Elizabeth O’Connor || Whale Fall

Sometimes you encounter a debut that turns out to be a precious gem, especially if you – like me – like almost introvert novels that depend on subtle descriptions of character, environment and mood. Whale Fall is such a gem.

I stumbled across Whale Fall through a review on Instagram in a paper I would not normally read. This review however caught my eye and I immediately knew I wanted to read this novel. In it time seems to move slowly, the near future dooming up ahead ominously. A small island near the coast of Wales is threatened by its population leaving for the mainland, whereas World War Two is about to start. In the meantime the inhabitants worry about catching enough fish, storm not destroying their homes or women dying in childbirth.

O’Connor introduces three new elements into their lives: a dead whale washed ashore and two British anthropologists investigating culture on the island. 18 Year old Manod becomes their guide. She is desperate to get of the island, or at least, to have a life that does not consist of being a wife, doing all the chores and helping with the lobsters that are caught. She resents that the prospect of proceeding her education is not even considered notwithstanding the fact that she is by far the cleverest pupil in the classroom.

Manod lives with her father Tad and her sister Llinod, her mother having died years before. Tad is busy working, providing food and mother, Llinod one starts to suspect nowadays would have gotten special care. She is a trifle strange, Manod feels responsible for her – acting as her substitute mother.

Antropologists Edward and Joan soon realise that eager Manod is the one to ask for help. She translates Gaelic into English, transcripts recordings they make of interviews or songs. Manod seems them as her saviour, she is convinced they will take her with them, to the mainland. She however, does not realise that – despite recognising she is a fast learner – Edward and Joan do not take her seriously. To them she is just a girl from the islands helping them with their findings.

Manod does realise that Edward en Joan are more than willing to embroider on the truth when they deem it necessary. They paint a picture of a romantic island that does not resemble harsh reality, adjust reality to what is fitting for their articles and books. Manod’s protests are swept to the side, the outcome of their writing being far more important than the truth.

All the time the whale is lying on the beach, slowly decaying. Its presence hardly disturbs the islanders lives, they just wonder why it landed on their beach and add the smell of decay to their daily lives. The whale in the novel however has a highly symbolic value. It stands for things coming to an end, disaster (= war) looming in the distance. The inhabitants of the island ignore the whale as they ignore the news about the upcoming war or their dire future on the island.

The war is only mentioned casually in Whale Fall. A sentence here, a sentence there, a reference to Joan belong to the Oswald club. Manod’s possible husband enlisting for lack of decent jobs on the mainland. Still the threat is present, as is the threat of the final people leaving the island soon.

O’Connor has written it all down in short chapters. Some lasting only half a page, some two or three pages. Her language is demure, focusing on descriptions of people and nature. She manages to trigger memories of islands of the coast of Wales, Scotland or Ireland that are sometimes left to nature, sometimes provide a home to a small group of people. The sea being the foremost factor in their lives. In my head I could see the images, can hear the birds screeching over my head.

I absolutely loved Whale Fall. As I said before: it is my type of novel. A novel about small things constituting a life, not the world-changing incidents.  They are kept to the margins, as they should be in an ideal world.