Shadows on Our Skin by Jennifer Johnston

My book-fairy (an Irishman retired to Brussels who comes to my island home bearing books twice a year) introduced me to Johnston via her 1974 novel How Many Miles to Babylon?, a WWI tale of class, affection, and betrayal. I was convinced that the narrative would end tragically, and yes it doesn’t end well but quite differently to what I expected. And the British soldiers and gunshots get ever closer.Īnd then one day Brendan meets Kathleen… no spoilers here. The mother is stoic and sour, bitter about her lot as bread-winner and carer of a useless man but diligent in her responsibilities. The father lives on his past triumphs as a fighter against the British, but now that his health is rapidfly declining it’s only his memories, or fantasies, that sustain him. His older brother Brendan comes back from England but what he does when out at night remains a mystery. This meeting and their growing relationship provides the catalyst for the narrative. Her name is Kathleen, she’s a teacher, a chain-smoker, and family-less. He’s noticed her before but one day he sits down next to her. Joe sees a young woman sitting on a wall.

The story is set during The Troubles, in the early 1970s, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

It’s clear, by the words they use, how they are spoken. Needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely more than half of this text has people talking, with very few adverbs. A line of speech can paint a character more effectively than a paragraph of description. What a misguided and anti-creative piece of advice! Dialogue is one of the most effective, useful, and versatile tools a writer can have. I know of one Australian teacher of creative writing who advises her students (or used to) to steer clear of dialogue.

But the most telling and useful writer’s tool she uses is dialogue. It’s a rich and full tapestry of little black marks, full of meaning, that make up a page of narrative. You have to be vigilant and take notice of the tiny singular quotation marks: it’s important that you know what is said and what is thought, and who thinks it. Johnston puts sound (squeak squeak of the chalk), thoughts of the characters (Because I hate you so), little telling actions (Hot fat spotted the floor) into the narrative, as well as comments from the narrator (The conversation wasn’t exactly swinging). Joseph Logan has such a miserable home life (a ruined, bitter, and abusive father and a disappointed, sour, but high-principled mother) but dispite his dour life, almost McGahern*-ish, the writing is so vivid. There is so much going on on Johnston’s : The protagonist, young Joe NOT paying attention in maths class writing a daring poem about hating his father and wishing him dead Miss McCabe, the frustrated teacher, squeaking her chalk to demonstrate the glories of the equilateral triangle – each image illuminating an unwritten, but acknowledged, back-story. Irish novelist and playwright, Jennifer Johnston

Shadows on Our Skin by Jennifer Johnston