Cold Eye of Heaven by Christine Dwyer Hickey

Cold Eye of Heaven

Christine Dwyer Hickey

A touching novel reflecting on the life of Farley, now elderly, ill and alone. It looks at his time as a young child to the present. Everything Farley has gone through can easily happen to anyone - deceit from those you trust, loving another man's wife, losing your memory. I did find the story sad although there are bursts of humour. And it made me reflect on my own mortality and realise that one day, Farley's reality may be mine.

Extract
He opens the Clery's bag and removes the resoled shoe, then picks up its match from the floor and turns the shoes upside down. The two soles are a completely different colour. The new with its bright tan colour, the old a dark worn grey. After all that trouble. After all that day. In the dim light of the hall he stands at the table before the smug, surly telephone. His reflection hangs above it in a gilt-edged frame. An old man, in a dark mirror. At what point, he wonders, does it become about fear? Fear of being caught talking to yourself, of pissing in your trousers, of pretending to remember a name, a place, a face your once knew well. Fear of getting done over by everyone out there; junkies, taxi men, young felllas, kids. Fear of your own face in the mirror.
Parallels
  • Last Train From Liguaria by Christine Dwyer Hickey
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott Fitzgerald
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