[margoaroyo]

The Blackwater Lightship by Colm T?ib?n

As the summer holidays approach, Helen, a successful school principle in Dublin, contemplates her relationship with her husband and her two young sons. They're preparing to leave for a family holiday and Helen will join them in a few days, after settling some school business.

But before she can join her family, a stranger arrives with a message from her brother, Declan, asking her to come and see him in hospital.

There, she finds that he's dying, his immune system destroyed by Aids. And Declan wants her to tell their mother and grandmother.

But that's a problem, since Helen has been estranged from both the older women for years. And the problem increases when Declan asks to be allowed out of hospital for a visit to his grandmother's home on the coast.

There, Helen and her mother and grandmother must find a way to deal with each other as they try to support Declan and come to terms with what is happening to him.

Colm T?ib?n's novel is, on the surface, a very simple piece. But that's deceptive. The Blackwater Lightship is a very well crafted picture of a dysfunctional family that has to deal with the tragedy that faces it.

The issue of sexuality is present, mingling with that of religion against a backdrop of small-town mentality, as the hurt amongst all three women is unveiled.

T?ib?n uses the landscape, rugged and sparse, and crumbling gradually into the sea, as a metaphor for the ephemeral and fragile nature of human life. And he has succeeded in creating three complex and convincing characters in Helen, her mother and grandmother.

Easy to read, The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999. T?ib?n avoids clich?s and easy solutions, and has created a moving story, but one that is never sentimental or mawkish.

Very good.