Wild Decembers

Wild Decembers (1999), a novel by Irish author and playwright Edna O'Brien, tells the story of Joseph Brennan who lives in isolation with his younger sister in the mountains of western Ireland. The book takes its title from a line in the Emily Bronte poem Remembrance, "Fifteen wild Decembers / From those brown hills have melted into spring— / Faithful indeed is the spirit that remembers."

For his whole life, Joseph Brennan lives in the isolated mountain community of Cloontha. A long-time bachelor and a functioning alcoholic, Joseph is the latest and possibly the last in an inherited tradition of a mountain farming family. At night, when alone with the mountain air, Joseph feels the presence of God. Also living with him on the farm is his much younger sister, Breege, described as a beautiful young woman who cares for and nurtures Joseph like a son, even though he is significantly older. One day, Joseph and Breege see a newcomer in their tiny community. Over a hill, they observe Mick Bulger, an Australian expatriate who recently inherited a tract of land in the area. When they first see Mick, he is riding a tractor, the first one ever seen in this far-flung mountainous region.

Early on, a strong friendship arises from this meeting even though the Brennans and the Bulgers have long carried on a feud that persists through the generations. Breege, who has been kept in isolation from most other men for much of her life, is particularly fascinated by Mick. Before long, she develops strong romantic feelings toward him.



Breege's budding romance with Mick is a source of psychological distress for Joseph, even if the romance has not yet been consummated sexually. Joseph once loved a nurse who lived in the community, but when she decided to move out of the rural area to pursue better career opportunities, Joseph refused to follow her. At that time, his mother, who was still alive, persuaded him to stay in Cloontha. He still resents his decision to remain and now projects that resentment onto Breege and Mick.

It does not take long for the old Brennan-Bulger feud to flare back into existence. The catalyst for the continuation of the feud is as trivial as what probably started it all those years in the past: an argument over which fields Mick's sheep can use for grazing. The feud is exacerbated by an equally trivial argument over whether Mick is permitted to cut peat in a certain bog. The tractor, meanwhile, once an object of envy for Joseph, comes to serve as a symbol for all the ways Mick intrudes on his lifestyle with newfangled technology that has no place in the mountains of rural Ireland. Joseph calls Mick an interloper and complains that he can no longer hear the birds thanks to the racket made by the tractor.

It is later revealed that Mick has a fiancée, Rosemary, waiting in Australia for her beau to complete a house for them to live in there in Cloontha. From what Mick says of Rosemary, she is extremely modern and will be an even worse fit for the community than Mick. Despite the engagement, Mick and Breege finally act on their love for another, beginning a torrid love affair. Furious at Breege for copulating with Mick, Joseph beats her, even though he has never shown violence toward her in the past.



In the end, Rosemary arrives unexpectedly, sparking a chaotic moment that ends with Joseph killing Mick and later being sentenced to prison. Breege, pregnant with Mick's child, is visibly showing the pregnancy by the time of her brother's trial.

"With grace and infinite sympathy, Wild Decembers encapsulates the afflictions of a culture within the afflictions of a particular doomed family" (The New York Times).