Shade

by Neil Jordan

We know from the earliest pages of Neil Jordan's numinous, slow-building fourth novel, Shade that its narrator, 50-old Nina Hardy, has been murdered with a pair of gardening shears by her childhood friend George Truite. The mystery is not who has committed this crime, but why. And although George has been for some years a resident of the local insane asylum, only recently allowed to experiment again with independent living, his madness is but a small part of the answer to that question.

Set in Ireland near Drogheda, at the mouth of the river Boyne, Shade casts a wistful eye on childhood desires and alliances, and its lonely-girl-in-a-big-house beginnings will call to mind William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault. But like Jordan's greatest success, the film The Crying Game, this novel is full of surprises - and the biggest shocks are not always the most telling. - Jill Harvey

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Ireland, Fantasy, Irish Literature, Paranormal

318 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2004

About the author

Neil Jordan is an Irish novelist and film director.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHEEE, my 4 and 5 star book streak continues. I'm usually lucky if I read even two books in a row that I would rate more than a 3, so this is awesome.

This is a strange, eerie, gorgeous book. It's a coming of age tale, a story of World War I era Ireland (and beyond), a dark love story(stories?), a ghost story. It's also very atmospheric, beautifully written and...did I mention strange? But I love weird books (as long as they meet my other basic literary "requirements") so that's just fine with me.

The story is narrated by the ghost of a woman who grew up to be murdered by a childhood friend. Her spirit (this is SUCH an Irish story, God) is trapped not only in the sprawling old river-side home of her childhood, but also in her own past. Together Nina and the reader watch her childhood (and that of her murderer, as well as his sister and her half-brother) unfold, and search for answers as to how it all went so wrong. An element that I loved (and no this is not a spoiler, her death and the details of her haunting are revealed right away) is that her sadly watchful adult ghost was often seen by her childhood self, and as a girl Nina imagined all sorts of histories for the silent observer, never guessing it was actually her. That still gives me shivers just thinking about it, so deeply ironic and sad.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really liked this book. It's dark, it kinda has a few moments that make you uncomfortable for variable reasons. It's engrossing. After I finished it, I thought, It's been a long time since I've read a book that is that good. I felt like it sat with me for a while after I finished it, like a shadow. Would give 5 stars, but I remember at some point towards the middle/end realizing that they kinda abandoned the narration from the ghost point of view for a while, and I noticed it was missing and felt like it was missing.

[Padraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Ireland, just because you're dead doesn't mean you don't get a say. Lovely.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of Nina, killed by a childhood friend and trapped as a ghost in the house where she grew up. As the police come and go, and her body rots in its unfound hiding place, she begins to relive her own live, becoming the mysterious figure that haunted her as a child. From her lonely childhood, to the meeting with George and Janie, the arrival of her step-brother, to the lofty heights of stardom and eventually back to her own death.

A brilliantly written novel, although not a great deal actually happens. You end up drifting from one scene to another, seeing both through Nina's ghostly eyes and her real ones. George and Gregory's battlefield scenes are quite harrowing and contrast really well with the images from her life, although the quick changes between the two did annoy me a bit. Still, I really enjoyed this and may well track down some more books by this author.

[Andrei Bădică · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Umbra" de Neil Jordan este carte foarte ciudată, din mai multe puncte de vedere. O asemăn cu "Vis febril" de Samanta Schweblin, dar până la un punct. Interferarea perspectivelor narative mi-a dat bătăi de cap. Sunt de părere că autorul putea să accentueze cine povestește, nu să mă zbat de unul singur în căutarea adevărului. Finalul a fost unul grotesc pe care nu l-am mai întâlnit, până în acest moment, în nicio carte citită.

"Nina a aflat, în decursul următoarelor câteva săptămâni însorite, că existau lecții pentru toate procesele posibile în viață, că pentru fiecare acțiune pe care o desfășurase până acum fără să se gândească exista o viziune mai bună, infinit superioară."

"- Iubirea este, simplu, o nebunie, i-a spus fratelui ei, merită la fel de bine o casă întunecoasă și un bici cum merită nebunii; și motivul pentru care ei nu sunt așa de pedepsiți și de vindecați este că nebunia este așa de comună încât biciuitorii sunt și ei îndrăgostiți."

[Sandra Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a good book,a little hard to follow in parts,it was sad but Jordan paints a picture of childhood innocence and describes the era and the location so well you feel like youre there.Its my first novel by Jordan so i think i would probably read some more of his work.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the description on the back of this book, it sounds like The Lovely Bones, but it's really not. Yes, there's a murder, yes, the spirit of the woman murdered has some awareness of what occurs after her death. But in reality it begins with a murder, then narrates the events leading up to it. It's more truly a literary novel about love, lust, and thwarted passions of all kinds.

I enjoyed it, but I've only given it 3/5 because it's one of those novels that constantly reminds the reader that it's a novel, and I found that bothersome in this case. The point of view changes frequently, and often switches from first to third person. The way the characters speak adds to the artificiality as well; there are whole huge sections of dialogue that seem utterly improbable. One that particularly struck me was supposed to be an early morning conversation in the kitchen while the teakettle boiled, but the first sentence goes like this:

"I remember his letters, in your handwriting with his syntax, an oddly comforting juxtaposition of elements if I may say so, you two had become the one creature at last, elegant yet unlettered, the occasional erudite word sitting like an awkward jewel among the plain and pithy sentences."

Lovely, yes, but not particularly realistic, coming as it does from an uncolleged, hungover Irish woman before breakfast. So, if you feel like you might enjoy it nonetheless (as I did, to some degree) or if you really LIKE highly wordy, somewhat self-important novels, check it out. If you're looking for The Lovely Bones, pass.

[Lynne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books that people love to say they've read and that they love it and it's all very clever. I read it for a book group and didn't love it at all! It was rambling in parts and I had to reread them to try and understand them which I ultimately didn't so skipped them. The story could've been so good but wasn't - I didn't enjoy the style of the writing, there were random sections that didn't really seem to tie in with the story and you find out what happens at the beginning of the books so after reading it I wondered why I'd bothered! The story is told by 2 narrators Nina and her brother but the voices switch constantly and at times you're not really sure who's telling the tale. It seems to be a bit of a marmite book but he's not a writer I'd ever read again - not for me at all.

[Marport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using the ghost of the main character was an interesting technique and, as bizaare as it sounds, actually worked well. I was engrossed from the start. The characters and their relationships are interesting and the impact of passion, obsession and betrayal upon them ultimately reveals all. I became an obsessive reader!

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The synopsis makes this sound like The Lovely Bones. It shares a ghost, and a murder, but that's about it. This is about growing up, the rural idyll, friendship, family secrets.
A number of reviews stated this was confusing, and difficult to read. I found it neither, leading me to wonder if they'd ever read literary fiction before. Perhaps they should stick to Celeb memoirs and 50 Shades.

[Hutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book as a first edition paperback, read a few chapters and abandoned it as too difficult to get into.

So, almost a decade later, I found it on my shelf and tried it again. It is ridiculously hard to follow part I, because of the dual narration from the same character at two points in time. The book isn't plot driven, it's a study in four characters (although Janie, of the foursome, is left to founder somewhat).

I'm a fast reader, but the density and complexity of the narration meant I read this fairly short book very slowly, and often had to re-read sections to understand what was going on. I think this would have played a lot better as a theatre or film piece--which makes sense, as Jordan is also a screenplay writer.

Ultimately, I think this one will sit for a while and I'll read it again in several years, and hopefully it will make more sense then.

[Audrey Montague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though it got off to a slow start, I ended up engrossed in this story. Having grown up in the country a bit isolated and with a limited selection of playmates, I could relate to the characters. each person's story evolves in unexpected twists and turns that always bring them back together. surprises await....and the historical aspect that Gregory provides when recounting his memories of war are haunting. all in all, a very good book.

[Lynyrd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ireland, 1950. Nina Hardy wakes in the big house where she grew up. Now aged fifty, she has returned to the fading beauty of her old home, and its unkempt gardens, its views of the wild Irish Sea, and its long-buried memories. With her childhood friend George, she is seeking peace from a turbulent world. But by the end of the day, a brutal crime will have been committed, which will alter their lives forever.

Hmmn where to start... This is a book that left me very mixed. The writing is good and Jordan is very poetic. There are some parts that are really good. Especially towards the end when George and Gregory go to war which really stands out. But the story and characters are not quite at that level of the writing. The characters are not particularly interesting and i felt it hard to love any of them. The story of Nina who is murdered by a childhood friend and then her ghost narrates though her childhood and events leading up to her murder. But it isn't just her narration! it jumps from character to character and there memories and gets so very confusing....I liked parts of it but to be honest, characters bland and forgettable, Nina main character who died was a bitch, so didnt care.. And the lovely bones did it so much better, dont know if it needed the Ghost bit. Couldn't wait to finish it so could read something else.

[LG · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb promised exactly the kind of thriller I would enjoy: return to childhood mysteries, brutal murder, heroine trying to make sense of it all. As usual, the blurb lied. Or, at least, it was obviously written by someone who had read only half of this novel.

The other half, which insinuates itself in the midst of the narrative, is made up of a patchwork of voices: the dead heroine’s, the half-brother’s, the friend’s (sister to the murderer). The result is a beguiling story that disintegrates into mundane passages before reasserting itself at the end – by which time, alas, I had already lost interest. Besides, none of the characters regains the traits that made the group of friends initially intriguing.

And I couldn’t, as the novel tried to save itself, work out exactly why George went insane and what it had to do with Hester, the spirit that Nina pretended was embodied by her doll. I dimly understood why he killed her, but none of the other threads really connected. The book’s title, a synonym for shadow or ghost, seems apt only in the sense that the novel turned out to be only a shadow of what I suppose Jordan intended it to be. Shame.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two thirds of the book was easily a four or five star read, but the last third was a let down. I didn't understand the author's choice to suddenly switch to Gregory's POV for endless chapters about the war, which had very little to do with the rest of the plot, and could easily have been cut out to no detriment. I also did not buy the final revealed motivation for the murder. After 50 years, how much evidence would have been left, and anyway, cartilage doesn't turn to bone until like the 7th month of pregnancy, and there's no way Nina was 7 months along when she had that abortion. She would have been the size of a house. I just can't buy that cartilage and blood clots would have been preserved enough for George, who wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with, to recognize what he was looking at.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does the idea of exquisite plotting, strong characters and apple-clear descriptive atmospheres in a novel entice you? What about a story of sidelives and quiet corners in the British empire around the turn of the twentieth century? Granted, some of the most obvious questions raised by the novel's events remain unanswered by narrative diegesis and, granted, Jordan has a filmmaker's sense of the spectacular; so too, however, does his filmmaker's eye see a world so rich and so full of fiction's power that the answers this novel provides are to the questions art asks of itself and not those we as readers ask of our novels. Nina's ghost is perhaps a partial truth at best but her voice is compelling and conjures up the quiet miracle of the most memorable stories of loss.

[Jesse Bullington · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first novel I've read by director Jordan (The Company of Wolves, The Butcher Boy), a ghost story where the twist is beneficially detailed at the very beginning. This leads to the novel itself being more a tragic drama with some neat supernatural elements. The characters, events, and setting often serve as a microcosm of Ireland in the first half of 20th century, and I'd highly recommend the work to anyone interested in that age and locale. Quite beautiful, if a little rough around the metaphor at times.

[Sarah]

Have said I read this, but that's a lie.

I couldn't get past the first 20 pages. I'm so depressed. I keep picking up highly recommended books and hating them. It's winter. I want to get so engrossed in a book that I'm glad I can't leave the house because it raining.

I hated Jordan's style of writing. Couldn't work out what was going on, wasn't engaged by the characters.

I possibly have enough time to read 1,500 books before I die, if I read about one book a week (give or take!) . I do not want to waste my time on this one.

[Jansie · Rating 1 out of 5]

very hard to get into and follow - " Shade. Of a bat's wing, of a sycamore at noon, of an ash in thin moonlight, in the biggest shade of all. Nightshade. Shade of what I was. I am that oddest of things, an absence now. A rumour, a shade within a shadow, a remembrance of a memory, my own. A stray dog forages with my wellington boot, buries it in the potato patch, digs it up again, buries it again."

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A woman, murdered by a childhood friend, returns from the grave to haunt herself. She narrates her own life and brings a bittersweet knowledge to that which she observes. Excellent novel including visions of Ireland in the early days of the 20th century, WWI, the theatre scene, and how childhood relationships stand the test of time.

[Zarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

So so so many details, at first I couldn't understand why, but towards the end every detail seemed relevant. It was extraordinary. I loved it. I couldn't see the "why" part of the murder until later on so it kept me reading until I figured it out.
It took me a very long time to read through it because I'd get into it and then stop reading and not get back into for days.

[Avd.Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghost narrator relates the story of her murder and events that led up to it in flashbacks. The aloof ghostly perspective makes for a dispassionate camera eye view of the fragmented story. I was not that taken with it, though the writing is good. There is a vivid quality to the descriptions, scenes, settings, and landscapes we zoom in on, just too many scenic cuts for my taste.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the dialogue was a bit too poetic for children speak, too many Shakespearean observations and ten dollar words, I thought the story was engaging enough to allow for a bit of writer's fantasy. A little slow, but a good read.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jordan provides a fascinating glimpse into the human psyche. A hard-to-put-down book.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish the book, I only got to page 38, definitely not my kind of book!

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the story or at least the concept of the story. I did not love his telling of the story. The writing itself is good at times - Jordan is a director as well as a writer so scenes are descriptive and provoking - and staged. The book is just so confusing. It seems that everyone has more than one name, especially the main character, Nina (or Dolly or Hester or whoever she may be at any given moment.) The story is told from everyone's memory of the same event - so one minute you're in the past from Nina's perspective, or Joanie's, or Gregory's - but all memories are shared at different times under different circumstances. Nina is Nina as a child or Nina as an adult or Nina as a ghost ... and then again the ghost is always present even when Nina is still alive - maybe. All of the characters are written with the same voice - even the "slow" George who is remarkably well versed for a boy with little education. And why do the characters do what they do - especially Nina who seems to have an idyllic life in spite of a distant mother - I never understood why she had so much angst. I guess I didn't understand much but I kept wanting to because there was a good story hidden in this book.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the premise of this book very intriguing. However, as I started to read the book I was a little disappointed. The dialogue throughout most of the book is unbelievable, most adults don't talk like that let alone children. I found it hard to identify with the characters, and throughout most of the book just wished the story would end already. About three quarters of the way through the book I found it enjoyable again. Though the story didn't live up to my expectations Jordan's prose though the whole book is beautiful.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really really wanted to finish this book, but I couldn't. The summary of this book sounded so good, but I just couldn't get into it. I never looked forward to reading it and I was always waiting for something big to happen. Very slow read and I couldn't even finish it. I guess it would suck for me if it got really good after the first 100 pages because I just couldn't make it past that!

[Larry]

I'm putting this aside on the struggling pile and will pick up again in the future. I am a big fan of Neil but page one (1) put me into a bit of a funk, the premise is not new (recollection of a murdered person) and i realize things can only get better (optimistic?) maybe its just my mood right now and as said I love his writing. I am not going to give any starts at the moment.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I liked the idea of the book but the style wasn't my taste. It's the type where instead of ever really saying what is happening in a "big moment", the author talks around and around it so you have to infer what he means. For me, that gets old.