Blunt and exquisite ... Brief but complete, the book is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude ... New and thrilling.
Lyrical ... Engagingly poetic — though, at times, maddeningly elliptic — the novel interweaves Manod’s canny observations with other villagers’ memories, songs, and folktales ... O’Conner’s spare, incisive prose brings the island to vivid life ... Beguiling and compelling.
Carefully measured ... O’Connor is so set against the tendency to exoticize remote places that she has made her own writing restrained and somewhat dull, stressing above all the narrowness and banality of Manod’s life.
Spare and bracing ... O'Connor grapples with the dark side of idealizing isolation ... O'Connor concretizes the stakes for the island, avoiding what might otherwise be a plodding rehashing of history ... Haunting and lucid.
Evocative and haunting ... If the book has weaknesses, they are mainly structural in origin. Occasionally, the interpolated testimonies become interruptive, no longer meaningfully juxtaposed with the narrative moment. And some dialogue scenes are frustratingly lacking in conflict ... For the most part, written with a care and restraint that is rare in a debut novel.
By rejecting nostalgia but still foregrounding landscape, Whale Fall makes space for the more intimate, surreal ways that culture can relate to nature.
