Review: A Keeper
Gaby Meares
I must confess I did approach this novel with little expectation. In Australia, Graham Norton is known for his talk-show, which is not especially high-brow (although thoroughly entertaining!) So who would have expected him to be a really good writer?
A Keeper is really well written! It’s a ‘family saga’, and there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s well told.
Elizabeth Keane returns to her small hometown in Ireland after her mother’s death to sort out the family house in readiness for selling. She has a life in New York, albeit complicated by single-parenting a son on the cusp of adulthood. When Elizabeth discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in her mother’s wardrobe; love letters from the father Elizabeth never knew, she begins a search for the truth.
We then are taken back to discover Patricia’s story, and how she came to be a single mother to Elizabeth in a time and place where this was no easy task.
With apparent ease, Norton skilfully alternates Elizabeth’s current journey with the telling of her mother’s earlier story.
He has evoked a small Irish village, with all its prejudices and kindnesses, with skill and affection. His descriptions of the landscape and the extreme climate are visceral. The claustrophobic nature of living on an isolated farm is truly frightening.
Graham Norton has written a novel with a keen eye and empathy for human nature, be it benign or flawed. This is a cracking good yarn, with a satisfying ending.