BookBrowse Reviews The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

BookBrowse:

A compelling and magical exploration of the Old West perfect for readers looking to disconnect from their immediate reality and immerse themselves in an addictive world of intrigue and fated love.

In Butte, Montana, a mining town filled with largely Irish immigrants, Tom Rourke survives by working as a photographer's assistant and writing love letters for illiterate men seeking wives back East. It is October 1891, and Tom senses a premonition in the cold night air: "[H]e felt the strangest thing, a thought almost beyond words, that the winter would have purpose for him yet."

Fate propels Tom: he sees it etched in the night air, in the window of his room, and in the approaching winter. As a central theme, fate permeates the novel, driving the plot and setting the characters on their path. Author Kevin Barry consistently revisits this idea, articulating it mainly through Tom, who is depressive, passionate, and cultured, but also through Polly, his co-protagonist and love interest.

The wheels of destiny begin turning when Tom, drunk and high on opium, has an encounter with a palomino horse a few hours after hearing the whistle of a train cutting through the night—the same train from which Polly had presumably descended to marry Anthony Harrington, a fervently religious man and captain of the local mining company. Like Tom, Polly feels fate looming over her: when she first sees him at the photography studio where she is taking her newlywed portrait, she feels a heavy weight, like "a cloud passing over." After a few encounters, Tom and Polly flee town with the stolen palomino and $600, leaving behind a fire and a scorned husband.

The first half of the novel chronicles the lovers' flight through the mountains of Montana as winter progresses. They encounter a collection of memorable, broken, and lonely personalities that encapsulate the America of the time, but could just as easily belong to the contemporary United States. The author also includes brief glimpses into the thoughts of other characters. There is a particularly beautiful and well-crafted chapter in which the actions are not directly seen but described through the perspectives of different townspeople. Barry sketches his characters with sentences as sharp and stinging as the cold that freezes the lovers, and as winding as the rivers they cross, alternating rawness with humorous jabs and wordplay like, "He said he would be a kind and providential husband to her. She said she'd been to Providence one time." Providence is, incidentally, the name the lovers give to the cabin where they take refuge for a few weeks, and where they will be discovered by their pursuers.

Midway through the novel, the author shifts focus from the lovers to introduce these "villains." Back in Butte, Anthony has hired three hitmen to find Tom and Polly. From this point on, the plot accelerates, perhaps too much in the later chapters. There are also some "deus ex machina" moments, scenes that seem solely designed to advance the plot.

The Heart in Winter reads like an oral account told by a campfire, in street whispers, or between sips in a bar, almost as an extension of the speculation that different characters engage in about the lovers' fate towards the novel's end. The language flows with a lyrical, intimate tone, where the narrator directly addresses the reader: "[A]nd sometimes their laughter can be heard in the air of that place still. Just listen in."

Barry arranges these sentences in very short paragraphs and sections that initially make immersion in the story difficult but ultimately render it addictive. Barry is a master of brevity: he can describe a character in three lines and summarize the novel's thesis in a few sentences spoken by a secondary character: "Remember always that we're only marking time until sweet death comes, and it's surely coming for us all (...) So if there's someone out there who can help you to ease the pain for your life... you gotta go an' do what it is you gotta do."

This review first ran in the July 31, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.