The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback – June 15, 2010

I know people sometimes slip into hyperbole when they write reviews but on my honour I can truthfully say I have never read a more emotionally crushing novel than this masterpiece by Brian Moore. I legit cried during a couple parts and there were times I wanted to put the book aside and go read something lighter and easier but I couldn't.The story takes place in Belfast in the 1950's and the main character is a lonely, poverty stricken, repressed spinster named Judith Hearne. She lives in furnished rooms on a meagre income with her meagre belongings and has very little to live for. The few social connections she has are mostly people taking pity on her out of a sense of Christian charity. She has no real prospects of finding decent employment or a husband.The descriptions of bedsits, poverty and truly deep loneliness are heartbreaking and remind me of The Smiths at their saddest and best. I wonder if Morrissey was a fan of this novel?Midway through the story a small ray of hope enters Judith's pitiful life in the form of a man returned to Ireland from America. But there is no happy ending, no hope and no one to rescue Judith from her misery. At the end the reader knows that Judith will die as she has lived, poverty stricken and alone. The author's skill makes us realize that this story is probably happening all the time. There are probably tens of thousands of people in our society right now living like this and there probably won't be happy endings for them either.This book is brilliant. It takes you to the depths of despair and shows you around if you are brave enough to take the journey. The best literary examination of loneliness I have ever come across. I'm baffled as to why this book isn't more widely known but perhaps it is a little too much for the general public who've been raised on happy endings.

This exquisitely written novel writes unflinchingly of a genteel, middle-aged Irish Catholic lady living in Belfast in the 1950’s. She is plain, she has few useful skills (at least in the world of business), and she is a spinster. Her two chief possessions, adorning the walls of the shabby boarding house in which she resides, are a picture of her deceased stern aunt, whose grip on her is as yet unloosened, and a print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a sign of a piety whose grasp is equally unshakable. And therein lies the passion of “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.”For Miss Hearne has a passionate nature, deep within her. She longs for the love of a man. And if she cannot have that, she longs for the spiritual consolation that will carry her through her days. Both longings prove to be impossible to fulfill, even though at time, at least to Miss Hearne, their fulfillment seems to be within sight, and even though they are irreconcilable longings. And so, quite shockingly and, it would seem, not at all inevitably, she turns to drink.Despite the novel’s pathos, there are wonderful comic portraits: of the scoundrel James Madden, returned from Brooklyn; of the landlady Mrs. Rice and her fat son Bernard; of the unkind priest, Francis Xavier Quigley.To enter the world of Judith Hearne, so beautiful and so bleakly sketched, is to enter another time and place and to be invited to think about the suffering of a woman so ordinary and unassuming that she is, to all intents and purposes, invisible.M. Feldman

The Northern Irishman Brian Moore wrote JUDITH HEARNE when he was only twenty-seven. The first of his novels to be published under his own name (his other published works had been genre fictions published under a pseudonym), it had been rejected by multiple publishers until it was finally accepted, and it immediately made his name as a major writing talent. For years different directors and publishers wanted to bring the story to the screen and to the stage; it was finally made into a film in the late 1980s directed by Jack Clayton and starring Maggie Smith.THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (as Moore later re-titled it) is a character study of a plain and down-at-heels spinster living in her forties in Belfast near the middle of the twentieth century. We first meet Judy Hearne through her thoughts and those of the people who inhabit her boarding house: Moore was much influenced in this stage of his career by James Joyce, and we discretely move through the characters' thoughts as the narrative progresses. As it does so, we find out more about Judith that contradicts not only what she had told others but even herself in her private moments. Raised by a strict and financially comfortable aunt, whom she loved but who demanded Judith sacrifice everything to take care of her, she has ended up imprisoned in virtually in genteel poverty by history, by her family, by her Church, and her own pride; she is loved by no one, and has no hope of better prospects. We learn too in time that she is only now in a dry spell from the alcoholism she has developed in later life. And a misunderstanding with her landlady's brutal but charming brother results in Judith's return to the bottle.The novel is cruelly constructed, perhaps in the way that only a younger writer of great talent would, so as to take almost everything away from Judith by the conspiracy of circumstance. Everything becomes taken away from her, including her only mainstays, her snobbish genteel pride and her simple faith. The narrative is shaped nearly like the stations of the Cross, with Judith undergoing in the work's second half a series of trials which threaten to take more and more away from her. I was afraid to read the novel, having heard of its reputation, and even so it was an even more viscerally devastating read than I had imagined: Brian Moore spares Judith (and his readers) almost nothing, showing what life is like with no companionship, no mercy, no prospects, and no faith. It would be hard to imagine recommending anyone to read this knowing how rough the read can be; yet even so I know I'll come back to it, because it is so beautifully crafted.

I agree with Lawrie Lee: The lonely passion of Judith Hearne is too depressing. He later admitted that artistically it is a little gem, which may be true, but times have changed. Grey skies, constant rain, and a cold wind no longer hold any fascination. Nor do dreary rooms in lodging houses and the interminable anguish about the Roman Catholic faith, which seems to possess many Irish men and women. I waited in vain for a really gory ending where the main character throws herself under a bus or out of a window. The ending is tame indeed.

Not a particularly cheerful read, hence the 4 stars instead of the 5 it merits in terms of literary quality. Just my personal reaction to a deeply sad, disturbing story of a lonely woman's struggle to keep her head above water. Recommended, provided you have a robust nature.

I had been meaning to read this book for some time and am glad I did. I enjoy stories about the down at heel life of people in the first half of the 20th century. Several good characters in the novel. If you enjoy the stories of William Trevor then you should also like this by Brian Moore; both deal with aspects of Irish life and the dialogue between characters has an Irish vernacular tone to it.

Bit slow starting -but a gentle sad story - with analysis of a character that strikes home in places - I guess we've all had unrequited love at some time in our lives... passages of humour - I guess in a way it's a black comedy story. I enjoyed it.

What I loved about this book was the clear insight into every character's mind - not just the main character. Their perception of her was so at odds with what she felt they thought. You may hate the idea of a woman being regarded as a spinster on the shelf but that's how women were viewed then. Such a wonderful story and truly amazing writing - a real classic. I love a story that makes me think and stays with me and this did.