This powerful short novel follows Bill Furlong for a brief window of time as he moves about his small Irish town, New Ross, in December of 1985. The book spans only the time of a cake being baked, frosted, and eaten–although, this is an Irish Christmas cake, so that means a few weeks, not a few hours.
Bill is a coal and timber merchant, working from darkness to darkness delivering fuel to homes and businesses. His life is full of dualities: complete exhaustion, and an overflowing well of gratitude. The consuming demands of his work, and the sustaining glow of his home with his wife Eileen and five daughters. His and Eileen’s loving partnership, and his deep loneliness and isolating moral ponderings. Being by some measures well off– that is, not currently owing debt–and yet being on the verge of precarity, in a lean economic time. Being well liked and respected by most people, despite coming from a background of obscurity .
One of the main questions of the novel is, when do you have enough that you can give to others? It is easy to see that what you give away you then have less of for yourself, and for those for whom you are responsible. Resources, time, even perhaps care are finite. There is a fantasy, expressed by Eileen in the book, that at a certain level of economic status, you can escape above this problem, and finally “do as you please” and help people. And without question more money does give more of this kind of freedom, where giving does not cut into your own necessities of life. But: what are the necessities, vs the comforts of life, that we can justify to ourselves or accuse others of? And really is not the whole scale of “wealth” sliding, rather than segmented off into these levels of “can” and “can’t” as Eileen insists? Moreover, the novel explores the even more powerful factor of social judgement and pressure, which is even harder to define and escape: what you give to others, and who you choose to help, will be judged and perhaps punished by society.
As Furlong ponders over what he owes to others, Eileen is terrified of losing what little the family has. She sees Furlong’s generosity towards strangers as a danger because it breaks down the basic barrier between the inner circle of care–family, close neighbors, friends–and the outer circle, which is the rest of humanity. Through fear she views giving to the outside as a slippery slope: once that you admit that you owe one stranger your help, how can your conscience stop at that one? Better to put up a wall and draw a hard line. As Eileen says about inviting Ned to dinner, If there’s enough for five there’s enough for six. The inner circle can broaden, temporarily, and everything will be fine. But food only stretches so far, and how much can ‘enough for five’ really go if the family looks around and sees all the others who need a seat at the table?
The story really plays with the idea of abundance and luxury, and questions what constitutes a modest life. I am fascinated by how delicate of a task it is to summarize the financial and social situation of the Furlong family, in terms of what they have and what they enjoy. We are shown scenes of the loveliest domestic comfort, of their daughters doing homework around the table, of the girls helping to make the Christmas cake and writing letters to Santa. Eileen and Bill both work nonstop to make this life possible for their family, to fill their home with a feeling of love and safety, to be frugal and conscientious in all things so that they can afford not only food and their home and schooling, but also the small things that give life an extra sparkle. Bill looks around and sees the people who have less than they do, customers who used to buy coal or timber from him but now cannot afford to do so, and their stoves sit cold. The difference between these households and theirs is obviously immense. On the other hand, it is only a few levels away, from a cold stove, to a lit one, to a stove with bread baking in it, to one with a rare indulgence like a fruitcake baking in it. From Eileen’s perspective, the fact that they can afford a little more than their daily bread is only a result of being very cautious and guarded with their money, that there is hardly a margin for error.
Little does Eileen know that Bill giving pocket change to –boys name– is not what will ultimately put their domestic happiness to the test.
