Infinite Sky by C. J. Flood (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Infinite Sky by C. J. Flood
When her mother takes off from their small English town, thirteen-year-old Iris is left with her gruff, distant father and Sam, her once adoring but now angry and rebelling older brother. Summer offers a reprieve from the prying questions and unwanted pity of her school friends, and Iris finds herself particularly fascinated by a group of Irish Travelers who have illegally settled on her family’s property. Despite her father’s warnings to stay away from the “parasites,” Iris befriends Trick, meeting the fourteen-year-old Traveler boy daily to roam the countryside, swim in the [End Page 572] nearby river, and share her secrets. Meanwhile, Sam becomes increasingly involved with a gang of skinheads, drinking and fighting, and Iris’ magical summer comes to an abrupt end when a drunk Sam meets with an angry Trick. An opening scene at a funeral sets the stage for tragedy immediately and creates an underlying tension to the idyll that Iris finds with Trick, tingeing each romantic moment between the two with a deep sense of melancholy. Flood’s prose is wisely restrained, with an elegant simplicity that captures both the beauty of Iris’ rural surroundings and her inner turmoil. The ending avoids any neat resolution, offering only the idea that unbearable tragedies must nonetheless be borne. American readers may be unfamiliar with the Traveler culture, but they’ll recognize prejudice when they see it and feel for the impossible situation in which Iris finds herself.
