Set in the 1950s in Dublin, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne has just been re-released. Made into a movie in 1987, the story is timeless and appeals to good readers who love a psychological examination of characters’ motives and expectations. Judith (Judy), a lonely middle aged woman, who moves from one boarding house to another searching for love and friendship, pulls at the reader’s heartstrings. A piano teacher and a seamstress, she is essentially a woman who has fallen from society and has very little money left to buy food or clothing. As an orphaned young girl, her aged aunt took Judy in, and as years went by, Judy cared for her senile aunt, while giving up her own life and refusing to put the crazed aunt “away”.
The novel opens as Judy moves into another boarding house and immediately falls for the new man, a native Dubliner, who had lived in NY for numerous years, and who has just moved back to Dublin to live in his sister’s boarding house. Judy thinks he is THE man and that he is quite wealthy, and that he is the one for whom she is meant and immediately falls for him. The reader learns that he is indeed not wealthy but thinks that Judy is because of the way she dresses and acts. Essentially, each wants the others money which does not really exist.
Haunted by her aunt’s photo on her mantel, as well as a photo of “The Sacred Heart” which hangs above her bed, Judy, a deeply devout Catholic, doubts her faith as she is jilted by the NY man. Sinking deeper and deeper into depression and delusional thinking, Judy turns to alcohol for escape. The son of the boarding house owner, offers comic relief and amusement, which adds to the overall intrigue.
In the notes following the conclusion of this well written tiny novel, a classic in Ireland, references to James Joyce and allusions to Ulysses and the character Leopold Bloom are quite interesting. I wish I had read this afterword before I had read this novel. Having suffered through reading Ulysses while in graduate school, it was nice to revisit an Irish novel. For lovers of Joyce, who died only 15 years before this novel was first published, as well as for those readers who like a good Irish novel, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is captivating. Liz at Random House recommended this little find to me, and I’m glad.The cover alone of this unusual novel will be enough to entice many readers!
-Nan
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