Marble Heart (2000) by Gretta Mulrooney

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Marble Heart is a story of being sucked into a cause, manipulated by an egotistical leader, and seeking atonement in later life.

The story takes place in England and centers around Nina, a terminally ill teacher suffering from the advanced stages of lupus who in the past was a member of the Red Dawn, a small, mostly benign, pro-national revolutionary group based in Belfast, Northern Ireland amid the height of civil conflict and unrest of the 70s.

Owing to her illness, Nina enlists the help of Joan, a carer, to assist her with everyday tasks. The two soon become friends but unknown to Joan an event from the past has made Nina specifically choose Joan as her caregiver in order to eventually reveal the sins of her youth.

The novel goes back and forth between current events and the retelling of Nina’s past in a pseudo-epistolary form as she composes journal entries on her computer directed at both Majella, her estranged partner in crime from her Belfast days, and Martin, Nina’s estranged husband.

Review

For the most part it is well written. I enjoyed the central narrative based in Belfast even if passages felt long-winded and cumbersomely detailed at times. The contrast between the characters of Nina and Joan is supposedly a basis of the novel; however, Joan is essentially relegated to a background character after the first two chapters. It takes a while before the book really kicks off and we discover that the main focus is on Nina’s backstory. The majority of it follows a pattern of brief updates of her current condition and then diving into long passages of the past. It is broken up by in-between chapters flipping from past to present and for me it felt as though I was constantly taken out of one story and forced into another, seemingly irrelevant one up until the last chapter or two when the link between Nina and Joan is revealed.

The major critique I have of the novel is that it lacks a sense of tension owing to its retrospective and undulating method of storytelling. By the time of the big reveal I simply didn’t care as much as I should have, my mind was too inundated with superfluous descriptions. Why should I constantly need to be aware of all the different foods the characters like to eat and how they’re prepared? What importance does an in-depth description of the meticulous colors used in Joan’s apartment have that warrants breaking up the pacing? I found myself asking such questions every time I put the book down.

After finishing the novel, I couldn’t help but think that the story would have been more effectively told if it was laid out more sequentially by having the first part set in Belfast, narrated as it happened, and then following up with the events of the present. It would’ve maintained a sense of intrigue and much needed tension as readers wouldn’t have all the gaps filled in.

If I had to sum up Marble Heart I’d say it’s a potentially good story bogged down by a focus on minor details.

About the Author

Gretta Mulrooney (1952-2023) was a British author of mystery, thriller, and crime novels. Born and raised in London to Irish parents, Mulrooney began publishing novels in her 30s, working with publishers such as Poolberg Press, Harper Collins, and Joffre Books.
https://grettamulrooney.com/

^{~Giuseppe Gillespie November 2023}

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