The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore  (Atlantic, Little Brown, 1965)

 

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (originally titled Judith Hearne), like so many books that have a relentlessly downward-spiraling plot, hooks the readers and carries them forward with ever-growing narrative force.  Once caught in its vortex, it is hard to put the book down, so compelling is the plight of its heroine.  

Judith Hearne is a 40ish unmarried woman living in Belfast sometime in the 1950s.  Her life seems to have run itself out far too quickly, leaving her poor, "plain," lonely, frightened, and alcoholic.  The book begins as she moves into yet another in a long series of depressing rooms in rooming houses in what seems to be perpetually raining Belfast.  But this new attempt to begin again goes wrong right from the start when she meets her landlady's brother, recently returned from New York City under dubious circumstances.  Miss Hearne, due to her ever-mounting sense of anxiety and delusion, convinces herself that this man is a wealthy suitor--her last chance for marriage and happiness.  In fact he is only interested in her as potential investor in his pipe-dream business plan to open an American-type hamburger joint in Dublin, and so the two court each other to tragic consequence.

Surrounding and interwoven with this central (non)romantic plot are flashbacks of Miss Hearne's difficult past.  She was orphaned at an early age and raised by a proud and snobbish aunt who instilled in her a sense of superiority and entitlement that only set her up for constant humiliation and disappointment.  The book also explores her complicated and mostly pathetic "friendship" with the O'Neil family, all of whom bear her weekly visits with badly disguised contempt and cruelty.

Judy Hearne is a tragic and pathetic character, yet Brian Moore allows us to glimpse, through her unawareness and alcoholic destructiveness, a woman who is trying as hard as she can to lead a decent and dignified life.  I found this book to be a tad mean spirited--about all the characters, not just the title character.  Moira O'Neil is the only character who behaves with kindness and common decency.  One feels the world and the circumstances that Judith Hearne faces are perhaps almost sadistically punishing.