I've just reviewed this excellent novel on Shiny New Books. It's actually the second Comyns novel I've read and reviewed in the past few months - see my review of Mr Fox back in November here.
I've loved Barbara Comyns since I was first introduced to her wonderfully quirky and entertaining novels about ten years ago, so this was a re-read, but none the worse for that. Published in 1954 but set 'about 70 years ago' in a small Cotswold village by a river, it has one of literature's most memorable opening lines - 'The ducks swam through the drawing room windows' - and tells the story of a family who live under the thumb of the terrifying and malicious Grandmother Willoweed: will they ever escape her iron grip?
But there's so much more - a tremendous flood that swamps the village and sends many dead animals swirling down the river - a huge thunderstorm, sending the family to hide under the dining-room table - and a terrifying outbreak of madness and death in the village, culminating in the butcher's public suicide with one of his own knives.
Here's what I said in the final paragraph of the review:
it’s partly her ability to mix the everyday with the gothic and grotesque that makes her novels stand out, but most of all it’s her unique style and perspective. Her narrators, whether first or third person, observe and describe the world around them with a curiously objective naivety, even when what they are seeing is potentially upsetting or frightening. If you’ve read her before, you’ll know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, then you’re in for a treat.
Check out my full review here.