The Aunt smoked her cigarettes back-to-back and laughed with abandon. I hated her more than ever. She could have been this to me -- for me -- yet chose not to be. Which side of myself shall I show to this orphan henceforth? she'd thought. Jolly aunt or ice-pick aunt? Hmmm. [loc. 827]
The novel begins in the 1920s, just after Anastasia's mother dies: she never knew her father, though her mother told her of his heroic sacrifice in the Great War. In lieu of other family, Anastasia is packed off to the dubious comforts of life with 'the Aunt', a fearsome and stony figure who reminds Anastasia (a great reader) of Miss Havisham. The Aunt does not take kindly to this comparison, or to Anastasia poking around among her possessions and reading a series of lewd and explicit love letters, signed 'Big Willy'.
As Anastasia grows older, the two of them get along better. When friends of the Aunt arrive from London, the story really gets going -- and Anastasia learns about her Aunt's lurid history, her career as an author, and what really happened to her brother, Anastasia's father. She also discovers sex, and friendship, and how one can destroy the other. She and the Aunt learn a great deal from one another, and the flash-forward opening scene -- which seemed like a Gothic, or perhaps a Dickensian, tragedy -- becomes something considerably more hopeful.
I liked this much more than The Inverts, perhaps because of its narrator. The viewpoint character, Anastasia, is clever, naive and curious, and her maturing relationship with her aunt is awkward and painful: a confirmed spinster confronted with an angry, grieving, self-centred child, who grows into a likeable and amusing companion. I especially enjoyed the scenes of them working together on the Aunt's next novel, and there are some cutting observations on the literary scene.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 01 AUG 2024.
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