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The Knife Drawer
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2012 In the house where Marie lives, the cutlery is running wild … Madness and fairy story creep hand in hand in this darkly comic tale. At the top of a narrow driveway there is a shambling Victorian house full of dust and stairs. The walls inside are ancient emulsion, sloughing off the distemper walls in gorgeous ribbons. The mice that infest the dining room chimney-breast are living out their own dreams and nightmares, learning voodoo and the meaning of love and forgiveness. In The Knife Drawer, dead bodies miraculously vanish as if scraped to nothing by pudding spoons. Marie’s mother has rather lost her wits since she did away with her husband. She could swear they’re out to get her; even the house gets messy on purpose, all by itself. Marie’s twin is living in a hole in the back-garden, small and round as a cherry pip, waiting to be discovered. In The Knife Drawer the steak knives grow so hungry that they scream. When the children murder the rent man, things get a little out of hand …
375 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 10, 2017
“In the very old times, when mousehood was a wretched thing, and filled with misery as a female is with young, the world was a place of great beauty; rich as lemon curd with crumbs and shadows.”
I could describe this simply as a dark, disturbing fairy-tale and in a way, I would be right. We have familiar themes here, neglected children left to fend for themselves, fairy grandmothers (who are more than they seem and that may have come to save the day), evil rent collection men with tempting lollipops (who remind one of a certain big bad wolf) and of course magical mice, generations and generations of them.
However, it is much more than that. We are never quite certain who the victim, heroes, and villains are (with one notable exception). The story is told from various perspectives by the cutlery, the mother, the house, the mice, Marie, her twin and even the rent man.
The prose is distinctive and to give you a taste of it I have used a few quotes to describe some of the characters.
Knives and other cutlery (I loved the family of nail clippers): “The greatest among creatures is the knife. Metal is old as planets; knives are the most primitive living things. A knife is a locked disaster, dormant for centuries, mostly safe enough for chopping vegetables. One might even forget that a knife is alive.”
The Mother: “When you are bitten right through with guilt, it gets so you daren’t say a word, just in case you blurt out a confession instead of the offer of a cup of tea.”
The House: “Our House tried to warm its skin in the sudden sunshine of spring. I could feel its low grumble of pleasure, but at night the joists would clock and groan as heat leached into the clear, star-infested skies.”
The many generations of mice searching for the answers and resorting to and abandoning various religions on the way: “A mousetrap is irresistible. It’s an idiots' death, a hero’s death, for curiosity is the noblest virtue that there is, next to love; next to rescuing.”
Marie: “Days crawled past, softly, the way the fruit turns rotten, and I was alone. I dreamed of a shadow at my side when I slept, and when I woke I crept about the house like a thief, gazing numbly at closed drawers and my mother’s wardrobe."
The grandmother doesn’t have a voice but we hear all about her from the other characters: "...its wren against crow, robin against missile thrush. In this way she rules over them; the songbirds decide which amount their numbers must sacrifice their wings, for if they do not then the grandmother will choose herself…”
Of all the characters the mice are the most developed, they have had generations to do so. They speak of the importance of understanding, of dealing with guilt, of revenge and more guilt. They are in turns heroes and villains, loyal acolytes and atheists, always trying to understand the nature of mousekind. While the humans, in turn, avoid questions, and memories and even the necessities of day to day lives.
The overall theme (moral?) of the tale is that every creature is subject to and cannot escape from its own nature. Only the mice begin to achieve an understanding of this.
Overall I really enjoyed this, I found my reading pace was slow due to the density of this prose. I could only read so long before I found myself having to stop and let the story sort of settle in. Not actually a bad thing. I very strongly suspect that I will enjoy this one even more as re read and look forward to reading another Paprika Tarrant.
This book is recommended for those who like dark tales, a lot of magical realism, some pretty nifty prose and do not need their endings tied up in a red bow.
PS a word to the publishers Salt Publishing. There are a number of typos clustered around chapter 42 - which has the wrong name on it!
I could describe this simply as a dark, disturbing fairy-tale and in a way, I would be right. We have familiar themes here, neglected children left to fend for themselves, fairy grandmothers (who are more than they seem and that may have come to save the day), evil rent collection men with tempting lollipops (who remind one of a certain big bad wolf) and of course magical mice, generations and generations of them.
However, it is much more than that. We are never quite certain who the victim, heroes, and villains are (with one notable exception). The story is told from various perspectives by the cutlery, the mother, the house, the mice, Marie, her twin and even the rent man.
The prose is distinctive and to give you a taste of it I have used a few quotes to describe some of the characters.
Knives and other cutlery (I loved the family of nail clippers): “The greatest among creatures is the knife. Metal is old as planets; knives are the most primitive living things. A knife is a locked disaster, dormant for centuries, mostly safe enough for chopping vegetables. One might even forget that a knife is alive.”
The Mother: “When you are bitten right through with guilt, it gets so you daren’t say a word, just in case you blurt out a confession instead of the offer of a cup of tea.”
The House: “Our House tried to warm its skin in the sudden sunshine of spring. I could feel its low grumble of pleasure, but at night the joists would clock and groan as heat leached into the clear, star-infested skies.”
The many generations of mice searching for the answers and resorting to and abandoning various religions on the way: “A mousetrap is irresistible. It’s an idiots' death, a hero’s death, for curiosity is the noblest virtue that there is, next to love; next to rescuing.”
Marie: “Days crawled past, softly, the way the fruit turns rotten, and I was alone. I dreamed of a shadow at my side when I slept, and when I woke I crept about the house like a thief, gazing numbly at closed drawers and my mother’s wardrobe."
The grandmother doesn’t have a voice but we hear all about her from the other characters: "...its wren against crow, robin against missile thrush. In this way she rules over them; the songbirds decide which amount their numbers must sacrifice their wings, for if they do not then the grandmother will choose herself…”
Of all the characters the mice are the most developed, they have had generations to do so. They speak of the importance of understanding, of dealing with guilt, of revenge and more guilt. They are in turns heroes and villains, loyal acolytes and atheists, always trying to understand the nature of mousekind. While the humans, in turn, avoid questions, and memories and even the necessities of day to day lives.
The overall theme (moral?) of the tale is that every creature is subject to and cannot escape from its own nature. Only the mice begin to achieve an understanding of this.
Overall I really enjoyed this, I found my reading pace was slow due to the density of this prose. I could only read so long before I found myself having to stop and let the story sort of settle in. Not actually a bad thing. I very strongly suspect that I will enjoy this one even more as re read and look forward to reading another Paprika Tarrant.
This book is recommended for those who like dark tales, a lot of magical realism, some pretty nifty prose and do not need their endings tied up in a red bow.
PS a word to the publishers Salt Publishing. There are a number of typos clustered around chapter 42 - which has the wrong name on it!
March 22, 2017
I've been meaning to write this review for a while, as it saddens me how few people have reviewed and rated The Knife Drawer, a novel about an extremely dysfunctional family, who have completely cut themselves off from the outside world. The story of their surreal and twisted world is told by many unusual voices, including the many mice that infest the abandoned rooms, the wild and flesh-hungry cutlery that live in the dining room, and even the old and broken house itself, distraught over the horrors that have been taking place within its own walls.
This is magical realism at its finest. Tarrant skilfully incorporates many issues of modern family life (isolation, favouritism, obsession, neglect, hatred and bitterness) with elements of the fantastical. It seems to me that the fantastical is used to show just how horrific the dark reality of this family is. As there is no way that I could ever describe how incredible Tarrant's use of language is, I will just pick out some quotes:
"A creature is pinned in time by sadness and houses are the tiredest, oldest, saddest things there are [...] The house was watching August unravel in sticky heat and overgrowth. Hours flickered by as it saw dandelions writhe on the lawn, exploding suddenly into seeds and fluff. The sun was soothing on its rough old hide, sore for a century with chisel wounds."
"The sunrise flickers against the sky in shades of gore as the night is eaten away, scavenged clean by the circling rooks. The light is painful against window and roof-tile, for if there was any scrap of mercy in this old cold earth, the sun would not have risen again."
Honestly, I could have opened the book to any page and picked out a quote as masterfully written as these. But I'll let you just read the book instead.
The only reason that I have not rated this 5 stars is that, without giving too much away, I felt that towards the end the story a certain event caused the novel to drift a little too far into fantasy. This is mostly just due to personal taste, as I enjoy magical realism to be firmly rooted in reality using the fantastical elements to heighten the story and atmosphere, which I felt was done perfectly for the majority of the novel. To me, 4 stars here mean a book I love, but has perhaps one or two things that I'd change if I could.
Still this one issue does not take away from the fact that every part of this disturbing novel is masterly executed and that it is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I can only hope that more people discover it.
This is magical realism at its finest. Tarrant skilfully incorporates many issues of modern family life (isolation, favouritism, obsession, neglect, hatred and bitterness) with elements of the fantastical. It seems to me that the fantastical is used to show just how horrific the dark reality of this family is. As there is no way that I could ever describe how incredible Tarrant's use of language is, I will just pick out some quotes:
"A creature is pinned in time by sadness and houses are the tiredest, oldest, saddest things there are [...] The house was watching August unravel in sticky heat and overgrowth. Hours flickered by as it saw dandelions writhe on the lawn, exploding suddenly into seeds and fluff. The sun was soothing on its rough old hide, sore for a century with chisel wounds."
"The sunrise flickers against the sky in shades of gore as the night is eaten away, scavenged clean by the circling rooks. The light is painful against window and roof-tile, for if there was any scrap of mercy in this old cold earth, the sun would not have risen again."
Honestly, I could have opened the book to any page and picked out a quote as masterfully written as these. But I'll let you just read the book instead.
The only reason that I have not rated this 5 stars is that, without giving too much away, I felt that towards the end the story a certain event caused the novel to drift a little too far into fantasy. This is mostly just due to personal taste, as I enjoy magical realism to be firmly rooted in reality using the fantastical elements to heighten the story and atmosphere, which I felt was done perfectly for the majority of the novel. To me, 4 stars here mean a book I love, but has perhaps one or two things that I'd change if I could.
Still this one issue does not take away from the fact that every part of this disturbing novel is masterly executed and that it is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I can only hope that more people discover it.
October 18, 2012
This book is magical, dark, funny, sad and brilliant. It is one of the best books I have read in the past ten years. The writing is original and distinctive and the story makes you feel and think. Highly recommended.
November 29, 2016
I don't think this is for everyone, and for the magic realism to be carried so innocuously for 300 + pages is amazing. If you love weird, well written, lyrical twisted stories that are drenched in fairy tale then I would give it a go but I would be very hesitant to recommend it to anyone because I think most people would dislike it, a lot.
March 2, 2017
Sometimes you choose a book a totally random choice and it blows you away.
The extraordinary mind set of the author paints a scene that we all know, a family house with a garden and a cherry tree but is twisted into a cruel environment of dust, dirt, and despair.
“This house was already elderly; it was made from old things, defeated before the foundations were gouged in. Bricks are young, and curiosity keeps them going for the first hundred years, at least. Stones, on the other hand, bear the baffled memories of mountains and a world before men and raised voices and slammed doors.”
“The fireplace in the dining room is never used and the chimney breast is full and full of mice. They live in cardboard bits and lollipop sticks, in ramshackle, towering slums. Their stink is bright and sharp; the reek of afraidness and urine.”
“Suddenly the mother saw that she was alone in this great mouldering house, alone with these two unknowable babies. She found herself wishing like a child on a star. She wished against the wet morning and the sodden hedgerow and the woodpigeon. She closed her eyes and wished that her mother was there. Or a godmother. Someone to help her breathe all this air.”
Why this book is not a best seller i can’t understand This book is crying out to be reviewed by someone who can give it justice.
The extraordinary mind set of the author paints a scene that we all know, a family house with a garden and a cherry tree but is twisted into a cruel environment of dust, dirt, and despair.
“This house was already elderly; it was made from old things, defeated before the foundations were gouged in. Bricks are young, and curiosity keeps them going for the first hundred years, at least. Stones, on the other hand, bear the baffled memories of mountains and a world before men and raised voices and slammed doors.”
“The fireplace in the dining room is never used and the chimney breast is full and full of mice. They live in cardboard bits and lollipop sticks, in ramshackle, towering slums. Their stink is bright and sharp; the reek of afraidness and urine.”
“Suddenly the mother saw that she was alone in this great mouldering house, alone with these two unknowable babies. She found herself wishing like a child on a star. She wished against the wet morning and the sodden hedgerow and the woodpigeon. She closed her eyes and wished that her mother was there. Or a godmother. Someone to help her breathe all this air.”
Why this book is not a best seller i can’t understand This book is crying out to be reviewed by someone who can give it justice.
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July 2, 2014
Original, exciting, effective; I cannot recommend this book enough, and I intend to badger everyone I know until they've read it.
August 3, 2016
This has been on my TRL for years, but I've only just got round to it.
The highlight for me was the generational progress of Mousehood, the development of their religions and society over a decade or so. Tarrant tells an epic story in a very personal, individual (mouse) way, that really captures the way a society moves over time. Their patter-quick lives stand in contrast to the occasional narration from the house itself, which has of course stood for decades, if not centuries, and moves at a much slower pace (mouse lives are over in a beat of its slow heart - it could blink and miss a generation), and the sadness of the house is surprisingly touching.
The knives themselves are another highlight, and the idea that they are keening for blood, breathing through their shine, is lovely in a macabre sort of way. That and the Mousehood storyline are poetic and faintly magical, with an individual, askance take on reality.
Unfortunately, I didn't feel that style or magic carried across to the human storylines, and I found they dragged on a bit. Maybe its the higher turnover of mouse characters that kept their stories engaging, and the infrequency of the appearances by the knives of the title that did the same for them. Either way, the humans didn't grab me the same way, and their apparent disconnect with reality - just how DO they survive so long? - was a bit jarring. Meanwhile, I'm quite happy to buy into the disconnect the knives and mice have, because that makes a certain sense (magical for the knives, and anthropomorphic for the mice?).
Ultimately, I guess I wanted more Mousehood and more cutlery, more of the house's near-perpetual and pathetic perspective, and less of the humans fretting about how dirty the rooms are.
The highlight for me was the generational progress of Mousehood, the development of their religions and society over a decade or so. Tarrant tells an epic story in a very personal, individual (mouse) way, that really captures the way a society moves over time. Their patter-quick lives stand in contrast to the occasional narration from the house itself, which has of course stood for decades, if not centuries, and moves at a much slower pace (mouse lives are over in a beat of its slow heart - it could blink and miss a generation), and the sadness of the house is surprisingly touching.
The knives themselves are another highlight, and the idea that they are keening for blood, breathing through their shine, is lovely in a macabre sort of way. That and the Mousehood storyline are poetic and faintly magical, with an individual, askance take on reality.
Unfortunately, I didn't feel that style or magic carried across to the human storylines, and I found they dragged on a bit. Maybe its the higher turnover of mouse characters that kept their stories engaging, and the infrequency of the appearances by the knives of the title that did the same for them. Either way, the humans didn't grab me the same way, and their apparent disconnect with reality - just how DO they survive so long? - was a bit jarring. Meanwhile, I'm quite happy to buy into the disconnect the knives and mice have, because that makes a certain sense (magical for the knives, and anthropomorphic for the mice?).
Ultimately, I guess I wanted more Mousehood and more cutlery, more of the house's near-perpetual and pathetic perspective, and less of the humans fretting about how dirty the rooms are.
February 27, 2018
What a strange, disturbing, beautiful book. If you like dark fairy tales or magic realism, this is one to pick up.
January 6, 2024
Wow. What a wonderful, magical book. Brilliant.
Read
October 19, 2019DNF
December 30, 2018
Okay, I'm still kind of sitting and thinking about how I feel about this book, but after 24 hours, I want to say a couple of things before I lose them.
I really think this book is well-written and good. I don't need lots of plot or lots of action or anything like that to enjoy a book. I will say that I feel like so much of this book dragged, particularly in the middle, and I think it was primarily the mother's sections that did it for me, personally. I have heard it said that this is quite a long book for being a Weird Book, and I would agree with that. I also would agree with the fact that I think 100 pages could've been taken out of it and I wouldn't have missed it. I think the slow build-up of what is to come might work if it weren't so heavily foreshadowed/so obvious, but the ending felt very anti-climactic for me personally for that very reason.
Now, having said all the negatives, I did enjoy this! I think I might've enjoyed it more at another time of year, or in a different mood also. I missed reading books written like this: magical, otherworldly, descriptive, evocative.
I just really couldn't believe it was more than 350 pages of what felt like a whole lot of repetition with small things being revealed little by little which, to me, didn't do much for me. Especially when I was waiting on explanations for things that I eventually lost interest in waiting for because they came 25, 45, 60 pages too late. This book caused a bit of a reading slump for what was already a very slumpy reading year for me, but I don't regret reading it in the slightest.
All in all, a confusing review of a book I feel very confused about.
I really think this book is well-written and good. I don't need lots of plot or lots of action or anything like that to enjoy a book. I will say that I feel like so much of this book dragged, particularly in the middle, and I think it was primarily the mother's sections that did it for me, personally. I have heard it said that this is quite a long book for being a Weird Book, and I would agree with that. I also would agree with the fact that I think 100 pages could've been taken out of it and I wouldn't have missed it. I think the slow build-up of what is to come might work if it weren't so heavily foreshadowed/so obvious, but the ending felt very anti-climactic for me personally for that very reason.
Now, having said all the negatives, I did enjoy this! I think I might've enjoyed it more at another time of year, or in a different mood also. I missed reading books written like this: magical, otherworldly, descriptive, evocative.
I just really couldn't believe it was more than 350 pages of what felt like a whole lot of repetition with small things being revealed little by little which, to me, didn't do much for me. Especially when I was waiting on explanations for things that I eventually lost interest in waiting for because they came 25, 45, 60 pages too late. This book caused a bit of a reading slump for what was already a very slumpy reading year for me, but I don't regret reading it in the slightest.
All in all, a confusing review of a book I feel very confused about.
May 20, 2019
I like to use my reviews to help others judge if they will enjoy the book, but it's hard in this case because this is such an unusual book. For what it's worth I enjoyed the book, but it won't be to everyone's taste.
The book reminded me a bit of The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. Like that book all the action takes place inside a single house, and like Carter's book everything has a slightly fantastic feel. But Tarrant takes the surreal aspects a lot farther. In this book the cutlery (from the eponymous knife drawer) has come to (violently carnivorous) life and consumes any bodies it can get at, starting with the body of the father and ending with the rent man. The mice are sentient and act to some extent as a hive mind, and there is a mysterious grandmother who may or may not be an owl in human shape.
There isn't really a plot. The book starts after the mother has stabbed and killed the father (though we never learn why) and ends with the children leaving the house, but very little happens in the hundreds of pages in between. The fun is in the wonderful ideas and the lush descriptions of the house and the characters in it. I did enjoy the book and I recommend it, but do note my comments above as I suspect it is not to everyone's taste.
The book reminded me a bit of The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. Like that book all the action takes place inside a single house, and like Carter's book everything has a slightly fantastic feel. But Tarrant takes the surreal aspects a lot farther. In this book the cutlery (from the eponymous knife drawer) has come to (violently carnivorous) life and consumes any bodies it can get at, starting with the body of the father and ending with the rent man. The mice are sentient and act to some extent as a hive mind, and there is a mysterious grandmother who may or may not be an owl in human shape.
There isn't really a plot. The book starts after the mother has stabbed and killed the father (though we never learn why) and ends with the children leaving the house, but very little happens in the hundreds of pages in between. The fun is in the wonderful ideas and the lush descriptions of the house and the characters in it. I did enjoy the book and I recommend it, but do note my comments above as I suspect it is not to everyone's taste.
Want to read
January 31, 2025I was completely drawn in by Tarrant's prose and power of description. I struggle with fiction because I find it to be self conscious and artificial at times. Tarrant made me believe the story and believe IN the characters. I know some readers thought it was a bit slow in the middle of the book, which I can understand, but I never felt bored by it. I found the ending a bit puzzling, but all in all, I thought it was a great read.
October 5, 2023
This is a beautifully written book, the prose is dense but magical, the opening chapter is probably one of the best I have read. However, the atmosphere is so claustrophobic at times its nearly unreadable, alongside the gruesome events plotted in the house. It took me a while to finish. Well worth the read, if you have the stomach, a very talented author.
December 31, 2021
10/10 Book of the year.
Want to read
August 30, 2014OMG, this sounds hilarious and right up my horror loving alley!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews