Humor and heartbreak are a powerful combination, one that Irish writer and director Hazel Hayes (Out of Love) deftly delivers in Better by Far, a novel about love, loss, and breakups. Hayes creatively adds a fascinating layer: a thread of horror that transforms the otherwise realistic plot into a genre-defying read.
When writer Kate and musician Finn break up, they continue sharing a house, staying with friends and family on alternating weeks to avoid seeing each other. Kate unravels as the end of the relationship triggers grief over the death of her mother when Kate was nine years old. That grief escalates into surreal sequences that blend dream and hallucination into increasingly unnerving territory.
The novel's prose is in second person, framed like a letter from Kate addressed to Finn. This intimate perspective adds artful personality to clear, engrossing scenes and a wide cast of quirky, lovable characters. It's funny and self-aware, often hinting at breaking the fourth wall, as when Kate quotes Ernest Hemingway before cutting to a scene where the new boss at Kate's literary agency tells her not to quote Hemingway in her in-progress book because "it's pretentious."
Beneath all the quips, Hayes casually exposes real human truth in gorgeous lines such as, "After all, a body can exist in the next room, but absence fills a whole house." There's feeling in every moment and line of Better by Far, whether it's the crushing weight of loss or the monumental power of small, kind acts. The second-person form achieves extra resonance, enabling a powerful ending that will leave readers both devastated and renewed. --Carol Caley, writer