Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
Another new author for me. If you like Nancy Mitford you will like this author. Named as the Irish queen of black comedy, she also wrote under the nom de plume of M.J. Farrell.
More about this author at the Molly Keane website.
Never having read Keane before I had no idea what to expect. Maybe something a little like Nancy Mitford. But no. Molly, at least in this book, was head and shoulders above Nancy as an author. She drew me in with the first line and kept me there savouring every last nuance and undercurrent to the very end.
'Rose smelt the air, considering what she smelt; a miasma of unspoken criticism and disparagement fogged the distance between us.'
A story set within the midst of an upper class Anglo-Irish family of impoverished means, much like Keane's own upbringing. The descriptions of conditions in the nursery and the food fed to the children was very telling; we would describe them as neglect today. The dogs are fed chicken whilst the servants eat laundry starch to stave off the pangs of hunger. The bills are ignored as is anything remotely like human emotions.
The protagonist, Miss Aroon St. Charles, lives with her father,who she calls Papa, a habitual adulterer, her mother, a very detached, selfish and at times cruel figure, known throughout as Mummie, and her brother, Hubert. Aroon longs for love and to be loved, to have a place where she can serve and shine and be acknowledged.
The good behaviour of the title describes the almost sterile unemotional behaviour that is expected to cover any indication of feelings or intimacy between members of the family, or with anyone else. Only Papa and Hubert have access to some outlet to their feelings and needs and this comes at a price. The internal as well as external stifled life of a female is only too clearly drawn.
Never having read Keane before I had no idea what to expect. Maybe something a little like Nancy Mitford. But no. Molly, at least in this book, was head and shoulders above Nancy as an author. She drew me in with the first line and kept me there savouring every last nuance and undercurrent to the very end.
'Rose smelt the air, considering what she smelt; a miasma of unspoken criticism and disparagement fogged the distance between us.'
A story set within the midst of an upper class Anglo-Irish family of impoverished means, much like Keane's own upbringing. The descriptions of conditions in the nursery and the food fed to the children was very telling; we would describe them as neglect today. The dogs are fed chicken whilst the servants eat laundry starch to stave off the pangs of hunger. The bills are ignored as is anything remotely like human emotions.
The protagonist, Miss Aroon St. Charles, lives with her father,who she calls Papa, a habitual adulterer, her mother, a very detached, selfish and at times cruel figure, known throughout as Mummie, and her brother, Hubert. Aroon longs for love and to be loved, to have a place where she can serve and shine and be acknowledged.
The good behaviour of the title describes the almost sterile unemotional behaviour that is expected to cover any indication of feelings or intimacy between members of the family, or with anyone else. Only Papa and Hubert have access to some outlet to their feelings and needs and this comes at a price. The internal as well as external stifled life of a female is only too clearly drawn.
Moments of beauty and wonder in Aroon's life are interspersed with a life of despair and neglect and makes this a tale that is dark but yet has charm. It reminded me somewhat of An Enchanted April in it's layers of secrets and hidden heartaches and the basic human need of being allowed to be human and have human feelings.
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