What I’m Reading: Sebastian Barry

The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry

Read from June 14 to 24, 2012

Four stars

Roseanne McNulty is nearing her 100th birthday and for most of her life has been an inmate at a Roscommon mental hospital, which will soon close. After many years of near-neglect of this longterm inmate, the shrink in charge, Dr. Grene, must evaluate whether she’s fit to be returned to society when the hospital closes or must be housed at the newer, much smaller replacement facility. Grene’s intrigued by this patient because the few documents in her file contradict the story she tells him of her early life in the days of the Irish civil war in the early part of the 20th century. Roseanne is not truly forthcoming in the answers she gives the shrink, but she spills the whole story onto paper in a memoir which she hides under a loose floorboard in her room. This is a sad story, as so many Irish stories are, especially the stories of Irish women, who bore the cruelist blows of the oppressive and remorseless patriarchy that was so rigidly enforced at the behest of a corrupt and corrupting church. And yet as each tragedy is described, some small and some seemingly unendurable, one finds it easy to read on because we know Roseanne has survived, and in her simple and earthy vitality, we see the reason why. And as the story nears its close, it takes a wonderful, almost magical, turn toward redemption and finishes on a soaring note.