The Spinning Heart

A novel in stories, 21 of them, each narrated by a different resident of small Irish town amid the financial crisis of the late 2000s. It's remarkable that despite this giant number of perspectives, most of which use a similar dialect, Ryan has managed to make each voice distinct and its own. That really is a triumph, and I say that after starting the book with some reservations about this particular structure, and personally I do think 21 narrators is slightly too many for such a short book. There are characters that could have been the focus of whole books, and they made such an impression on me within just a few pages. In some ways I do think it's a shame that each characters' moment passes by so quickly. No narrator is repeated, even though many characters recur and reappear through another's perspective. Surprisingly, this isn't just a collection of experiences in one small town, but does have a cohesive storyline made from the communal and interlocking events and ideas. It's a bleak, sad and lonely story, and it can overwhelming and crushing at times, especially with how crude and depressing the outlooks of many of the characters are, so I have to say I am glad this wasn't much longer. That's saying something for such a short book, but I think Ryan had the idea by not allowing it to overstay it's welcome. What's here is marvelous and, as this is my first by Ryan, I am very much looking forward to reading more by him.