Book Review: Trouble the Living, by Francesca McDonnell Capossela

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

The Mississippi Man’s eyes were a glint of glass in the dark. Damon, I corrected myself. I knew it wasn’t right to call him whatever I wanted, like I was some kind of God.

His long, thin fingers extended a cigarette to me. I shook my head.

“Of course,” he said. “The director’s daughter doesn’t smoke.” The Ds rolling off his tongue, the dirtiest of letters.

“Not ‘of course,’” I said. “Not all daughters become their mothers.”

He looked out across the street, exhaled fumes like car exhaust. There was a piece missing from his nose, on his right nostril, like a chink in armor. I thought of Achilles being dipped into the River Styx by his heel, his only vulnerable part.

On the other side of the one-way street was a parking garage where the woman always waved away Mom’s money. But I knew that an ex-con, down on his luck, parking a borrowed car there before a job interview wouldn’t be as lucky. That’s how it always is; when you’re up, people raise you higher. When you’re low, they rub in the dirt.

Bernie knew that she and her mother only had each other. But how had she learned that at such a young age, and what if they even had secrets from each other?

Official synopsis:

It’s the final years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Bríd and her sister, Ina, try to maintain a stable life in a divided country. Pushed by her mother’s fanaticism and a family tragedy, Bríd joins the IRA and makes a devastating choice. Frightened and guilt ridden, she flees, leaving behind Ireland and her family for America.

Years later, her guilt and tragic history still buried, Bríd is an overprotective mother raising her sensitive daughter, Bernie, in Southern California. Growing up amid a different kind of social unrest, Bernie’s need for independence and her exploration of her sexuality drive a wedge into their already-fragile relationship. When mother and daughter are forced to return to Northern Ireland, they both must confront the past, the present, and the women they’ve become.

As they navigate their troubled legacies, mother and daughter untangle the threads of love, violence, and secrets that formed them—and that will stubbornly, beautifully, bind them forever.

This was a beautifully told story of Bernie and her mother. While Bernie does not have any real stories about her mother’s past, and her mother answers Bernie’s questions differently each time, she knows her mother carries a deep sadness that likely drives her periodic bouts of incapacitating depression. Bernie has learned to recognize when it’s coming, work through it, and sometimes raise herself while trying not to cause any more worry for her mother.

Several current traumas for Bernie and her mother bring their real lives - and all their secrets—to light. In traveling back to Ireland and confronting Bernie’s mother’s past, they’re both forced to identify and learn who they truly are. It feels like little is known about the troubles in Northern Ireland except by those who were there, and then it’s all-consuming. This book gave a great portrayal of a family living through it.

This compelling family drama earned 4 out of 5 stars. It could be readily recommended to those who appreciate learning about other communities, parts of the world, and dramas involving family relationships and loyalties. 

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Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who also shares on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.