My Dream of You - Nuala O'Faolain (Book).

My Dream of You - Nuala O'Faolain.

How frequently you come across an Author or a book that you never want ever to end? And on top of that how frequently you come across a book that you actually want to give a good five star rating and really look forward to reading it again very soon. And has that ever happened with you that you come across a book which is so unbelievably like your own story that if you plan to write some day, it will look exactly the way the writer has written her or his book. I am a miser when it comes to rating a book 5/5, but her books definitely get a good 5/5 from me back to back twice in a row. The only other book which got a 5/5 from me was "To Kill a Mockingbird" a decade ago I guess. And if that is not all, her thoughts, antics, philosophies, love life, thinking and so much more is a 100% match with your own. Never in my life I have found a book that magical that it will touch my heart, made me cry alone in the dead of the night not because of the pain faced by the character but for the way I could connect with it so genuinely. A book that you would like to share with no one but gift it to someone you genuinely love and admire big time.

Couple of years ago a very dear friend visited us from Jhansi (UP) and since he knew my passion towards books, promised me that he will get me a few good books. I had no idea what kind of books he is going to bring for me and I underrated his choices before even coming across them :) (I am a lousy human after all). And he introduced me to one of the most terrific writers that I have ever read in last three decades of my reading career. The book that he brought in was an Accidental Memoir of a Dublin woman as the Author liked to call it and that book catapulted her to unbelievable fame and fan following. That was the second part of a two book series that she wrote. She wrote three more (lovely) books and passed away in 2008. She starting writing at the age of 60 (2000) and only wrote five books. This is my second from her and I am totally smitten in love with everything about her and not just only her writing, story or characters.

The entire story as narrated from the point of view of a fifty something female (Kathleen) who moves back to her own country Ireland after living in London for good thirty odd years. Working for a Travel magazine she has already traveled the length and breadth of the world already. Never married, no family to fall back on and almost no friends of social life whatsoever. Even in the work of fiction as she likes to call this and I refuse to accept it as that, she has hardly as many characters as you can count on your fingers but each one of them is one character that I fall in love with big time. Her gay colleague who she loves big time and they go around the world hand in hand, becoming each others strength in the time of the need and how she loses him wrecking her own life. Her memory of her friend and how he would have taken on a situation head on plus her reminisce' of their time together was so heart-touching, it made me cry all the time. Her lovely boss is another awesome character, who she partially dislikes at times but on other times admires too big time and how she ends the book with him still around was another thing that I will never forget ever in my life. Kathleen with a heart of Gold that she was, the way she takes care of her handful of friends, still tries to find her lost family and see how she could help in their ongoing lives is another up-lifter in the book.

The most important point why she moves to Ireland is to find about a world famous divorce case of Talbot Vs Talbot from the mid 19th century, the period of great famine where a rich man divorces his wife on the grounds of adultery with their carriage driver (a black-man). The writing is so beautiful, poignant and suspense too at times that is very hard to tell which one is the main track. Her own wreck of a life, the way it chugs forward, goes nowhere, falling in and out of love, ditching people and get ditched by some or the fact finding mission that she is on to find out if the poor man was really responsible for the breaking of the marriage or he was just a scapegoat. How she uncovers the truth behind the case by going through documents, old news papers, the passed judgement some 120 years ago or with the help of a handful locals whose families still have vague memories of how it happened makes up for a very interesting read.

Another beautiful thing not only about this book but for that matter with any of her books (I have read two of them now) is the brutal way she writes them. No time lines, No years, No places that she mentions clearly as where she is or the characters are, the reader has to put his own two and two together and to use his or her brains to understand that. The ease with which she goes time travelling in the past, present and dreams of a future, left me totally awestruck with its beauty, although some may find it very challenging to read as there are hardly any dialogues but the prose is so beautiful, it made me read some pages twice, some para's more than that but in the end it did put a huge smile on my face and made me fall even deeper with her. Although she calls her protagonist as Kathleen but my heart says its her and no fictional character, it is indeed so amazing. The way she opens up as a writer in telling about her own personal family life or love life or infidelity was totally amazing. She does what she wants to do throughout her life, in the end she may have some regrets but she is never sorry about what she did, even if that means making love with a man right across the corridor from where she lived with her current boy-friend, just because she wanted to do something, she would do it without thinking of the repercussions. The way she hates her own dad for taking out his belt and beating up the kids as and when he wanted to and the way one fine day she takes a stand and never looks back, come what may, I admired her even better for the same. If these weren't reason enough for me to fall in love with the amazing lady, she even draws a very beautiful line between Love, Sex and Passion, and does it so beautifully that now I will quote her for the rest of my life whenever a discussion goes that ways :).

This I guess is the first book that I have read from Ireland or based in the Irish country and no doubt, her books will be the first things which will come to my mind whenever the country will ever get a mention in front of me. Looking forward to read her three more books as soon as I could lay my hands on them. They are unfortunately quite expensive (upwards of 1500/- a piece). The first one I got as a gift, this one I picked up for a measly 80/- in second hand market, looking forward to sellers of the remaining three to thrown them away so I can grab them at the earliest.

In the end, I will say with a very heavy heart, I wish she had written more.

Have you come across a writer like that ever? If yes, do let me know more about him or her so I can try as Nuala O'Faolain my favorite is no more to write books anyways. Have you read any of her books? If not, you have to read them without fail that too at the earliest.

PS: As far as my memory goes, I've been reading books since last 34 odd years and trust me when I say this. I have NEVER read a book twice (intentionally). But her books, I will proudly read again unless I don't gift them already to my lovely friends or whenever I get them back again.