The South (novel)

1990 novel by Colm Tóibín

The South

First edition (UK)

Author| Colm Tóibín
Language| English
Series| 90s
Genre| Novel
Publisher| Serpent's Tail

Publication date

| 1990
Publication place| Ireland
Media type| Print (Paperback)
Pages| 238
ISBN| 978-1-85242-170-0
OCLC| 475726865
LC Class| PR6070.O455 S68 1990

The South is a 1990 novel by Irish writer Colm Tóibín.[1]

## Plot summary

[edit]

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Katherine Proctor, a Protestant woman of 32 from Ireland, arrives in Barcelona in 1950 having left her husband Tom, their 10-year-old son Richard, the large landed property they own, and Ireland. She repeats what her own mother did, leave her husband and child. She leaves the home her father built as she fears reprisals (a mob having previously set fire to their home some years ago) because her husband was too harsh with their Catholic neighbours.

She starts discovering the city of Barcelona and gets to meet local painters. The Francoist State and the still recent civil war define life in Spain. She meets the artist Miguel, a man who fought in that Civil War. She meets Michael Graves, an Irishman from her same town, also in Barcelona. He loved Katherine. Acquainted with a group of painters, Katherine begins to paint, taking lessons and trying her hand. She is a passionate painter, similar to Miguel, and unlike Michael, who paints what will sell.

After becoming lovers with Miguel, the two move to a remote village in the Pyrenees, where Miguel fought in the Civil War.

## Edition changes

[edit]

The endings of the hardback and paperback editions differ. Tóibín altered two sentences of the book's ending because he thought it was too soft. He said in 2021: "There was one moment where it looked like they were going to be happy forever. What I had was slightly too sugary."[2]

## Development

[edit]

The idea for The South came to Tóibín in 1982 whilst on a train from Dublin to his native town of Enniscorthy. He observed a fellow passenger, a well-dressed woman "rich—not gaudy rich, but old rich", whom he took to be a Protestant. She continued to figure in his mind.[2]

He spent three years working on the novel, by night and at the weekend.[2]

## Publication

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The novel was first published by Serpent's Tail in 1990 and a revised edition was published by Picador Press. ISBN 0-330-33985-0.

Viking Penguin secured the U.S. publication rights.[2]

## Reception

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Tóibín showed the completed manuscript to Fintan O'Toole, who was a colleague at the time, as Tóibín was a journalist in Dublin when he wrote this novel.[2] O'Toole later said he was "just staggered": "It was obvious from the first twenty pages Colm was an artist."[2]

Tóibín's view on The South decades later was: "If you look at it, you see that the sentence structure is more or less taken from Didion."[2]

Thomas O'Dwyer writing in The Jerusalem Post drew comparisons with the work of Milan Kundera the Czech-French author, remarking that "the power of emotion and events is so piercing" in this first novel by Tóibín.[3]

"Spare, grave and finely articulated" is how Richard Eder described this novel, adding that it is "terribly abstract". The story interweaves the Spanish Civil War and the Irish Troubles, two harsh events in the past of Katherine and her lover, perhaps suggesting reconciliation by the end of the novel.[4]

The Washington Post's Barbara Probst Solomon referred to "the tremendous amount Tóibín leaves unsaid".[2]

Kirkus Reviews noted the spare prose in this first novel by the author, a promising debut.[5]

## Awards and nominations

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This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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The South won the Aer Lingus Literature Prize in 1991.[citation needed]

## References

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1. ^ Baker, John (30 April 2007). "The South by Colm Tóibín – a review".
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Max, D. T. (20 September 2021). "How Colm Tóibín Burrowed Inside Thomas Mann's Head". The New Yorker.
3. ^ O'Dwyer, Thomas (30 April 1993). "Emerald Isle Gems". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. "Toibin creates a world into which one is drawn while giving thanks for not living it. But the power of emotion and events is so piercing, The South could be an accomplished work by Milan Kundera rather than a striking first novel of a young Dublinman."
4. ^ Eder, Richard (5 September 1991). "BOOK REVIEW: A Cloudy Vision of Life's Unresolvables: 'The South' by Colm Toibin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
5. ^ "Review: THE SOUTH by COLM TÓIBÍN". Kirkus Reviews. 15 June 1991. Retrieved 30 June 2024. "no fireworks in this muted first novel from Irish journalist Tóibín, though he does avoid rebirth-in-the-sun clichés."

* v
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Colm Tóibín

Novels|

* The South (1990)
* The Heather Blazing (1992)
* The Story of the Night (1996)
* The Blackwater Lightship (1999)
* The Master (2004)
* Brooklyn (2009)
* The Testament of Mary (2012)
* Nora Webster (2014)
* House of Names (2017)
* The Magician (2021)

Essay collections|

* Love in a Dark Time (2002)

Short story collections|

* Mothers and Sons (2006)
* The Empty Family (2010)

Screenplay|

* Return to Montauk (2017)

Non-fiction|

* Bad Blood (1987)
* The Sign of the Cross (1994)

Film adaptations|

* The Blackwater Lightship (2004)
* Brooklyn (2015)

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