Reviews

I’ve surprised myself in giving this five stars - about 15% in, I wasn’t sure I was enjoying it. First published in 1954, it’s an odd little book, written in one of those Grimm-like narrative voices that you sort of have to climb over in places to get to the plot, but after tthe introduction something magical happened and Barbara Comyns’ story wormed into my heart.

This is all the more remarkable because, as my family and wife will tell you, I don’t typically read ‘old’ books — I really struggle with older writing.

Despite my usual tastes, I found myself completely gripped, in love with her cast and setting, and I read it to the end in just under two days. If it had just been a churned out, same old same old fairytale I think I’d have put it down, but the plot has something to it that sparkles — it’s deeply brutal and wonderful all at once.

Highly recommend for something different, and will be reading more of her. Criminal that in years of reading and studying creative writing I never once heard her name spoken. Thank you to my fave indie bookshop, Burway Books, for having this recent republished, almost-forgotten treasure on its shelves.

As a side note, while Comyns uses some language we wouldn’t use now, she never once uses the N word despite a main character being black and her blackness being mentioned a fair bit. An author to hold up to those idiots who insist every writer liberally using the word in the 50s was just a product of their time.

Trigger warning for animal lovers like myself — a lot of animals die in this book, and worse, a LOT of cats die.