Second sight

    

     To say that Susan Fletcher's novel Corrag is the story of the Glencoe massacre as told by a witch-woman awaiting execution, is to convey nothing of the involuted complexity and beauty of this book, or of its limpid quality, like a cloudscape reflected in water - subtly shaded, shifting, depths within depths.

    Corrag has fled from the north of England and taunts of "witch" and "hag", riding alone through Scotland and eventually seeking sanctuary in the Highland valley of Glencoe, home to a fierce and feared sept of the clan MacDonald. Her isolation suits her well at first but when her presence is discovered by members of the clan and her skills as a herbalist and healer bring her into close contact with their chief, The MacIain, she is accepted and made welcome. Her existence is still a harsh and solitary one, but this strange young woman with the ghost-grey eyes finds it is her heart rather than her head which guides her, never moreso than in the early morning of 13th. February, 1692, when soldiers receiving hospitality from the MacDonalds turned on their hosts and killed them, committing the heinous crime of murder under trust.

    The book consists of Corrag telling her story while imprisoned in Inverary gaol awaiting trial by fire, her account interspersed with letters to his wife from her prison visitor, Charles Leslie, an Irishman and Jacobite who is there to find evidence of the Orange King William's hand in the massacre. At first he is wary of Corrag and finds her talk rambling, but gradually trust builds until the eventual outcome is not as the reader first suspects.

    Not everyone will take to Corrag's as narrative voice: "her talking is like a river - running on and bursting into smaller rivers which lead nowhere", as Leslie says, but I found it mesmerising: distinctive and entirely fitting. Her account is like a tone poem in prose, individual words and phrases its constantly recapitulated themes, its pace and rhythm providing structure and scope. I found its stillness stilled my mind, while the book's strong sense of place held me firmly. I loved it and I applaud Susan Fletcher for this very original historical novel. 

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I remember, a long, long, time ago reading John Prebble's book on the Glencoe massacre. Perhaps I should now read this one 35 years later. Reading your review I wondered who the critic Leslie was; re-reading I assume it is one of the characters in the story - Charles Leslie. Sometimes I can be fairly obtuse ...

[A Bookish Space]

I have read so many positive reviews about this book - I am going to keep my eye out for it now :)

[Village Books]

Beautifil review & great selections of favorites! Check me out too!

[LizF]

I am so glad that you enjoyed this because I absolutely loved it and it is definitely on my list of reads of the year.
I had read both of Susan Fletcher's other books and enjoyed both, although Oystercatchers took me longer to get into than Eve Green, but I have to confess that I was a bit wary of Corrag because it sounded so different from the others.
About three pages in and I was hooked by the beauty of the writing and by Corrag herself and yes, by the stillness at its heart which is so unusual, so much so that I both didn't want it to end but desperately wanted to know what would happen.
Quite brilliant - as is your review which I hope makes vast numbers of people rush out and get this book as Susan Fletcher deserves it!

[Cornflower]

Liz, I'm dithering over what to read next because Corrag is such a hard act to follow. It's gone straight on my books of the year list.

[LizF]

I know what you mean - it's very hard to follow and I can't really remember what I read immediately after but suspect that it was very different.
If it's any help, I have recently very much enjoyed Katherine McMahon's The Crimson Rooms and am currently reading The Guards by Ken Bruen - a crime novel with a private eye lead character which is set in Galway and very good if you like writers like George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane (the blurb also says he is Ireland's answer to Ian Rankin).
Two other books that left me stunned last year were Jude Morgan's A Taste of Sorrow and Karen Maitland's The Owl Killers and I mustn't forget Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts.
Hope you find something soon.

[Cornflower]

More great recommendations there! In the end I picked up Patricia Duncker's The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge and I'm really enjoying it - nothing like Corrag, of course.

[LizF]

Ooh good I'm glad you are enjoying the Patricia Duncker as it is in a pile of requests waiting for me at the library!