Boekverslag Edna O'Brien

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Datum ingestuurd:	20 december 2002
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Titel:	House of splendid isolation
Auteur:	Edna O'Brien
Jaar van uitgave:	1994
Aantal pagina's:	224

Auteur:	Edna O'Brien
Geboren:	15 december 1930
Populaire titels:	1960The country girls (8) 1962Girl with green eyes (6) 1965Girls in their married bliss (2) 1965August is a wicked month (1) 1994House of splendid isolation (1) 1971Zee & Co (0)

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Plot

The story starts with an officer, named Rory, coming home from his work. He lives in Ireland. On the news on television he sees that the police are searching for an IRA terrorist, named McGreevy, but they can’t find him. Rory wants him to be arrested.
Then the story goes back in time. Josie McGrady just got married to an Englishman, James. She’s not very happy about it but she has no choice; her aunt and uncle gave her away. She now (1920’s) lives with her husband and his brother in Ireland. After Josie made her husband kick his brother out of the house, James started drinking a lot. Josie sends him to a monastery to recover. Because James is out of the house, Josie hires a helper, Paud. Paud helps IRA terrorists by dumping arms in a field. When James comes out of the monastery he says to Josie he wants to hide Paud for a while and then ship him off to England. Josie doesn’t agree and warns the sergeant. That night James goes out into the field, he’s drunk. The guards waiting for Paud think James is Paud and shoot him. James dies.
Back in the present, Josie is now (1960’s) living in the same house, alone. One night the IRA terrorist McGreevy comes in her house, seeking shelter. At first Josie is very afraid of McGreevy; she even considered suicide. Later she gets less afraid of him and they even start liking each other.
More and more people are suspecting McGreevy is in the house, so he leaves. Josie goes after him but can’t find him. The police come over to interrogate Josie, but she says she doesn’t know McGreevy.
McGreevy eventually comes back to Josie again, but the police finds out he’s there. Guards go into the house and shoot Josie, because they think she’s another terrorist. McGreevy gets arrested.

Theme

The story is about trust.
In the beginning Josie is very afraid of McGreevy and McGreevy doesn’t want to get to know Josie. But later they start to trust each other. They both prove this to one another: McGreevy comes back to Josie in the end and Josie tells the police she doesn’t know McGreevy when they interrogate her.
The story also tells about how meaningless war is.
An old woman (Josie) gets shot without a reason and although McGreevy and his comrades have been fighting long and hard to free Ireland from the British, in the end of the story their fight has no result what so ever.

Characterization
Josie: A woman who lost her husband in an IRA fight. She gives McGreevy shelter.
James: Josie’s husband.
McGreevy: The IRA terrorist who hides in Josie’s house.
Paud: The helper Josie hires when James is out of the house. He hides arms for the IRA.
Creena: Together with her mom she helps McGreevy by giving him clothes, food etc.

Groups of people:

McGreevy’s comrades
The policemen
James’s friends.

The main characters are round characters. They change and develop under the influence of their experiences. They have good and bad traits. For instance: McGreevy develops in a way of first being very silent and not wanting to get to know Josie. Later he starts to like and trust her; he develops. He also has good and bad traits: he is a terrorist (bad), but when you get to know hem, he seems a very nice and normal man (good).
The groups of people are mainly flat characters. They don’t really change or develop.

Narrative perspective

Most of the story is being told by an omniscient narrator. The narrator describes the story objectively. It’s in third person perspective. The narrator is outside the story.
But there are bits of Josie’s diary and some letters from her, Josie’s uncle and from McGreevy in the story. They are in first person perspective, inside the story, with limited knowledge and subjective.

Sometimes the reader is being influenced by the choice of narrative perspective.
The bits of diary and the letters are very subjective and show you the story through the eyes of just that one person who wrote the diary or letters. For instance: in her diary Josie’s says a lot about how she thinks about McGreevy: this is strictly her opinion.

Title

‘House of splendid isolation’ refers to the fact that the house where Josie lives in and where later McGreevy comes to hide in, is very far away from the outside world. This is a good thing for McGreevy: he has a good chance there of not being found. Josie herself is very isolated as well. One of the reasons McGreevy went to the house was that he knew Josie never came out of the house.
So the title is very important, because if the house wouldn’t be so isolated, McGreevy would never have come to it and the entire story wouldn’t have happened.

Symbols and metaphors

There is one thing in the story you could consider a symbol: it’s a prediction a Gipsy gives to Josie when James is still alive. The Gipsy says “A man will come in and a child goes out.”
Later Josie finds out that the Gipsy meant that Josie was going to have an abortion (she didn’t want a child from James) and that McGreevy is coming to the house to hide there.

Personal opinion

I think the book is very nice. It really learns you about Ireland and what a scattered country it is.
I love the fact that the story shows you how somebody you’re really afraid of can become your friend.
There’s a lot of action in the book. It never gets boring.
It’s quite easy to read. There is not a lot of difficult language being used.
The bits of Josie’s diary are very nice to read. It really shows you how Josie thinks about certain issues in her life.
There are a lot of little poems and songs in the book. They give the story a nice and cosy atmosphere.
This book definitely is an all-time literary classic.