Review
Confessions of a Fallen Angel (Sceptre)
Death is Nothing At All
Ronan O’Brien’s debut novel offers a direct challenge to society’s perception of death says Claire McCauley.
Set in the fictional suburbia of Dublin’s Rathgorman, Confessions of a Fallen Angel is the testimony of our narrator as he struggles with the consequences of his own mortality. Following a near fatal asthma attack in early childhood, his resuscitation brings with it a cursed insight, he can now foresee the deaths of those he loves.
Plagued by these visions, his prophetic nightmares become reality when he tries in vain to save his childhood friend, Owen, from drowning. As the years pass, he remains wracked by inconsolable guilt and burdened by the recurrent premonitions of the deaths of those closest to him. When, resigned to a life alone, he meets and falls madly in love with Ashling, her love is his salvation until his nightmares return.
Confessions of a Fallen Angel aims to address, not only our fear of death but the depths and complexity of the emotions it induces. As our narrator’s experiences of death are compounded by his inability to prevent their inevitability, the reader is forced to address the sense of powerlessness, helplessness and guilt which so often accompanies loss. While his nightmares are etched with enough realism - enabling the reader to vicariously delve into the darker side of loss, bereavement and trauma - death is presented as an almost transitory dreamscape, a pathway towards what is described as ‘knowledge’. This, while vague enough to be comforting, lacks clarity to truly illuminate the darkness of grief.
O’Brien’s writing style is light and easily read but, at times, lacks a depth reflective of the subject matter. While his emotionally intense characters appear too narrow to truly care about, the lengthy descriptions of their heartbreak and bereavement are moving and honest. O’Brien’s use of colloquial language and dialectical dialogue is engaging for an Irish audience but is not maintained throughout and therefore, can seem tokenistic.
This is a brave subject matter for a debut novel but while O’Brien offers a direct challenge to the way we approach death he offers no new resolution to it. His sentiments are layered with familiar rhetoric and, while sincere, are grounded in a primarily Christian perspective of death and the afterlife.
O’Brien commendably offers love as death’s most formidable opponent, yet his central love story portrays a morose and slightly draining dependence rather than the energising and inspiring connection necessary to defeat it. However, the ultimate salvation of his central character is rooted in his commitment to others, and while clichéd, is powerful.
While Confessions of a Fallen Angel offers no new perspective, O’Brien has waged a confident attack on death itself, a reminder that while death is a mirror we must look through to truly see ourselves, an emotional gauge with which we evaluate our pasts and make promises about our future, it is a temporary moment, conquered always by the permanence of love.
