Debut novel spans the generations to deliver a credible family drama
Date Published: {J}
Review by Bernie Ní Fhlatharta
History certainly repeats itself in Anne McCabe’s first novel, Under the Avalanche, which is a three generational family saga.
Set in the Wicklow Mountains, the story is a dramatic as its setting, where – for real – the country’s only avalanche was recorded in the late 1800s.
In the novel, a family die after their little hut is buried under debris brought down into the valley by the avalanche and though this incident occurs years before we meet the first generation in this book, it somehow haunts some of the characters.
It is beautifully written. The valley comes alive, and changes with the seasons. The story starts when life was simpler than it is today, when people thought missing Mass was a mortal sin, when poverty was a fact of life for some families. But despite poverty, life in the valley appears idyllic.
However, love finds its victims and it seems that the girls are always falling in love with the wrong people, even cousins.
It was a time when many men had to go and find work in England, leaving their wives to run the homestead. Life certainly wasn’t easy.Under the Avalanche tells the story of three women from three generations. Unwanted pregnancies and difficult decisions feature strongly and yet this is not a depressing book. It is a story of survival and determination and is uplifting in its own way.
The village could be anywhere in Ireland where the schoolmaster is king and the Anglo Saxon family live up in the ‘Big House’.
The story is told by three women and though the three styles differ, this is a reflection of the three different personalities. The youngest voice is that of a teenager, whose story is set in the 80s and the saga comes full circle when she seeks refuge with her grandmother.
Without giving too much away, the Kerry Babies scandal of the 1980s crops up time and again, although young readers might not appreciate the fear, horror and shame of a pregnancy outside of marriage.
This is a great story with credible family dynamics and one you don’t want to end.
McCabe, who is a TV producer/director and now novelist, is indeed a good storyteller and I look forward to her next offering.