Night Stages

21 July 2015

by Jane Urquhart

Main Characters:
Tamara (Tam) - Niall's lover, stuck at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland for 3 days.  She seems like a cool character at the beginning as she was an airplane pilot during the war (pretty cool!) but her interesting background seems a bit disjointed from the character she is while she's stuck at the airport (she hasn't really done much with her life lately and seems to be sitting around waiting for stuff to happen.  which it doesn't.).
Niall  - the older, successful, athletic brother who is married but carrying on an affair with Tam.  He's the kind of guy who makes all the right choices: good student, natural athlete, good job.  Except for the unfaithful bit.  Although that doesn't seem to affect his life much if at all...
Kieran - the younger, screw-up brother who has tantrums, hates school and teams, and is a bit of a "wild child" (later a "wild man") who has no connection to his older brother and really kind of doesn't like him at all.
Kenneth - the artist who painted the mural in the Gander airport.  He's a bit of an "extra" in the book.

Secondary Characters:
Gerry-Annie - the housekeeper who becomes Kieran's "other mother" and raises the boy by taking him home to live with her.
Susan - Niall's wife who we don't really get to know but her character becomes important in the later part of the story.
Michael Kirby - a fisherman who becomes Kieran's mentor.  Imagine a "Jedi master" who is also eccentric (fancy word for oddly-different), a bit rough, and very old-school.  While I know they are completely different movies, but think "Gandalf's" wisdom in "Strider's" body with "Gimly's" personality all bound together to be the best Jedi master ever...

What this Book is About

That's a really, really good question for the first 3/4 of the book.  For 300 pages or so, the book uses the most beautiful flowerly language to develop the characters, to tell their back-story, to explain who these characters are, how they grew up, where they grew up, and how they ended up being where they are.  Where they are is this: Tam is stuck for 3 days at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland thanks to a blanket of never-relenting fog that keeps her flight (from Ireland to NYC - spoiler: she doesn't get there) firmly on the ground.  Niall is back in Ireland.  It is clear that while Tam has left Ireland in an effort to leave Niall (as in break-up with him), it is really Niall who has left Tam to be with his wife.  Kieran is nowhere.  He has disappeared.  Who knows why.  And Kenneth, well, his story takes place in the past (before the mural was painted) so really all we get are a few snapshots of his journey as an artist and unfaithful husband.  For the rest, his story doesn't tie in at all.

While you think the book is supposed to be about Tam, most of the book focuses on Kieran. He is a "wild child", prone to tantrums after his mother's suicide when he was just a boy.  He is taken in by Gerry-Annie (my favourite character by far: she's definitely a "Gandalf") who has a connection to the boy and knows instinctively how to nurture his independent nature while guiding him to make smart choices (like wearing a jacket, like going to school, like making connections with people in his community).  Kieran (not surprisingly - what kid doesn't) is a boy who loves his bike (long story about how the bike came into his life) and rides it all the time.  He catches the attention of Michael Kirby, and old fisherman and poet, who becomes the boy's mentor, training and preparing him for a grueling 8-stage (over 8 days) bike race (like 150km+ per day - from our house to West Van and back is just over 40km; you can imagine...) called The Rás.

Rating

I didn't love this book very much.  Especially the first 300 pages.  It was long and nothing much happened.  While it was interesting enough to read about Kenneth (the artist who painted the mural), his story didn't really have any connection to the rest of the book.  His story could have been nicely left out and I would never have missed it.  The last 100 pages, however, the book finally got GOOD and a there was a STORY.  About the bike race.  And that was AWESOME.  It's just too bad it took so long to get there.  It's also too bad that the story ended so abruptly after the bike race.  In my opinion, the book ended just as the story was beginning..

I won't be recommending this book to my book club.  There just isn't much to talk about.  The characters were pretty flat (that means they didn't change much or learn anything).  That said, Jane Urquhart has a beautiful way with words and I'd love to go and see Ireland (where most of the book is set) which sounds rough, wild, and AMAZING!

~mom