The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
Trapped in a life of duty to others, seventeen-year-old Alice Rowlands develops an extraordinary power.
Make it stand out
Even better the second time around.
When Alice’s mother dies, her loathsome father hooks up with local tart Rosa. Rosa wastes no time turfing out the dead mother’s things and living the fine life. But instead of bringing a second chapter of happiness to the home, Rosa begins to hatch a debauched plot against Alice.
Alice’s world is dark and full of diasppointed people; a world of opposites. Home is a prison. Her mother scuttles like an animal. Her father beats her. Outings are dangerous. It’s a mangy parrot that comes to the rescue in a moment of peril.
But it’s not all bleak. Alice finds solace in simple things: walking the dogs, reading ghost stories, watching the barges on the river: the pleasures of a classic Comyns heroine. She dreams of having a pretty dress and romantic love and, while she gets both, for a moment, this is Comyns and happiness is fleeting and twisted and comes with a price.
Blinkers kept wanting to buy me things - long kid gloves, and an embroidery set in a green velvet case with scissors shaped like storks and the blades making the stork’s beak - but I didn’t like to take these things in case it meant I’d have to marry him one day. (p.55)
I adore Barbara Comyns’ writing. There are mice in the linen. Monkey skulls in the parlour. A skinned dog as a rug. A parrot slowly eats up bathroom floor. The hero is undesirable, the father drunk, the mother a creeping animal with her teeth kicked in. The heroine hides the dirty dishes in the oven and changes the time on the clock so she can sneak out early. Comyns mixes horror and humour, bleakness and beauty on every page.
I’ve read The Vet’s Daughter twice and enjoyed it even more the second time. I felt a terrible dread as I watched Rosa’s diabolical plan unfold, and another during the final chapters. If ever anyone needed a break, it’s a Comyns’ girl.
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