eating-grapes-downwards

by Jill Roe

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Catsalive]

Alma and Coral had grown up together in an autonomous, conspiratorial world of adult mystery and children’s submission. As they grew older, each regarded the other as an impediment from which there seemed to be no escape. So perhaps it was inevitable that they were to inflict a similar relationship on their daughters, Dorcas and Lally.

Coral’s expedient conversion to her husband’s Catholic religion gives her the opportunity of keeping Lally in uncomprehending subjugation. Lally is an investment, the most valuable asset in her possession, rather than a child to love and cherish. As she waits for her investment to mature, she practises petty acts of calculated cruelty and humiliation on Dorcas, whose mother is struggling to make ends meet after her husband’s death.

But then Alma remarries and Dorcas befriends Gerry Jarvie the balance of power subtly shifts. As the three girls move into adulthood, it is Lally who becomes the outsider. And when, during those long, sunny Devon summers, they turn their attention to young men, it is Lally, in love with Gerry’s cousin, Eugene, who suffers the consequences of Coral’s legacy.

Didn't grab me because I didn't like with any of the characters.
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[Anne]

Really liked it as a holiday read. quirky but predictable, therefore rewarding and fulfilling.