February 25, 2019
In this moody, lyrical memoir, Connell, a writer and film producer, recounts his return to his family’s farm in Ireland’s Midlands region when he was 29. It is ostensibly a temporary stay to help his parents during calving season, but the bittersweet homecoming becomes a haven from the crushing depressive episodes Connell suffers, and he uses the time to better understand his heritage and contemplate his identity as a writer (“Perhaps Birchview is my Walden. I have felt that it is only in the last year that I have finally begun to live”). He ruminates about how his father’s storytelling abilities provided him the “gift of writing,” while also describing the unspoken resentments between an overworked, aging father and the son he feels is wasting his life. As the season progresses, Connell develops a routine of listening to Hemingway audiobooks while tending to his herds and flocks, through it all pondering the juxtaposition of the farmer’s life with his former artist’s existence. Eventually, a climactic argument about the farm degrades into scathing screeds that leave both father and son confused about the future of their “fractious relationship.” Connell’s measured voice creates a slow, powerful drip of emotional revelation that earns the reader’s admiration. This is a beautifully written memoir of the challenges faced when returning home.