Books: A Keeper By Graham Norton (2019)

“When Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother’s death, she’s focused only on saying goodbye to that dark and dismal part of her life. Her childhood home is packed solid with useless junk, her mother’s presence already fading. But within this mess, she discovers a small stash of letters—and ultimately, the truth. Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.”

Graham Norton’s A Keeper is set in Buncarragh, Ireland, present day and forty years earlier. The duel storylines do gel well together, but it's only while you are reading the book, do you suddenly realize the plot is a bit far-fetched. I had to constantly remind myself that the "before" part was set in the 1970s and not in the 40’s or 50’s. It has an old fashioned feel to it, and, at times, a charming wry sense of humor to it. As a comedian and talk show host, Norton is able to balance some of dry wit with a bizarre pathos of unhinged old woman who could be the cousin to Stephen King’s Annie Wilkes from Misery.

But the book, which tries to be about love, loss, missed chances and old fashioned look at how Irish farmer men put out ads for wives, but it never really gets going to be truly exciting. The present part, the once set in the 21^st Century is by far the most interesting, but then Norton goes a bit creepy with her 17 year-old son getting a thirty-five year old woman –his math tutor- pregnant. While I know the age of consent in the UK is 16, it’s still 18 here in the US. Both Elizabeth and her gay ex-husband Elliot should’ve had the teacher up on statutory rape charges.

As noted, a lot of the book never quite comes together in any believable way, which is frustrating, as Norton can write. But I never got emotionally attached to any the characters, even when Patricia was facing a horrible situation with being held prisoner. In the end, it’s more overtly melodramatic than good drama, though filled with doses of dark humor.