Didn't Want to Wait

 I didn't want to wait for my December reading wrap-up early next year to write about this book, which I finished this afternoon. I now have a new-to-me author to love and many more books by her to read and I couldn't be more thrilled.

I didn't know that psycho-domestic noir was a thing, but according to the Sunday Times as seen in the photo above, Celia Fremlin is the grandmother of the genre. Whatever. I loved this book, Uncle Paul, from start to finish and the ending was superb--the last paragraph gave me goosebumps. This rarely happens but when it does, I know I need to be on the lookout for more work by this author. I am ready to read everything she's written right now, but I will be patient and pace myself 😏 BorrowBox has her debut novel, which won an Edgar award, in e-book format so I've already borrowed that. The library has several of her titles, many of them in the same sort of Faber republications as this one. One is even a Christmas one, but it's too late to get it in time for this Christmas.

This book, originally published in 1959, wasn't even on my radar, but after seeing a short review of another book of hers in a blog post on Tuesday night and recognizing the author's name from past reviews, when I saw this at the Central Library on Wednesday, I plucked it off the shelf and brought it home with me. I am so glad I did. If this book is anything to go by, this woman could write. Her descriptions of characters and settings placed me right there and I could feel what she was describing--she's extremely good at capturing feelings. Here's an example from when Meg, the main character, and her half-sister Mildred are at a holiday cottage and have overslept:

"Then she remembered. She was here at the cottage and Mildred was here too. No doubt she too had overslept after their upsetting evening, for there was no sound from her room, nor from downstairs. Uneasily, Meg wondered what time it was. For it is a curious fact that, even if one is on holiday, even if one is free to sleep the twenty-four hours straight through at will, nevertheless, oversleeping invariably brings with it a feeling of dismay, a sense of impending disaster. The whole universe seemed pushed out of gear by this strange awakening to the noonday sun. The humming of bees already grown drowsy in the heat; the subdued, occasional chirp of birds whose morning clamour is over; the sense of breakfast irrevocably missed and lunch grotesquely inappropriate; all add up to such a feeling of alienation from ordinary life as can only be described as fear." (p. 121)

There were many times while reading when I thought about how much I loved the writing, but the plot was also exceedingly well done. The book begins with Meg receiving a telegram from her sister, Isabel, an anxious women on holiday with her husband and children in a seaside caravan park. The telegram is to beg Meg to come quickly because their half-sister, Mildred, has taken a holiday cottage nearby and it just happens to be the same cottage in which a terrible event from the past occurred. What was that event? Mildred has left her husband, is terrified of the cottage, and insists she hears footsteps. Are there footsteps and if so, whose are they? Meg decides she can go for the weekend, but gets sucked into the drama and ends up staying beyond that. Plot ensues from there. I won't say any more because part of the fun of this book is reading on as the story unfolds. 

In addition to the writing and the plot, the characterization is excellent--the way she writes Isabel for instance, made me really feel the agitation and anxiety she frequently exuded. The quirky supporting characters added some humor to the book and I laughed more than once. There are also moments where Meg is trying to figure out what is going on and her mind takes flight into all sorts of possible scenarios. You can feel the panic building in those passages. Fremlin does all of this so very well in this book and I am so glad I have so many more of her books to explore.

Have you read any of Celia Fremlin's work? If so, what did you think of it?

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