Scan barcode
A review by ohmanbleh
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
4.0
I got through this whole darn thing without having even heard of the Brothers' Grimm tale The Juniper Tree. Finding out that this Barba Comyns novel is a modern adaptation of the classic tale clarifies a lot about the book's uncanny tone.
The Juniper Tree follows Belle, a depressed mid-20's single mom struggling to get by as an antique reseller. The book follows the emotional minutiae of Belle's relationships, especially with the wealthy Gertrude and Bertrand, a privileged couple who build an unlikely friendship with low-class Belle and her illegitimate, mixed-race daughter.
The focus on Belle's interior emotional life (and a profession that surrounds her in antiques) may explain why I was surprised several chapters in to realize the book's set in 1980's London. I'd thought I was reading a Victorian period piece.
Belle's world feels like an anachronism in the 1980's (or maybe it's the other way around). Throughout the book I found myself surprised when people mentioned cars or planes or telephones. I may just not understand British class dynamics, but a lot of the book's relationships felt antiquated to me too. Gertrude and Bertrand, for instance, seem to run a classic British estate, and much is made of the struggle to find proper domestic help run the household. Bertrand's masculine self-obsession and possessiveness would seem to me at least a topic of conversation in the 1980's, but the women in his life seem accept it as the natural course of things. It's all absolutely intentional, but for me these incongruous elements lend to a dark, fairy-tale atmosphere. I loved it. The tone alone made me feel I was reading a fantastical horror novel, even as the facts of the plot consisted of selling antiques and feeding a little girl cakes.
The story's unreal setting doesn't keep its people from being fascinating and almost too real. I suppose it's just another fairy retelling, like Wicked or Maleficent, but I'm glad I'd never heard the Grimm tale going in.
The Juniper Tree follows Belle, a depressed mid-20's single mom struggling to get by as an antique reseller. The book follows the emotional minutiae of Belle's relationships, especially with the wealthy Gertrude and Bertrand, a privileged couple who build an unlikely friendship with low-class Belle and her illegitimate, mixed-race daughter.
The focus on Belle's interior emotional life (and a profession that surrounds her in antiques) may explain why I was surprised several chapters in to realize the book's set in 1980's London. I'd thought I was reading a Victorian period piece.
Belle's world feels like an anachronism in the 1980's (or maybe it's the other way around). Throughout the book I found myself surprised when people mentioned cars or planes or telephones. I may just not understand British class dynamics, but a lot of the book's relationships felt antiquated to me too. Gertrude and Bertrand, for instance, seem to run a classic British estate, and much is made of the struggle to find proper domestic help run the household. Bertrand's masculine self-obsession and possessiveness would seem to me at least a topic of conversation in the 1980's, but the women in his life seem accept it as the natural course of things. It's all absolutely intentional, but for me these incongruous elements lend to a dark, fairy-tale atmosphere. I loved it. The tone alone made me feel I was reading a fantastical horror novel, even as the facts of the plot consisted of selling antiques and feeding a little girl cakes.
The story's unreal setting doesn't keep its people from being fascinating and almost too real. I suppose it's just another fairy retelling, like Wicked or Maleficent, but I'm glad I'd never heard the Grimm tale going in.