Are you a member of a book club? If so, do you meet virtually or in person?

I attend a book club run by Pangur Bán Bookshop in conjunction with Craoibhín Ballina. We meet in person once a month.

At our last book club meeting we talked about The Colony by Audrey Magee. Have you read it? What did you think?

The Blurb:

Mr Lloyd has decided to travel to the island by boat without engine – the authentic experience.

Unbeknownst to him, Mr Masson will also soon be arriving for the summer. Both will strive to encapsulate the truth of this place – one in his paintings, the other with his faithful rendition of its speech, the language he hopes to preserve.

But the people who live here on this rock – three miles long and half-a-mile wide – have their own views on what is being recorded, what is being taken and what is given in return. Over the summer each of the women and men in the household this French and Englishman join is forced to question what they value and what they desire. At the end of the summer, as the visitors head home, there will be a reckoning.

The Colony is about colonialism, oppression, mistrust, power, and identity. It’s about the preservation of language, and it’s about violence – the troubles between the Catholics and protestants in Northern Ireland.

Book Club Discussion

Our book club organiser said at the end of the meeting, “I didn’t expect this to be such a Marmite book.”

50% of the readers loved the book. The rest felt it wasn’t for them, mostly for the same reasons.

It was an interesting discussion though, and more focused on the positives rather than the negatives. A good thing!

Some readers in the group found the absence of quotation marks in the book refreshing and unique. There are numerous one-line sentences throughout the book, which reflect Mr Lloyd’s thoughts. This style of writing came across as poetic and lyrical for some.

The author paints vivid descriptions of the scenery, nature, and the paintings that Lloyd is working on. Even little things like knitting Aran cardigans are described in a way that is memorable.

Alternate one-page chapters reporting violent sectarian attacks got the group talking about the depressing years during the troubles in Northern Ireland. The conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants affected not only the six counties, but the border counties too, and in many ways, the whole island of Ireland.

The Frenchman is passionate about preserving languages. He doesn’t like the way Mr Lloyd is contaminating the island with the English language, and is annoyed at the islanders for speaking in English with Lloyd, even though he’s well aware that Lloyd can’t speak any gaeilge.

This led to chat about the collapse of the Irish language after the Great Famine. A language that was once associated with the upper class, became the language of the poor. Although it’s sad that we don’t speak our native language, it was pointed out that the English language did give us many opportunities that we may not have had otherwise.

I’m happy to say that gaeilge has become popular again in recent years, and I hope it will never die.

The majority of readers agreed that Mr Lloyd is an unlikeable character. He’s self-absorbed and his actions at the end of the story show the cruel streak in him.

We wondered if Mairéad, the young woman of the house, would ever leave the island. Will she ever stop waiting for her dead husband to return from the sea where he drowned in a boating accident with his father? We wondered if James would ever go to London to follow his dreams of becoming an artist. We hope so!

I particularly enjoyed the book chat at this meeting. I like the fact that people are honest in their opinions. One reader made no bones about being very bored by The Colony. She needs action, conflict, suspense. That’s not the kind of book this is.

My Thoughts

I love stories that are set on small remote islands. I find them to be quite atmospheric sometimes. The Colony didn’t disappoint in that sense.

Audrey Magee’s writing is beautiful. However, I didn’t enjoy the style in this book – the one-word sentences and the absence of quotation marks.

I think it was the fact that some of the words were random and just didn’t make sense. Several times I stopped reading to think about some of these random words; ‘What does that mean? Am I missing something?’

I couldn’t get used to the lack of quotation marks. My inner thoughts whizzed as I read the dialogue. She forgot her quotation marks. Let me just grab my pencil so I can put them in.

The changing of character viewpoints within the same sentences/paragraphs, I found to be very jarring as well.

For these reasons I ended up buying the audio book because I couldn’t get through it otherwise. I enjoyed listening far more than reading it. The narrator did a wonderful job and l felt a more engaged in the story. Audio helps me to stick with slow burners.

I sensed a bit of Irish humour during the first half of the book but that went flat towards the end, which I found a little disappointing.

I had hoped for more conflict between the painter, My Lloyd and the linguist, Masson. Things had begun to heat up between them at one stage but it didn’t amount to much. Then I had high hopes for something more exciting with Mairéad. Again, nothing much really. I thought at one point she was going to be a huge part of some plot and conflict. I would have liked that.

Unfortunately this story didn’t captivate me.

If you appreciate beautiful writing you’ll enjoy this book. If you look for plot and character conflict in a story, then I don’t think this would be a good choice. Of course, it also depends on the readers mood and what they seek out at the time.

There’s hundreds of positive reviews out there on The Colony and remember, it was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. So that says something!

Even though The Colony didn’t float my boat, it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t read more from this author in the future.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

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