No review - read so long ago that I don't recall it. ( )

That ending was...unexpected. ( )

La hija del veterinario es una novela inquietante y fantasiosa, pero perfectamente controlada por una voz narrativa delicada, intencionada e inteligente. Barbara Comyns confirma en ella su singular humor, su maestría para un punto de vista familiarizado con la catástrofe y con esas «pequeñas cosas que nunca se olvidan».

The eponymous vet's daughter is Alice, who lives with her mother and father, the veterinarian. The vet is a brutal and sadistic bully to his wife and daughter (and to his patients). Alice and her mother spend their days in fear of the vet. As with many of Comyns's novels, the story seems at first to be well-grounded in reality, with a touch of quirkiness, but soon there is a heavy dose of a lurking and sinister menace. After Alice's mother dies (and Alice has been the victim of an attempted rape), she has what we think is a dream-like, hallucinatory levitation experience. Her naivetee and lack of real world experience lead her to believe that everyone has such experiences, and we are soon questioning reality.

This was a strange book, and I guess you could call it a typical Comyns work, but I've liked the other books I've read by her better.

3 stars ( )

”A man with small eyes and a ginger moustache came and spoke to me when I was thinking of something else. Together we walked down a street that was lined with privet hedges. He told me his wife belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, and I said I was sorry because that is what he seemed to need me to say and I saw he was a poor broken down sort of creature. If he had been a horse, he would have most likely worn kneecaps. We came to a great red railway arch that crossed the road like a heavy rainbow; and near this arch there was a vet’s house with a lamp outside. I said, ‘ You must excuse me ,’ and left this poor man among the privet hedges.”

This is the opening paragraph and I hope you get the feeling I did on reading it. The author has immediately draped the novel in darkness, which she maintains throughout. It also brought up a number of questions: who is this stranger? Who are the Plymouth Brethen? Why was he so despondent? It just seemed like such a stark way to start the narrative. This same man makes a brief appearance at the culminating events at the end of the novel with still no explanation of his significance. So I keep thinking about him.

I finished this novel yesterday but had to give it some time to simmer before I could write a few words about this very dark novel. I couldn’t really decide what I thought about it. I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Alice Rowland is the seventeen year old eponymous daughter and she faces many challenges. Her mother is gravely ill, her father is abusive and she would desperately like to be somewhere else when her mother dies and her father brings the local tart into the house to be his “housekeeper.” A savior attempts to save her by asking her to become a companion for his elderly mother in a distant village. Things continue to go downhill for her and she is faced with a Dickensian couple who maintain the woman’s residence and generally take advantage of her. Alice is forced to return home where her father continues his abuse of her until he discovers she has a gift he thinks he can capitalize on.

The horrifying culminating event presents Alice and her gift. This actually threw me for a loop and I find it interesting that some reviewers characterized this as Alice’s triumph. I didn’t see it that way at all but I did find the novel to be riveting and could hardly put it down. The writing is spare and the novel is stark. But absolutely fascinating. And I wonder when I’ll stop thinking about these well drawn characters. ( )