THE HOUSE IN CLEWE STREET

When I was a young woman in my 30's, I discovered Mary Lavin's short stories, and it was love at first read. This book, Lavin's first full-length novel, left me a bit cold. The young protagonist, Gabriel, is raised by his two aunts and their youngest sister--Gabriel's mother--in relative affluence in a small Irish village. Aunt Theresa is angry and inflexible and rules the house with an iron hand. Gabriel is acquiescent until he falls for the young housemaid Onny. Lavin allows Gabriel to go on for many pages ruminating on ethics, in a style typical of a 1945 novel, one that is, however, somewhat out of sync with the sensibilities of the 21st century reader. I find Lavin much more effective when employing the pithiness of narrative that a short story demands than in the expansiveness of a sprawling novel.