Niall Williams

This isn't a plot-driven novel: nothing much happens. I enjoyed it like I would enjoy a beautiful painting more than as a story. It's beautifully written -- lovely, in fact -- but the writing itself is the prize here, not the story or the character development. This is a treat for literary readers with lots of titles and a few quotes dripped into the text. But if you aren't familiar with the originals, you may miss some of these gems. The author gave me a good feeling for the town and the dynamics of interactions among the inhabitants. This is what carried me through to the end, much as the rain and the river carries the stories of our lives.… (more)

Beautiful in the telling, but slow. Strong voice and setting and description but very little plot thus far (read to p. 112)

Quotes

The known world was not so circumscribed then nor knowledge equated with facts. Story was a kind of human binding....There was telling everywhere. Because there were fewer sources of where to find out anything, there was more listening. (4)

You don't see rain stop, but you sense it. You sense something has changed in the frequency you've been living and you hear the quietness you thought was silence get quieter still... (35)

Everybody carries a world. But certain people change the air about them. That's the best I can say. It can't be explained, only felt. (41)

In a lifetime there's more than one doorway. Even as I was running I think I knew this was one. (48)

You could hardly credit it was the same world you were in yesterday. (69)

The truth turns into a story when it grows old. We all become stories in the end. (82)… (more)