In rural Ireland, Melody Shea is 33 and pregnant with a
17 year old boy Traveler's child. When she confesses to
her husband Pat about what happened and how the child
isn't his, Pat makes a choice to leave Melody and thus
her stream of consciousness diary begins chronicling her
pregnancy-and her life prior to pregnancy- from week 12
up until post-parturm begins.
One of the aspects that is enjoyable about ALL WE SHALL
KNOW is the friendship between Melody Shea and Mary
Crothery and I also strongly admired how strong and well
drawn Mary Crothery's character was. The other aspects
about the story weren't as enjoyable for me, especially
the handling of pregnancy, the lack of passage of time
through months, and no quotation marks.
Normally pregnancy and counting down months followed by
weeks and days is a complex time filled with joy,
elation, fear and anxiety due to numerous issues that
will come up. In ALL WE SHALL KNOW, pregnancy is treated
more as an afterthought rather than something that should
be life-changing.
What really would have made the story more enjoyable is
if the time was referenced frequently beyond weeks by
either holidays or seasons, and did the events within a
given week happen throughout one day or at different
days?
Melody herself didn't read as an actual woman in terms of
her pregnancy because she paid scant attention to what is
happening to her body and to how its changing to
accomodate the baby. Since Melody also suffered from
previous miscarriages, I would have expected her to pay
extra attention to what was going on with her body and
perhaps talk more about her miscarriages beyond how they
occured. Instead Melody focuses a lot on her failed
friendship with a former schoolmate and what is going on
with her new friend Mary Crothery.
There are no quotation marks either, and the ending is
very out of the blue and didn't fit in with the mood
story. Melody entertained very little thought in her
entries or stream of consciousness writing as to what she
is doing and why she did what she did.
Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. At 33 years-old, she finds herself pregnant with the child of a 17 year-old Traveller boy, Martin Toppy, and not by her husband Pat. Melody was teaching Martin to read, but now he’s gone, and Pat leaves too, full of rage. She’s trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming, while the past won’t let her go. It’s a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a bold young Traveller woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody’s life. Following the nine months of her pregnancy, All We Shall Know unfolds with emotional immediacy in Melody’s fierce, funny, and unforgettable voice, as she contends with her choices, past and present.
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