Reviews

I take it personally when I read bad Barbara Comyns reviews. She was a kind of genius we haven’t been trained to spot, she didn’t take herself seriously, she didn’t shut herself up in rooms and have meals brought to her, she just did what she did for her own fun and let her play instinct take her to places no one but her could ever imagine and what a shame so many people write her off as “quirky”

krobart's review against another edition

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4.0

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/day-739-sisters-by-a-river/

bluestarfish's review against another edition

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5.0

I am so grateful for the kind soul who recommended this novel. We see life from the point of view of a small girl in a ramshackle house - and family. The spelling, and the matter of fact way of telling the events, help create an astonishing atmosphere where the craziness is almost accepted as normal by us (which it was for the family) and the humour and horror juxtapose and seep through.

Parts of this were first published in a serial form in a magazine before anyone would publish this novel. It is more a collection of short snippets in a loosely chronological framework telling the tale of five of the six sisters by the river. And it's true, that is what is so incredible. And sad. But then it's also funny. Such a difficult book to describe and hold but I really loved it and am so glad to have read it. The introduction talks of Barbara Comyns' surreal eye and Chagallian viewpoint and I would agree that there is plenty of delightful evidence for that. [Aug 2015]

This merited a re-read as we were doing it for book club, and it's still as bonkers, and charming, and scary as before. This time I really relished all the little details and wished I could draw as there were plenty of moments I'd love to see illustrated:
Phillip the peacock walking around the billiard room while Daddy writes his letters
Granny in the picnic boat wrapped in veils, plumed hat and a feather boa
Barbara taking a bite out of the governess's biscuit-looking hat in return for walking through a field with cows in it
the girls going on strike when food was served that they didn't approve of
Palmer rescuing the governess's by boat from the cottage they lived in during Spring floods
Anglo Saxon aged bones getting tucked down the sides of morning-room chairs
frying minnows over the nightlight for the dolls
the boys in London roller skating on shiny tarred roads at dusk
[Jan 2016]

themodvictorian's review

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dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

lucyblack's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love Barbara Comyn’s writing and it was really exciting to get a glimpse into her life in this autobiographical novel. She didn’t mean for this to be a novel but she wrote the vignettes about her childhood for herself. Her childhood sounds awful. Her dad was an abusive creep, her mum was mean, she had hardly any kind or loving adults in her life at all. She was one of six children who could have had an idyllic life in a large house by a river if the adults hadn’t been so violent and neglectful. This could have been a lovely period piece recollection but it was more like a gothic Shirley Jackson novel. The dread and tension build and build.

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