Tenderwire
by Claire Kilroy
When someone recommends a novel that is "beautifully written, "lyrical," or "poetic," I sometimes find myself buying it, putting it on my bookshelf, and dusting it from time to time. The truth is that books described that way often turn out to be, frankly, dull.
Not so with Claire Kilroy's American debut, Tenderwire. Like her first novel, All Summer, published in the UK in 2003 to great acclaim, Tenderwire is both lyrical and riveting. It's a poetic novel that is also a page-turner. My brother Mike read it in a couple of days, staying up late into the night to finish it. (To put this in context, I once asked Mike if he'd read some book and he replied "I haven't read a book since the Eisenhower administration." He was born in 1970.)
Claire was a classmate of my sister's at Trinity College Dublin. She's also a lovely person. But you don't have to rely on my recommendation for Tenderwire. Novelist Colum McCann says: 'There is a fine balancing act going on here - Claire Kilroy walks the literary high wire. This is a marvellous novel - pacy, precise, lyrical, endearing and unpretentious.' Read what the Times of London and others have to say about it.
For those looking for book group recommendations, Tenderwire is a great choice for practical reasons as well: it's fewer than 300 pages and is available in trade paperback. If you are in DC, Politics & Prose tells me it would only take 5 to 7 days to get more copies.
This is, indeed, a fabulous book. It's beautifully paced and reads like a complete meal: very satisfying.
Posted by: Julie | November 12, 2006 at 07:48 PM