barbara comyns – Cannonball Read 17

A few weeks after my tenth birthday I was sent to stay with some horsey relations in Leicestershire.

The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns

July 13, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a 1962 novel by Barbara Comyns, who I previously read and reviewed for Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, which had a creepy and detached air, with a sinister and sardonic underbelly. This book still has a darkness to it, but there’s also more heart to it. We meet Frances on one of her most interesting and horrifying days, the day who father dies. She is lost for words on this day because she had just seen something so alluring and awful, […]

Grimm but not Carter

The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns

April 21, 2019 by Chris Leave a Comment

“The Juniper Tree” is a Brothers Grimm story that is at once both unremembered and remembered. Many people think they don’t know, but when you tell them the plot, they go, “oh yeah”. It is also a rather bloody piece of work. (Not as bloody as their story about playing pig slaughter). Barbara Comyns reinvents the tale from an almost feminist perspective. She might not be as rich in language as Angela Carter, but despite its short length the book is far deeper than it […]

Just take out a loan to buy food, Sophia. Grocery stores will work with you, if you can’t afford to eat…

Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

January 24, 2019 by Moonlight Reader 2 Comments

“I told Helen my story and she went home and cried.” I have an ongoing reading project called “A Century of Women,” where I am reading a book written by a woman author for every year in the 20th century, from 1900 through 1999. For that reason, you’ll be seeing a lot of reviews of books written – by women – before 2000. Published in 1950, Our Spoons Came From Woolworths is told in the first person by Sophia Fairclough, who meets and marries Charles […]

Each day had been more stormy than the last.

Who was Changed and Who was Dead by Barbara Comyns

January 19, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So this is an impossible little book to classify, but it’s one in which tone tone ton tells you what you need to know about it. A little town that has recently been hit with a flood, or perhaps an annual flood gone a little awry. Comyns begins us with a cryptic and wonderful image of someone rowing their way through a house. This opens up our introduction to Ebin Willoweed, the protagonist or at least head of household for this story. We go from […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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