Fiction – paperback; Faber and Faber; 240 pages; 2013. Review copy courtesy of the publisher.
I’m not surprised Faber and Faber didn’t bother writing a blurb to put on the back of this handsome edition of Deirdre Madden’s Time Present and Time Past — it would be a tricky task to “market” this extraordinary novel in any meaningful way in just a couple of short press-friendly paragraphs.
Indeed, I’m sure that whatever I say in this review will not do justice to this story, which revolves around the domestic but addresses big themes relating to time and memory and family history. I picked it up expecting to read just a chapter or two, and before I knew it I was two-thirds finished and decided it was just so lovely and enjoyable that I had to stay at home to finish the whole thing in one greedy gulp.
A pair of siblings
Set in Dublin during the good times before the economic crash turned the country upside down, it focuses on a pair of 40-something siblings — Fintan Buckley and his younger sister Martina.
Fintan, a congenial, easy-going man, is a legal adviser who is happily married to childhood sweetheart Colette with whom he has two sons, Robert and Niall, both at university, and a seven-year-old daughter, Lucy.
Martina, a renowned beauty who is headstrong and forthright, runs her own upmarket dress shop after having enjoyed a successful fashion career in London. She returned to Dublin about a decade ago and now lives with her aged aunt.
On the surface, Fintan and Martina lead comfortable middle-class lives, which not even their domineering and opinionated mother can ruin. But scratch a little deeper and there is more going on. For Fintan, it is an unknown and untapped desire to reconnect with his childhood past, for Martina it is the need to deal with a traumatic event from her time in London.
Both these threads eventually come together, but in the process, Madden interleaves lots of family history — how Fintan and Colette met, for example — to show how the bonds of friendship and family can not only wax and wane over time but form our own personal narratives.
Memory and time
But Time Past and Time Present isn’t a straightforward “cosy” domestic story. As the title suggests, it explores notions of time and looks at how memory can shift and change shape with the ticking of the clock.
Part of the novel focuses on Fintan’s inner life in which he begins to experience brief moments of altered states of consciousness that take him out of linear time and make him more open to the notion of an “immense pathos in life”. In one instance he has an out-of-body experience during a meeting with his personal assistant — and yet no one notices any change in him. Appearances, as they say, can be deceptive.
This theme is further explored by Fintan’s emerging interest in early photography and his realisation that he tends to
think of the past as profoundly different to the present, which it was, but not in the ways he expected; so that he had been surprised by Rob’s remark of a week ago on a cold day of torrential rain, when Fintan had found him in the hall gloomily sluicing water off his leather jacket and flapping his black umbrella: ‘They would have had weather like this during the Famine. Do you ever think about that, Dad? Rain like this and rotten potatoes.’
Not much plot
The most interesting thing about this book is that not much happens in it and yet I found myself getting caught up in the Buckley’s lives despite the complete absence of drama — this is definitely not a soap opera.
Perhaps the secret is two-fold: it’s all written in the present tense, which creates a sense of immediacy, and by focusing solely on ordinary people it’s easy to identify with the characters, all of whom are genuinely likeable and well-meaning. Indeed, I felt as if I actually knew these characters they seemed so recognisable to people I know and love.
Indeed, Madden has crafted a hugely enjoyable tale about ordinary lives being quietly led and the importance of family history in shaping who we are and who we want to be. It is understated and unsentimental, yet manages to pack an emotional punch.
Time Past and Time Present has been shortlisted for this year’s Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award, which will be announced on 28 May.
Reading Matters 
Thanks for a great review of a new Deirdre Madden. I think she’s a wonderful writer. I was recommended Authenticity by an Irish friend and then went on to read all her other books. I also have to thank Deirdre Madden for introducing me to John McGahern as she wrote about The Barracks as one of the finest books she’s read. As a consequence I read that book and many others by him. I also love Colm Toibin. It’s a bit of a puzzle to me as to why she’s less well known than other Irish writers.
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Sounds like one hell of a book if it kept you at home. The weaving of dimly history reminds me a little of Margaret Foraters work.
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I wonder if she’s less well known because she’s perceived to write “domestic” novels which are never taken as seriously as other novels. This is my third Madden and I’d love to read more. How interesting she recommends McGahern’s The Barracks — that was my first McGahern and I have very fond memories of reading it. It’s certainly one of the most affecting books I’ve ever read.
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Do you mean Margaret Foster? She’s one of those writers I keep meaning to read…
As for Madden, the same thing happened to me when I read “Molly Fox’s Birthday” — I simply could not put it down.
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a new name to me Kim ,thanks for the review ,all the best stu
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She may possibly be Ireland’s most under-rated writer, Stu, so pleased to bring her to your attention. This was my third Madden; it won’t be my last.
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