The Heart in Winter | Book Review

The Heart in Winter

Kevin Barry

214 pages

Hardback

Canongate Books Ltd

2024

£16.99

ISBN: 9781805302117

Review

‘They rode on. They rode double. The day was sharp and bright. They were mellow of mood if not entirely at a distance to the sadnesses natural to both of them, and these they knew were sadnesses unanswerable.’

‘The Heart in Winter’ by Kevin Barry feels like an oft-told tale. A western in which two young lovers elope and are chased by low-down, no good varmints – haven’t we heard this story before? If this novel risks covering old ground (or being as worn as a pair of old leather chaps?) it is brought to life by the fact that it is not a western, or at least not primarily a western.

Tom Rourke is a doper and poet, Polly Gillespie a crooked-nosed mail order bride – not your typical star-crossed lovers. When they choose to run to San Francisco in 1891 and in the process escape Polly’s new sado-masochistic husband, we are left in no doubt that these protagonists are not blameless. They steal, they burn down buildings, they take hallucinogenic mushrooms under a star-strewn sky (a fantastic scene). Nevertheless, their ineptitude and their naïve assumption that salvation lies in getting from Montana to California ensures that we root for them, much as parents root for a child with acute behavioural issues.

What takes this novel away from genre fiction is its format, which is more akin to literary fiction. Barry’s prose is much like the inhabitants of Montana and Idaho – clipped, to the point, but capable of remarkable insight and great beauty. The reader is asked to fill in the gaps between short narrative sections which sometimes skip forwards or back in time; for the most part this is an immensely enjoyable task.

One of the great strengths of the novel is its use of place. We are alongside Tom and Polly as they ride warily into towns, slip across rooftops, sleep in remote log cabins, and slink into shady bars – usually but not always one step ahead of their determined pursuers. Barry makes us feel the west – its beauty, desperation, and the tenuous line which separates order from chaos. Some of the descriptions of landscapes are enough to make a reader gasp.

If I had to nitpick, then Barry’s choice of point-of-view could sometimes be clearer. In the early chapters this is unmistakable – either Tom or Polly – but as the novel progresses it becomes increasingly muddled. One could argue that Barry intends the lovers’ perspectives to become intertwined, but sometimes when allied with the short narrative sections it appears arbitrary.

This quirk in no way detracts from enjoyment of the book, however. This is a story about love, hope, and despair set against a brutal, haunting landscape and told in language with the same qualities. Barry, born in Limerick and twice long-listed for the Booker, has written a story to appeal to Wild West nuts, the literati, and everyone in between – ‘The Heart in Winter’ is a beautiful, desperate story.

*Thanks for reading, folks. Find my other reviews below*

Lauren Oyler – No Judgement

George Mackay Brown – A Time to Keep

Sarah Moss – Summerwater

Stephen King – 11.22.63

Damon Galgut – The Promise

Francine Toon – Pine

Robert Winder – Bloody Foreigners

P. G. Wodehouse – Very Good, Jeeves

Michael Palin – Erebus: The History of a Ship

Hilary Mantel – The Mirror and the Light

Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet

Raynor Winn – The Salt Path

Samantha Harvey – The Western Wind

Diarmaid MacCulloch – Thomas Cromwell: A Life

Peter Carey – A Long Way from Home

W.C. Ryan – A House of Ghosts

Val McDermid – A Place of Execution

Richard Cohen – How to Write Like Tolstoy

George Orwell – 1984

John Sampson – The Wind on the Heath

Michelle Paver – Wakenhyrst

Jess Smith – Way of the Wanderers

Zadie Smith – Feel Free

Max Hastings – Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975

Bernard MacLaverty – Grace Notes

Ernest Hemingway – In Our Time

Andrew Roberts – Napoleon the Great

Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights

Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale

Kamila Shamsi – Home Fire

Annie Proulx – Brokeback Mountain

Anthony Doerr – All the Light We Cannot See

Ellipsis: Three magazine

Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird

Jon McGregor – Reservoir 13

Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad

Amor Towles – A Gentleman in Moscow

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Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.