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savaging's review against another edition
4.0
I found Barbara Comyns through an articla by Taisia Kitaiskaia (https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/wild-enchantment/creatureliness-barbara-comyns). Kitaiskaia argues that Comyns is something of a 1950s british 'literary witch,' surrounded by newts and rodents and kitchen magic, even when she's telling a traditional story about being married with kids in London.
Kitaiskaia writes that Comyns's narrators "tell their tales as a mouse might, if you stopped it in its tracks: matter of factly and without self-pity." The sentences in this book remind me of something Joy Williams might write, curt but also whimsical.
That said: many of the pages are about things like making jam without burning it, or the payment plan for a divan. So, not a book for everyone. But I'm looking forward to reading Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead and The Vet's Daughter in the future.
Kitaiskaia writes that Comyns's narrators "tell their tales as a mouse might, if you stopped it in its tracks: matter of factly and without self-pity." The sentences in this book remind me of something Joy Williams might write, curt but also whimsical.
That said: many of the pages are about things like making jam without burning it, or the payment plan for a divan. So, not a book for everyone. But I'm looking forward to reading Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead and The Vet's Daughter in the future.
debbie261158's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
maigirl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
zoefruitcake's review against another edition
4.0
My book group wanted some modern classics to read this year and I selected this odd little one. I'd never heard of it or the author but I was soon sucked into eccentric Sophia's tragic life. Blighted at every turn she negotiates her way through marriage, motherhood, work, poverty and crisis
virginia_88's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
a2lulu's review against another edition
4.0
Her voice is by turns charming, quirky, naïve, and disconcerting - but always feels real. Full of dark humor, and at times a distance or understatement in describing horrible tragedies.
Each chapter is less than 6-7 pages and some kind of significant twist happens in just about every one.
This is a fascinating review, where the writer draws lines to Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment:
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/and-everything-tasted-of-soap/
Some lines from the book I saved:
the young boy feeling jealous about his dad drawing the new baby: “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with this house, no one paints me”
“she had a large flabby face and looked rather like a determined oyster”
“she was quite 6 feet tall and very beautiful in a totem-pole kind of way, with huge staring eyes like headlamps”
And the one that nearly everyone mentions:
“I had a kind of idea if you controlled your mind and said ‘I won’t have any babies’ very hard, then most likely they wouldn’t come. I thought that was what was meant by birth-control.”
Each chapter is less than 6-7 pages and some kind of significant twist happens in just about every one.
This is a fascinating review, where the writer draws lines to Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment:
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/and-everything-tasted-of-soap/
Some lines from the book I saved:
the young boy feeling jealous about his dad drawing the new baby: “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with this house, no one paints me”
“she had a large flabby face and looked rather like a determined oyster”
“she was quite 6 feet tall and very beautiful in a totem-pole kind of way, with huge staring eyes like headlamps”
And the one that nearly everyone mentions:
“I had a kind of idea if you controlled your mind and said ‘I won’t have any babies’ very hard, then most likely they wouldn’t come. I thought that was what was meant by birth-control.”
joanneadams54's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ashleyjean6's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The writing was good; I kept reading and reading. The plot was dead depressing. Bad timing with another heavy book. I liked the ending, there was some redemption. The feminist in me really had a hard time with a lot of the content!! It was... Meh.