The Fall of Light

NY Times Book Review

...there is much to relish in William's lush and lilting prose...

Publishers Weekly

The travails of the Foley family in the times before and during the Irish potato famine are the subject of Williams's overwrought, unashamedly romantic epic (after Four Letters of Love). Francis Foley inherited his rebel blood from a father who was hung for treason by the English, but his marauding spirit is tamed somewhat when he marries Emer O'Suilleabhain, the daughter of a village schoolteacher. A gardener on the great estate of a mostly absentee grandee, Francis eventually takes to breaking into the big house and looking at the sky through his lordship's telescope, to Emer's dismay; their quarrels escalate into violence and she leaves him. Francis, desperate to find her, packs up his four sons, steals the telescope, sets fire to the estate and runs off. So begins a series of disasters that sees the Foley boys Tomas, Teige and the twins, Finbar and Finan separated and reunited several times as their destinies carry them to Hungary, America and Africa. Tomas, the oldest, falls in love with a beautiful prostitute named Blath, for whom he kills a man. Teige, the youngest, becomes a locally famous horse tamer and runs off with Elizabeth, the daughter of the squire he works for, and Finbar winds up the leader of a gypsy band. Francis himself is nearly drowned, and is rescued by monks; he searches for his sons and is finally reunited with Emer, now a blind woman. Williams veers from lyricism to blarney in swooping, misty paragraphs sure to please his readership. Major ad/promo; 5-city author tour. (Mar. 13) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Set in 19th-century Ireland, this sweeping tale by Williams (Four Letters of Love) follows the fate of a father and his four sons. Francis Foley marries Emer and then finds work as a gardener on a large estate. One night, he becomes fed up with his absentee landowner-employer for not appreciating his artistry, so he destroys his cottage, sets fire to the manor, and steals his employer's telescope. So begin the myriad adventures of Francis and his sons, who flee the estate without Emer. Not long after, they cross a river, and Francis is swept away. Thinking their father dead, the boys Tomas, Teige, Finbar, and Finan push on. Tomas becomes involved with a woman named Blath who will lead him down a dark path that involves a brush with a hellish Irish prison; Teige is a wonder with animals, especially horses, a skill that will lead him to Elizabeth, the love of his life as well as his downfall; Finbar meets up with a band of Gypsies at some point and through a series of events becomes their leader; and Finan wonders off to become a missionary in Africa, lost to his family forever. Paths do cross as the book continues, and some of the Foleys even head off to America to make a new life. Filled with magical realism, this book is an allegory of Ireland and its people. It is overstuffed with events and not always convincing, but readers who enjoy epic tales with several story lines will find it satisfying. Recommended for most public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/01.] Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A languid, quasi-epic account of one family's fortunes in Ireland and around the globe. Williams (As It Is In Heaven, 1999, etc.) lays on the blarney in his very first line ("In an autumn long ago, the Foleys crossed the country into the west like the wind that heralds winter") and keeps it coming at a pretty steady pace in this family saga about the Foleys, who started out in Carlow and made their way, in the best Celtic style, to the four corners of the world. Francis Foley, the patriarch of the clan, marries the beautiful and headstrong Emer O'Suilleabhain, and becomes a tenant farmer on the estate of an absentee landowner. Fascinated by the stars, Francis steals a telescope from the manor house and has to flee with his four sons (for Emer refuses to leave). They wander west and settle in a remote wilderness near the Atlantic coast. Francis Foley's wanderlust is inherited by his boys, all of whom run off themselves in some more or less dramatic fashion. Finbar marries the beautiful gypsy girl Caitlin and makes his home in her perpetually roving caravan, while his twin brother Finan travels to France and enters a monastery, eventually voyaging on to Africa as a missionary. Tomas emigrates to America, where he gets mixed up in Fenian politics in New York, flees west, joins the army, and winds up in Wyoming as a surveyor with the cavalry. There, he is finally reunited with his baby brother Teige, who, a horse farmer in Canada, wandered a bit far off his ranch one day. What goes around truly comes around in the end. Utterly hokey, written in faux-shanachie prose ("His father had been hung for participating in plots treasonous and bloody") and freighted with symbolism (a twin brotherbecomes the father of twin daughters-twice!) that's heavier than soda bread. Author tour