TRUTH IN THE NIGHT

Plenty of Gaelic misery in this salty tale of a shrew who is eventually tamed, not by her kindly husband, but by death, sorrow and the island home which she hated. Vera had come to the island from her dingy life on the mainland to marry plodding Tom Reilly, and even after Tom's death, she felt that her daughter Mary was the only lasting thing Tom had given her, for a stranger on the island she would always remain. When Martin Gallagher returns to the island after years away from home, Vera's nervous longing finds expression in marriage to Martin. But Vera makes marriage a bed of thorns for Martin, as her ambitions to leave the island rekindle. It is only the death of Mary resulting from Vera's own stubbornness which finally rends the veil. Vera loses her punishing bitterness and sinks gratefully into the security of home on an island. The author's leisurely style allows the reader a glimpse of some very nice people, but Vera's character, only tentatively realized, retards the pace. Frugal, humble fare.