08 Jul 2013 01:57:29
The title of Deirdre Madden's eighth novel for adults could be the title of a number of her previous seven. Since her 1986 debut, Hidden Symptoms, she has been investigating the relation between past and present with understated thoroughness. Her characters suffer their fair share of dramas and crises – often more than their fair share, since another of her subjects is the effect of the Troubles on individual families. But these crises usually take place before the novels begin; Madden's interest lies in the way we remember and make sense of our pasts.
Even by her usual standards, Time Present and Time Past is low on plot. It is 2006. Ireland is peaceful and prosperous, balanced between the Troubles and economic catastrophe. Fintan Buckley, a legal adviser in his late 40s, is a "strong contender for the title of Most Unimaginative Man In Ireland". That is, until he starts hallucinating. He sees members of his family morph into their past or future selves. Objects – a slice of cake, a silk tie – take on a painful vividness. He becomes obsessed with early colour photography, marvelling at its immediacy.
Madden's clear, precise prose allows us to share Fintan's heightened, near-supernatural awareness, as does her trick of alternately drawing back to survey decades and homing in on a single moment. But, hallucinations aside, Fintan is no special case. Time Present and Time Past moves between Fintan, his wife, sister, mother and aunt, showing that for each of them – and by extension, for each of us – the past is as pressing and real as the present.
