The Slowworm's Song by Andrew Miller

Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024--San Antonio

The Slowworm's Song by Andrew Miller was better than I expected. The author is Irish, and the story is about a Quaker of Northern Irish descent living in England.  He has never been a devout Quaker, and his life when he was young was in a bit of a shambles due to not having a good job and also having a bit of a drinking problem, so he joined the army which sent him to Belfast during the time of the Troubles.  He never married, but he met a woman and fell in love and got her pregnant before going into the army.  They never lived together, and the daughter has mostly been estranged from him, although they have made contact in recent years.  She calls him Stephen rather than Dad.  He is now about 70.  His whole life has continued to be troubled by an event that took place in Belfast, and he is writing his life story in a missive to his daughter.  The book is what he is writing to her, so it slowly reveals his life and gives a plausible explanation of why it has been a very poor one at times.  In my mind, his life has been much like that of many of the Americans who came back from Vietnam--troubled by what they experienced and by the fact that no one at home wanted to even know what they had experienced.  He's obviously a good person from what he writes to the daughter.  And the way he expresses things is sometimes humorous.  Example said about a funeral director in the town:  "I don't know if funeral directors receive any training in first aid.  It wouldn't seem like a priority for them."  The book was listed as a top book of the year in 2022 by The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.