the stairs of her lonely room. She seems to have no real friends or interests, and is moving from boarding house to boarding house as her alcoholism is discovered; landlords kick her out. What is new and exciting in this parish is the older brother of the landlady just back from 30 years of living in New York, making allusions to his life in the hotel business. She finds out by accident that he was a doorman for a hotel. He'd done every job he could find in the rough streets of NYC, and thought his doorman job the best ever he'd found, until he was injured by a car hitting him, giving him one bum leg dragging. These and many other details are piled up upon the reader through various characters' gossiping with each other. For example, the 30-year-old Mama's boy, son of the landlady, is screwing the 16-year-old maid, and hangs out all day with no job, telling tale tales and spreading malicious humors to keep his own reputation clean. The ex-NYer was a very disappointed fellow who started drinking at bars, just to stay out of the house, realizing that he had no place in his old home country, neither in his small village in Donegal, nor in Belfast, so he mutters about "going down to Dublin", but never does he leave. He can live rent-free at his sister's, and she resents it o boy!The sad decline into a drinking binge of this woman is quite a feat; one suspects the writer must have himself experienced it or known someone who'd done the same. It's peculiarly Irish, how far down she goes, in her last faint hopes for romance, crushed when the NY'er begins to ignore her when he realizes she has no money and can't be a business partner.And so it goes... better not give away anymore of the plot.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn is probably one of the most beautiful books in contempory Irish literature. Brian Moore treats Judy Hearn with a completely unbiased nature; he is definitely in touch with the character's values, and her flaws. Moore has shaped a novel of his time and Ireland's people that will probably influence many for years to come.