Cloud Chamber by Michael Dorris.

I came across this book while organizing our library, and couldn’t for the life of me remember reading it.  So I read it.  Only one section seemed familiar, and it was a common enough trope to have just been similar to something I read in another book.

The first couple of chapters turned me off.  I’ve mentioned my snobbery?  Well, it’s particularly hard for me to deal with fake Irish accents or misjudged pseudo-Irish diction.  Dorris neglected a bit of homework–he should have read a bit more widely in the 19th C. Irish canon before attempting the Irish beginnings of the novel.

But, once through those sections, the book really improved.  Dorris’s real talent lies in creating fully realized characters that are thoroughly flawed but still likable.  I think that’s the secret to fiction.  Flat villains stopped being intriguing round about third grade.  In this novel, Dorris switches narrators from chapter to chapter, and each of his narrators is intensely critical of her family members.  But when the mic swings to a sister or mother, so does some part of allegiance.  He does it well.

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