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{"id":2455,"date":"2021-03-28T09:45:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2021-03-28T10:08:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T10:08:42","slug":"lone-star-review-elephant-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2455&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Review: THE ELEPHANT OF BELFAST"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review of new historical fiction<\/p>\n

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\u201cEver since she could remember, Hettie had preferred animals to people. They were always happy to see her, grateful to be fed and given some attention.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Three-year-old Violet, an Asian elephant shipped from Ceylon, arrives at the Belfast, Northern Ireland, docks in October of 1940, bound for Bellevue Zoo & Gardens. Among the crowds there to greet Violet, \u201cas if British royalty or a famous screen actress were among the steamer\u2019s passengers,\u201d is twenty-year-old Hettie Quinn. The first woman hired as a zookeeper in Belfast, Hettie falls hard and fast for Violet. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Grieving the recent loss of her older sister and abandonment by her father, Hettie is an unconventional young woman trying to support her devastated mother, navigate newfound romance, sort tangled motives, and balance competing obligations while attempting to remain true to herself. When unimaginable tragedy strikes, help arrives from unexpected sources, and Hettie discovers who she is and what she\u2019s made of. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Elephant of Belfast<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a> is <\/span><\/span>S. Kirk Walsh<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u2019s debut novel, a beguiling and compelling story of historical fiction set during the 1941 Belfast Blitz. As the war begins to affect the charmed, self-contained world of the zoo (\u201ca quiet, monastic refuge, where an inherent order and system guided its daily way of life\u201d), Hettie must fight for herself and for her charges. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hettie Quinn\u2019s story is inspired by the life of Denise Weston Austin, one of the first female zookeepers in Belfast. Referred to as \u201cour elephant angel,\u201d you can read about Austin and view historical photos <\/span><\/span>here<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Walsh\u2019s research pays dividends for the reader as the sights, sounds, and smells of Belfast rise in the imagination. She conveys the current of \u201cfreshness\u201d and \u201copportunity\u201d as ship works and manufacturing gear up for the British war effort, the \u201chum\u201d of life and expectation thrumming in the blood, rising with the sandbag walls, evacuations, and air-raid drills; anything might happen and does, as the Luftwaffe drops 674 bombs over Belfast, killing almost a thousand people. Hitler had finally located Belfast on the map, and Walsh\u2019s steady pacing accelerates, never faltering as it hurtles into waking nightmare. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The author has invented a large cast of characters, but the company isn\u2019t unwieldy, each skillfully drawn personality proving original and filling their niche to propel the action. Walsh deftly weaves her subplots into the main narrative, making use of Northern Ireland\u2019s bloody, complicated history to conjure a fearful atmosphere of Catholic and Protestant, IRA and RUC, friend and foe. Hettie\u2019s story is related in third-person-limited perspective, enhancing our experience of the young woman\u2019s isolation, confusion, and uncertain future, feeling as if anything might happen and there\u2019s no way to anticipate or prepare. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Walsh\u2019s imagery brings Violet to life for us, looking like \u201ca giant anvil\u201d as the crane swings her off of the ship and onto the dock, her trunk \u201cunfurl[ing] like an opening fist.\u201d Dialogue sometimes works as comic relief, a respite from the ratcheting tension. Hettie\u2019s friend Eliza has some advice for her: \u201cRule number one: Never wear your mother\u2019s lipstick.\u201d The zoo animals have dialogue too, as \u201ca call and response\u201d begins between them during a German bombardment, the parrots screaming, \u201cApocalypse.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Elephant of Belfast <\/span><\/span><\/em>is a heartfelt and heartbreaking, ultimately inspiring and uplifting, tale of coming-of-age in extraordinary circumstances.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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