Review of The Spinning Heart By Dónal Ryan...

Dónal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart is raw with emotion and is brutally honest. We get a glimpse into the lives of both young and old in a local Irish setting. This community, like so many others in Ireland today, has been left desolate by the Irish recession. Ryan lucidly articulates the words and thoughts of this post-boom generation. Ryan creates a powerful sense of place as each character is either from or lives within this local community. The story is a collection of twenty-one internal monologues. Each monologue comes from a struggling character who has their own story to tell. The local building company, Pokey Burke’s company, which was the main source of employment and income for the area, has collapsed and now each character is figuring out what will happen next. Some of the characters were builders and are now looking at emigrating to Australia and London. There is an account from a mother who has lost her son and how each hour of each day is a struggle. Ryan provides us with an insight into the mind of a schizophrenic. There is a also foreign national, Vasya, who has worked for Pokey and is owed money from his former boss. However, we learn that Pokey has abandoned his debts, his crookedness and his country. Vasya could be like any other Irish emigrant who is a far way from home and longs to be able to return to their homeland but the notion of shame and failure stops him from returning. There is a toddler who tells the story of witnessing her parent’s deteriorating marriage. Her loving father is out of work and is unable to find any other gainful employment. Then there is the disenchanted single mother who is one of the...