History of the Rain (Williams)

History of the Rain 
Niall Williams, 2014
Bloomsbury, USA
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781620406472


Summary
We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. That’s how it seems to me, being alive for a little while, the teller and the told.

So says Ruthie Swain.

The bedridden daughter of a dead poet, home from college after a collapse (Something Amiss, the doctors say), she is trying to find her father through stories—and through generations of family history in County Clare (the Swains have the written stories, from salmon-fishing journals to poems, and the maternal MacCarrolls have the oral) and through her own writing (with its Superabundance of Style).

Ruthie turns also to the books her father left behind, his library transposed to her bedroom and stacked on the floor, which she pledges to work her way through while she’s still living.

In her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows, Ruthie writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. The stories she uncovers and recounts bring back to life multiple generations buried in this soil—and they might just bring her back into the world again, too. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1958
• Where—Dublin, Ireland
• Education—B.A., M.A., University College, Dublin
• Currently—Kiltumper, County Clare, Ireland


Niall Williams is an Irish author and playwright. He studied English and French literature at University College Dublin before graduating with a Master's degree in Modern American Literature.

He moved to New York in 1980 where he married Christine Breen, also a novelist, whom he had met while she was a Master's student also at UCD, and took his first job opening boxes of books in Fox and Sutherland's bookshop in Mount Kisco. He later worked as a copywriter for Avon Books in New York City before leaving America with Chris in 1985 to attempt to make a life as a writer.

Between 1985 and 1997, Niall cowrote four nonfiction books with his wife, recounting the couple's life together in Kiltumper in west Clare.  In 1991 Niall's first play The Murphy Initiative was staged at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. His second play, Little Like Paradise was produced on the Peacock stage of The Abbey Theatre in 1995. His third play, The Way You Look Tonight, was produced by Galway's Druid Theatre Company in 1999.

Novels
Niall's first novel, Four Letters of Love, published in 1997, went on to become an international bestseller and has been published in over twenty countries. ♦  His second novel, As it is in Heaven, published in 1999, was long listed for the Irish Times IMPAC Literary Award.  ♦  His third novel, The Fall of Light, was released in Britain and Ireland, France, Italy and America. ♦  His fourth novel, Only Say The Word, came out in 2005 in several countries. ♦  His fifth novel, Boy in the World, published in 2007 was dedicated to his son Joseph. He wrote chapters and sent them to Joseph who was away at boarding school. ♦  Niall continued the story in the sequel, Boy and Man, his sixth novel. ♦  Niall's seventh novel, John, explores the life of John the apostle, who reportedly lived 100 years while awaiting Jesus's return. ♦  His 2014 novel, History of the Rain, has been long listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

He is at work on several screenplays, including one on his novel Four Letters of Love.

Williams currently lives in west Clare with his wife and two children. He worked as a mentor for MFA students of Carlow University in Pittsburgh. He was also the writer-in-residence for County Sligo, in Ireland, for the previous two years. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/20/2014.)

Book Reviews
[A] unique voice and a droll, comic tone that takes a surprising, serious turn.... The energy, tone, and premise of the book work well; the decision to view Ruthie’s experiences through the lens of literature pays off.... Williams makes so many good stylistic and storytelling choices that his latest is well worth the read.
Publishers Weekly


History of the Rain is charming, wise and beautiful. It is a love letter to Ireland in all its contradictions, to literature and poetry and family. It acknowledges that faith itself is a paradox, both impossible and necessary. And faith carries this novel—faith that stories can save us, that love endures, that acceptance is within reach, and finally, that it is possible to get to the other side of grief.
Shelf Awareness


(Starred review.) Destined to be a classic, [History of the Rain] isn't just the elegy Ruthie offers to the departed but also a love letter to reading and its life-giving powers. [Ruthie's] voice and narrative remain utterly unique even as she invites comparisons to Jim Hawkins, Ishmael, and hosts of legendary literary narrators
Library Journal


(Starred review.) You can smell the peat burning and feel the ever-present mist in acclaimed Irish novelist Williams’ luscious paean to all who lose themselves in books. Williams captures the awe and all of Ireland—its myths and mysteries, miseries and magic—through the pitch-perfect voice of a saucily defiant young woman who has witnessed too much tragedy but who clings devotedly to those she’s lost.
Booklist


A rambling, soft-hearted Irish family saga stuffed with eccentricity, literature, anecdotes, mythology, humor and heartbreak.... [A] long, sentimental, affectionate poem to Irishness generally...and one quirky family in particular that insists on being read at its own erratic pace.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
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