When in 1944, Tess Lohan’s mother dies of tuberculosis, Tess, only seven years old, lacks the maturity to comprehend her loss fully. Soon after, when a young tinker girl dies too, her grief manifests itself unusually; she temporarily loses the ability to speak and becomes isolated from the rest of her family (“she is a disappearing girl”). Every bereavement or separation that follows is met with disorientation, a quiet despairing and a shrinking from and of Tess’s world. Academy Street follows her from Easterfield, her childhood home in rural Ireland, to a flat in New York. Alone, often suffering from anxiety, the story of her life unfurls to be one of continuous uncertainty, solitude and morbidity.
Costello imbues lyricism into each sentence of her carefully constructed prose. She writes with a poetry that extends beyond being ornamental and that adds to our understanding of her characters (on swimming: “She has an image of herself cutting a swathe, a solitary furrow, through still blue water”). Tess’s inner world is vast; she notices the detail and beauty of things. When longing for her mother, she imagines traces of her left in the house (“the dent of her feet on the rug. On a cup, the mark of her hand”); Tess’s imagination, made vivid by Costello’s evocative language, provides her with stability and purpose. She is a typical outsider, constantly observing and trying to understand those around her, rather than engaging in her own life.
Costello’s New York is dark, overwhelming and sprawling. Here, Tess experiences more loss, but also finds lasting friendship and sanctuary. There is a balance struck between pain and happiness (“too much happiness frightened her”). For instance, the birth of her son that sees her connect and engage at last (“in this life with Theo, there was calm”) forces her to simultaneously confront the fear of losing him. Academy Street serves as a reminder that, when love exists, suffering is inevitable.
It is not all bleak, however. In dream-like passages, Tess’s far-reaching imagination and recollections come to life and the importance and stabilising presence of memory becomes clear. In this respect, Tess’s modest life is both momentous and moving.
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