Irish Author Deidre Madden's TIME PRESENT & TIME PAST

Award winning Irish novelist, Madden has crafted a luminescent novel pondering life's fleeting & grounding moments.  Fintan, 47 & a successful legal advisor is the matriach of an intriguing family of well drawn characters. He has a kind, doting wife, 2 older sons who bewilder him, a young daughter he loves beyond measure, an irascible mother, his mother's kindhearted sister & his own sister who resides  with their aunt.  The character's are beautifully drawn, yet for Fintan they remain enigmas. Fintan does categorize his family members as either hawkes or doves based on their aggressive or gentle dispositions.  Fintan, becomes fascinated with photography after sorting through old photos with his sister.  Fintan becomes drawn to the capacity photos have to "stop time" and "reconcile the past & the present."  Madden's elegaic prose is a reflection of life's swiftness, of "time racing on, racing like a palpitating heart."  Time is well spent reading this masterpiece.  It has the power to cause you to cherish  your memories and to be grateful & cognisant of living in the present.