Review: Paul Lynch’s New Novel Brings In Some Heavy Snow

Ariela Rudy Zaltzman // Blog Writer

The Black Snow: A Novel by Paul Lynch

Little, Brown and Company // May 12, 2015

272 Pages

Little, Brown and Company // Barnes & Noble

This book is a heavy, reflective narrative that introduces Barnabas Kane, a farm owner, husband, and father who, in the setting of 1945 Ireland, loses everything. Although slightly influenced by the war, Barnabas’ misfortunes are largely independent of it, having been caused by personal choices. In the grander scale of things, the deeper meaning of the book is ultimately aboutthe intersection between fate and one’s own abilities to make decisions. The Black Snow insightfully details that nothing is set in stone, yet the destiny we make for ourselves is final.  

 

Paul Lynch’s narratives are dense, with long, often convoluted sentences and paragraphs that go on for whole pages. They are, more often than not, pretty hard to follow. The dialogue isn’t very helpful either, andwith barely any he said-she said cues I found myself continuously having to go back and re-read entire paragraphs to figure out who was talking. The use of some Irish dialect and slang was interesting, and presented a more firm setting and more realistic characters. However, as someone unfamiliar with it I had to take some time to look up what the words meant. Still, there were times when the intricacy of the sentences worked well, and the times that I did understand the sentences and dialogue on the first try, I felt glad to be reading beautiful passages.

 

One of the best aspects of the book is the imagery, with Lynch managing to set the tone for each scene and memory using specific details and very original metaphors. I could picture each character—Barnabas, his American wife Eskra who decided to move to Ireland with him for a better family future, their son Billy—but also every tree, and every animal like the one-eyed dog Cyclop and the beloved horse, and I could even sense every emotion with the help of those features.There were a few specific motifs being repeated—and although they were helpful to follow the important events in the book there were some that I found to be simply occupying space orbeing repeated too many times, whichand caused the book to stay monotonous.

 

I did find myself curious aboutwhat happened to Barnabas and the rest of the characters, but it was hard to read for longer than 10 pages a time. It is a heavy read, with some quite depressing scenes—I won’t spoil the ending for those who do decide that they need a little deeper fiction in their lives, but I do warn you to be prepared for strange character developments, aslow rise to the climax, and a dark ending to go with the rest of a dark story.