Night Boat to Tangier

Late August found us struggling to figure out how to meet safely with Delta variant of Covid lurking at the corners of our lives.  We met remotely and discussed Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry.  This novel read like poetry.  We had mixed reactions to the violence and the pain and suffering of these two Irish men and their families.  The novel is reminiscent of Waiting for Godot, as these two old friends sit and remember their lives of their childhood struggles with poverty, their young drug running days, their love for the same woman and their struggles with loss and disappointment.  We all agreed that it was a dark novel, full of Irish suffering.  We also found it to be a profound novel of love and commitment, albeit, a strange variant of commitment.  We were deeply affected by Dilly, the daughter they wait for at the Algeciras terminal.  Her struggle between compassion and obligation and a need to lead a life that was her own was compelling and struck home with many of us. 

Next month, we are going to read Deacon King Kong by James McBride.  We are hoping to meet in person at Terry's with a back up of a Zoom meet on October 11th at 6:45.