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rue_baldry 's review for:
Everything Under
by Daisy Johnson
This is worth reading, generally clear and mostly well-written. There weren't any surprises in it, though. It's written in a suspenseful way but, as far as I was concerned, the answers to the questions raised all turned out to be the most obvious ones. The revelations were all so heavily hinted at from early on in the book, that I had no emotional reaction when they were baldly narrated. I kept reading right up to the end in the hopes of twist, but there wasn't really one.
One of the themes is language. The central character, Gretel (who is sometimes, but not always, the narrator), is a lexicographer. She and her mother lived in isolation when she was a child, and partially invented their own language. This was all interesting as far as it went, but I would have liked to have seen it explored further.
There's a greek myth hiding in the weeds of this story (I won't spoiler, but it's clear early on which one it is), and a pinch of magical realism, some interesting stuff about river/canal life, gender, and dementia. The best, most developed aspect, though, is the mother/daughter relationship.
One of the themes is language. The central character, Gretel (who is sometimes, but not always, the narrator), is a lexicographer. She and her mother lived in isolation when she was a child, and partially invented their own language. This was all interesting as far as it went, but I would have liked to have seen it explored further.
There's a greek myth hiding in the weeds of this story (I won't spoiler, but it's clear early on which one it is), and a pinch of magical realism, some interesting stuff about river/canal life, gender, and dementia. The best, most developed aspect, though, is the mother/daughter relationship.