New York Review of Books The Vet's Daughter

the best weird girl book it’s so creepy and odd i loved it

A wonderful quirky book which I read after reading 'Our spoons came from Woolworths' and 'The Juniper tree' by the same author- both of which I also loved. The Vet's daughter tells of young girl living in a totally dysfunctional famiy with her invalid mother and abusive and drunken vet father. The girl Alice Rowlands looks after her very sick mother until she dies and is then left with a father of whom she is terrified and who treats her as a servant looking after both he, his lady friend and the father's collection of animals. This book is so surreal and unusual and with such black humour that one must not be put off by the basic storyline. Alice finds that she can levitate and this eventually leads to the books very unpredictable ending. This is a book I just could not put down and I cannot recommend it enough. This is a totally new writer for me and I just wish that she had written more books before she died.

This is a terrific novel, no question about it. It is short but dense with detailed observations by an acute albeit hugely inexperienced narrator. She is frustratingly accepting of her various fates, and yet also admirably watching out for her own interests. Thus, like all the characters, she is complex. On the other hand, there are evil beings herein, who may even outdo Dickens in that department. The narrator is a female David Copperfield, but with some decided twists that make the novel quite unDickensian in the end. In fact, the literal end(ing) almost undoes the whole novel, in my opinion. (SPOILER ALERT. The following comments might "give away" the ending a bit.) Besides a different trajectory from what a Dickens reader would expect, as well as what nature herself would allow -- so far so good, though -- a downright sin is that the very ending simply makes no sense with regard to the narrative structure of the book. Nevertheless, as I say, the novel is a must-read for anyone who loves good writing and truly gripping narrative.

Like a lot of Barbara Comyns' work, this novel is a bit of an oddity, but undoubtedly a very enjoyable (though sometimes unsettling) one. Alice Rowlands lives with her domineering father (the Vet of the title) and her sad, browbeaten mother, until the latter's death from cancer. After an embarassing and traumatic incident brough about through the machinations of her father's new lover, Alice is packed off to the country as companion to depressed elderly lady Mrs Peebles. In the countryside, she discovers unsuspected joys and freedoms, including flirtation with a handsome young local lad. She also finds a surprising new talent - she can levitate at will. However, her happiness is short-lived: she has been neglecting her duties with tragic consequences, and after her return to her father and his new wife, things quickly turn very nasty indeed... For readers unfamiliar with her other books, Comyns' writing style (which has been memorably described as "Beryl Bainbridge on acid") is likely to come as a shock. Alice is the rather childlike first-person narrator throughout, and sees the world from a unique perspective. The opening lines give a flavour of this: "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." Like Alice herself, the book has only a provisional connection with our solid earth, and has an unsettling, otherworldly feel throughout. Part of what is so disconcerting is Comyns' remarkable talent for dealing with real horrors (domestic violence, suicide, sexual assault) with a determinedly light touch, in amongst the mundane events of day-to-day life. For me, this book perhaps wasn't quite as memorable as her earlier works "Our Spoons Came from Woolworths" and the utterly extraordinary "Sisters By a River". However, it's certainly a gripping read, and a fine example of her unique voice.

The Vet's Daughter is one of a kind. The writing itself is gorgeous, and if you are a writer, the attention to hyper-detailing and hallucinatory images alone would make this short novel worth your time. Comyns has created a world view where the narrator doesn't grow up to understand reality in the same terms as those surrounding her, which makes for a fascinating, supernatural tale.

I am reading all of Barbara's books. She astounds me. Her heroines are vivid, tragic, amusing, brave and enduring. I love love love this writer and this book was spectacular.