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The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney review – a satisfying tale of memory and place
Elaine Feeney's third novel, following the success of her prize-winning debut As You Were and the Booker-longlisted How to Build a Boat, focuses on Claire O'Connor, a woman who has moved from London back to Athenry in the west of Ireland in the wake of her mother's death. Her new life is disturbed when she finds her ex-partner Tom has moved in down the road. Or rather, that's one thread in a story that becomes steadily more interesting than this simple set-up from the romance novelist's playbook, as layers of family memory and trauma build up to form a portrait of the wider O'Connor family: all their history, the way it has shaped them and the traces it has left on the places around. Claire shows herself to be unusually attuned to the history of her home place, telling stories about nearby Thoor Ballylee, where Yeats lived; Lady Gregory's Coole Park; the place where Cromwell used to stable his horses. At first it seems a bit forced, a writer shoehorning in their research. But the tic begins to make sense as the marks of the past on Claire's family are revealed; slowly, one realises that the enumeration of these histories is crucial to the way the O'Connors live. Central to this gradual discovery is Feeney's use of stories-within-the-story; the novel is enlivened by a series of smaller, contained memories from Claire's childhood, and tales reaching back a century to the time when the O'Connors first lived in the family home. These are fascinating interludes breaking up the main plot, which is the slow and not very complex thawing of Claire's relationship with Tom, a recovery that seems to allow her to complete her cycle of grieving for her parents. In these shorter stories, which are like currants in the cake, we get access to the depths of her family's life: heartbreaking glimpses of her father's attempt to sell a horse to the queen of England's breeders, and of the appalling violence visited on the family by the Black and Tans. These are the kinds of memories that can go on to define whole lives, and illuminate the more humdrum present Claire is living in. It slowly emerges that really, this novel tells the story of a house. Feeney has created a brilliant metaphor in the O'Connor family home, a modern bungalow with the old farmhouse looming behind it. Like the fairy tree at the bottom of the farm, the family have come to believe they can never pull the old house down, lest it bring them bad luck; but this looming cavern of memory seems to offer very little access to past happiness, only past pain. By the end of Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way, the novel has become a story about what a family should do with its past. It's a hugely satisfying, sophisticated structure, and the apparent thinness of Claire and Tom's story ceases to matter, because it's only the first layer of a more complex work. Aspects of the novel are less successful. Claire finds herself drawn into the world of tradwives, and begins taking lifestyle tips from an Instagram account run by one of these women. This dalliance with what are essentially hard-right politics isn't particularly well ironised, and Claire seems to simply snap out of it. She realises there is no lost perfect time, only different hardship; but the discovery isn't given enough room to make sense, so all the pages of baking end up seeming like a fever dream that's never quite explained. Feeney is also capable of writing very, very unsuccessful dialogue: 'You're not dragging me into your murky confusion, Claire.' 'I forget sometimes.' 'Forget what?' 'All the people I've met – since.' 'Since?' 'Us.' This can make the characters sound a bit thick, which they manifestly aren't. However, the novel's baggy, complex, unfolding structure offers rich rewards. Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney is published by Harvill Secker (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Irish Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way by Elaine Feeney: An ambitious, thoughtful, nicely layered book
Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way Author : Elaine Feeney ISBN-13 : 978-1-787-30348-5 Publisher : Penguin Guideline Price : £14.99 Claire O'Connor is a poet and lecturer in creative writing. She lived in London for about a decade with Tom but soon after the death of her mother she left him and returned to 'the West of Ireland' – Athenry. She decides to stay in the family home, a bungalow built beside the original farmhouse, now derelict. The novel by Elaine Feeney focuses on Claire's relationship with her siblings, her dead parents, and with Tom, who reappears some years after the split. We delve into the past, both Claire's childhood and the earlier history of the family and region. A brutal encounter with the Black and Tans during the War of Independence is a key moment. The history of colonialism in Ireland, and the particular socio-economic culture of east Galway are dealt with. In the fields of Athenry, horses vault the class divide. Hunting 'was far from being a sport of kings around these parts'. 'The women with wizened faces and men with booming voices, their riding style slightly at odds with the locals' join the farmers for the hunt. The queen of England wants to buy a mare from the O'Connors! [ Elaine Feeney on her new novel: 'I was pushing a sort of Chekhov dinner party in the west of Ireland' Opens in new window ] The colonial legacy is one of the novel's thematic strands and is linked to the story of domestic intergenerational trauma. John, Claire's father, is capricious and violent. Her mother and the children live in terror. The unravelling of the mystery surrounding the mother's death is shockingly disclosed towards the close of the novel. READ MORE Gender issues are also dealt with at a local and universal level. Claire follows Insta posts by Kelly Purchase, one of those awful American 'tradwives'. She finds Kelly absurd but compelling. Ironically, by the end of the novel, she hosts a splendid party (Pinteresque, naturally), revealing that Kelly has exerted influence. 'The crab was set on a bed of baby gem lettuce, dressed with some hard shell, samphire, cracked black pepper and fresh parsley.' The novel is written in transparent, unshowy prose. Not linear, the narrative maintains its focus on Claire and despite several time-shifts never confuses. The main themes are handled with insight and real depth, and the depiction of the peculiarities of east Galway society is ethnographically interesting and convincing. An ambitious, thoughtful, nicely layered book. Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is a writer and critic. She is a member of Aosdána
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘My Home Burned Down in the Palisades Fire—Here's What No One Tells You About Insurance'
After the housing market was transformed first by record-low mortgage rates, then by inflation and cooling demand, real estate is going through yet another transformation. This time, it's driven by rising home insurance premiums. In regions at a high risk of natural disaster, rates are skyrocketing and policies are disappearing altogether as insurers drop longtime and new customers alike to reduce their exposure. From 2019 to 2024, more than 100,000 California homeowners lost coverage, according to research from the Public Policy Institute of California. The emotional whiplash of paying into a policy for years, only to be denied coverage when it's needed most, has left many homeowners disillusioned. For Claire O'Connor, a Los Angeles real estate agent and homeowner, the devastation became deeply personal. 'I literally said to my husband when we got dropped [in November 2024],' she recalled in an interview with ''As if our house is going to burn down … so many houses would have to burn to get to our house…' We were so far from the hills.' Then, just two months later, the unthinkable happened. O'Connor lost her home in the Palisades fire, one of more than 4,700 homes partly or entirely destroyed. The experience didn't just reshape her understanding of risk. It changed how she guides her clients, how she talks about homeownership, and how she approaches home insurance. After a disaster, many homeowners assume their insurance will kick in automatically, offering the financial support needed to rebuild and recover. But for O'Connor, and many of her clients, filing a claim turned out to be almost as stressful as losing the home itself. 'The insurance process has been horrible,' she says. 'You get a check, and then you have to co-sign it with your bank if you have a mortgage, and it goes into an escrow account.' Rather than providing immediate relief, many insurance payouts are tangled in red tape. In place of a lump sum, homeowners are handed a process. One that often requires heaps of paperwork and documentation, and even quotes from contractors before releasing funds to start work, she says. For many, that has meant delays in rebuilding, frustration navigating insurer demands, and confusion over what exactly is covered—and what isn't. As both a homeowner affected by wildfire and a real estate agent helping others pick up the pieces, O'Connor has a rare window into all sides of the recovery process. 'Some insurance companies have been better than others,' she says, adding that all of her clients have had different experiences. In an ironic twist, those whose homes survived the fire aren't necessarily better off. 'People with houses that are still standing are basically being told they need to move back. They're not going to have their living expenses covered.' But those homeowners are wary about returning. Lingering toxins and structural damage are real concerns, especially for families with young children. Yet insurance policies often offer little flexibility when a home is technically habitable. 'Especially people with small kids, it's like, 'Of course, I'm not going to move back,'' says O'Connor, who is also a mother. 'So they're kind of on their own to cover their living expenses.' Insurance hurdles remain steep even for those looking to relocate within the region. 'We have a client … he said he pays $3,000 a year in Arizona, and he got a quote [in Los Feliz] for $40,000 to $50,000.' It's a stark illustration of how wildfire risk is reshaping not just recovery, but also the very feasibility of living in certain parts of California. Premiums are soaring across the country—and not just in California. The average annual premium jumped $648 from 2019 to 2024, a 24% increase, which outpaced the 13% inflation rate during that time. And premiums rose in Utah (59%), Illinois (50%), Arizona (48%), and Pennsylvania (44%), according to an April 2025 report by the Consumer Federation of America. 'Insurance is really high everywhere, because it can really get to you anywhere,' says O'Connor. For buyers navigating this terrain, preparation and prevention are critical. That starts with understanding what insurers look for. 'We work with a great broker. … He has helped us understand what insurance companies look for,' O'Connor says. She points to having a metal roof or fire-hardening around the house (like a gravel belt) as steps that can bring your cost down. 'Any proximity to brush, just forget it,' she adds. Still, much of Los Angeles and other vulnerable regions remain in what insurers classify as 'very high fire severity zones.' That means elevated premiums are often a starting point, with risk mitigation efforts offering only modest relief. The takeaway for buyers? The old way of thinking about home insurance, set it and forget it, no longer applies. Prevention is now pricing power, and understanding your property's risk factors before you buy could make or break your long-term budget. Inside Michael Bolton's Connecticut Home Where He Plays 'Trivia' With His Kids as He Opens Up About Brain Cancer Treatment Arizona Homes Selling for $200K Cheaper Than State's Most Expensive Metro Thanks to Florida Developer Martha Stewart Makes 'Insane' Confession About Her Life at Home—Leaving Kelly Clarkson Gobsmacked
