Review: "Red Sky in Morning" by Paul Lynch

I predict that in a few decades, the novels of Irish writer Paul Lynch will be considered, undeniable, undisputed modern masterpieces. While they don’t pluck the right heart strings for me, his prose is simply unmatched and earns him rightly made comparisons to Daniel Woodrell and Cormac McCarthy: descriptions rich and hearty but somehow flow easily and smoothly even when they snuff out any resemblance of strong narrative clarity. And I think that is the point with his debut novel, which I just finished, Red sky in Morning and his two subsequent novels The Black Snow and Grace. These are old time tales of futility and violence, where the low down and dastardly are given, through seamless stream of consciousness passages, more eloquence and humanity than even they think they possess. A lot of the time it is at the expense of a really good and enthralling story, but the skill is simply unparalleled. The story begins near the middle of the 19^thcentury in Donegal, Ireland. Coll Coyle goes to confront the heartless landowner who is evicting his family and in a brief scuffle winds up killing him. With no choice, and with the terrifying and effective tracker John Faller only a step or two behind him, he leaves his family in the Irish countryside and hops aboard a boat to America, where he ends up working for the railroad. But Faller is not too far behind. As the book went on, each section had the unreality of an epic poem: weird character after strange encounter add up to quite an otherworldly experience that is welcome and scarily unfamiliar, whether it is the disease infested boat headed for America or a poorly lit tavern just before violence explodes. And despite the book’s tendency to over explain to the point of utter confusion, Faller casts a dark shadow over this book, and his presence, whether hanging Coll’s brother by his thumbs, forcing a drunk to dance for money or using a small child to shield himself from bullets, feels almost demonic, and is easily the most memorable item I will take away from this complex book. 

Rating: 4/5