Reading in the Dark

“On the stairs, there was a clear, plain silence.” 

Deane infuses the novel with simple yet poetic prose. This opening line contains one syllable words that land incisively and effectively, creating an aural experience for the reader. The sentence also emphasizes that though the narrator’s mother senses something on the stairs, the narrator does not. This situation points to the disconnect between these two characters. 

“At night, from the stair window, the field was a white paradise of loneliness, and a starlit wind made the glass shake like loose, black water and the ice snore on the sill, while we slept, and the shadow watched.” 

The narrator describes his family’s farmhouse in winter. Deane uses figurative language, especially personification, to lend an air of loneliness to the farmhouse. In this way, he emphasizes how the farmhouse is a site of trauma for the narrator’s family, landing on the image of the shadow that stands for repressed secrets that never leave the family members.  

“The windows of the house could not be opened and the staircase had a hot, rank smell that would lift the food from your stomach.” 

Here, Deane describes a house that contains an evil demon. Superstition is a prominent motif in the novel and an accepted part of life in Derry. As a result of the demon’s presence, the house takes on physical characteristics that overwhelm anyone who enters it. A demon can only be exorcised by a Catholic priest, a member of the powerful religious structure of the community.