Torn Water - Hardcover

Lynch, John

3.48

31 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007202687 ISBN 13: 9780007202683

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2005

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Set in his native Northern Ireland, John Lynch's debut novel is a lyrically told and exquisitely tender story of innocence and loss.

‘He remembers when he was very young standing by water ... How he had got there or where the pond was he couldn’t remember, but he can vaguely recall a larger hand on his and being led through the high rooms of a large building, to a large garden, where bees wove dozy patterns in the air. At the bottom of this garden lay the large pond, and he remembers a face bending to meet his and whispering that he would be back in a little while. So he stood where he had been left, his small feet pointing at the stonework of the pond’s rim. He remembers a wind brewing in the tops of the trees and tearing at the water of the pond for a moment, before subsiding, his face blurring into focus like a TV channel being tuned.’

When James Lavery's father is blown to bits by a bomb he intended to maim and kill others with, the boy keeps him alive in his imagination as a superhero, escaping the daily grind of school, his mother's drinking and his own acute loneliness by inventing extraordinary adventures for them both. But, gradually, through the agonies of adolescence James begins to understand the real cost of his father's weak and deluded heroism.

It is only when he falls in love himself, during a summer away from his tortured home life, that James finally begins to understand the true complexities of love, life and death...

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Review:

‘You get the beat of a writer’s heart all the way through the book.’ Jennifer Johnston

From the Author:

John Lynch talks to Louise Tucker

Your main character's name shares the same initials as yours, which
suggests an autobiographical connection between you. Is the book based
upon, or inspired by, your own life in any way?
I suppose there was no escaping a connection. I think it was Joyce who said
that all writing is fictionalised biography. I decided to embrace that and
acknowledge that as it was my first novel I was starting in a territory I
knew quite well, namely Northern Ireland. I was quite upfront about the
blurring that occurs between the writer and the page, as it does between
actor and character.

Like James you grew up in Northern Ireland during a particularly troubled
period in its history. How has that affected you?
As I get older I find the impact of that time working its way to the
surface of my thinking more and more. When I was growing up it was just a
case of getting on with things, putting one foot in front of the other like
most people. But I have been well schooled in fear, I know that now.
Watchfulness is another trait, and keeping one's own counsel: these are all
attributable to a world where nothing was certain and where everything
could change in an instant.

James's relationships within his small family are difficult, and at times
very lonely. As one of five, how did you research the role and feelings of
an only child?
Every child, I think, no matter how surrounded by siblings, has a
tremendous capacity for aloneness, for disappearing into a world that is
exclusive. Acting also helped me. I've played a fair number of solitary men
and I'm sure I tapped into that on some level.

How did your parents influence your career, if at all?
My parents were very supportive. My father was always very taken with
literature, with its potency, and I suppose I inherited that.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I was fascinated with novelists from a very early age, even before acting
began to work its magic on me. I always wondered what it would be like to
create a complete world, using only language, and I remember thinking that
the men and women who did this must have the keys to some distant and
exotic kingdom.

You live in France now rather than Ireland, where you lived for many years.
Where is home for you and why?
Home is the borderland in Ireland. It's informed me more than I'll probably
ever know. I love the landscape and the sense of flux in the people,. I
like France too; we have a place quite near the Italian border and being
half-Italian I feel very comfortable here. It appeals to the Latin in me.

As a film and stage actor you are already very successful. What triggered
your desire to write fiction and how did writing a book differ from writing
for film?
They're both solitary activities (although the screenplay for the film Best
was co-written with my wife Mary McGuckian) but the novel is much more so.
It's a profound commitment lasting anywhere up to and beyond two years, and
it stays on the page, whereas with a screenplay you're always writing to
have it fleshed sooner rather than later.

Mr Shannon inspires James to act in his first play. Who or what inspired
you to become an actor?
A man not dissimilar to Mr Shannon. He's dead now unfortunately, but he did
a great deal in our area for drama and encouraged many young people to
pursue it professionally including myself.

Cal was your first major film, for which you were selected whilst still at
the Central School of Speech and Drama. Did it boost your confidence as a
student or undermine it, in that there was so much more to learn? And what
was it like to appear in such a success so early on in your career?
I felt very comfortable in front of the camera, and given I had spent the
previous three years learning how to act on stage it came as a revelation.
When I went back to finish my studies I found it frustrating as I missed
the focus of film performance. I remember I couldn't wait to experience
more.
Having straddled two creative professions, writing and acting, would you
single out either one as a particular favourite?
Well, I haven't directed, not yet at any rate. I find writing the most
challenging; it's also fresher and newer to me. The responsibility is
bigger in that you're juggling a number of characters and stories whereas
with acting you have the luxury of worrying about only one.

Who are the actors and writers who have influenced you?
Sam Shepard has been an important influence and I admired John Cassavetes
and the work he did with Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara. I loved Montgomery
Clift, who had huge sensitivity and vulnerability as an actor, and I
recently had the chance to work with Peter O'Toole, who is a complete actor
with tremendous technique. I also love Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez's writing and
that of Seamus Heaney, Joseph Campbell and Bob Dylan.

How did writing this book change you, if at all?
It was a bit like stirring the sediment at the bottom of a pond. A lot of
debris floated to the surface, lots of memories and feelings that had long
lain hidden and I've had to have a good look at them, and decide which to
keep and which to throw away.

What are you writing now/next?
At the moment I'm trying to write about the disintegration of a man through
addiction, how the spirit can shift and ache when someone loses their way.
Again sediment.

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