![]() ![]() She must make us see all the things that Aroon doesn’t see. ![]() Keane has set herself a technical challenge. Keane’s brilliant sleight of hand is to allow her blinkered heroine to narrate her own development from neglected child, to ungainly debutante, to bitter spinster: Aroon understands nothing, yet she reveals all. In the pages that follow she will make her case, reminiscing about her youth among the hunting-and-fishing classes of Ireland, a faded aristocracy dedicated to distraction even as their fortunes dwindle. “All my life so far I have done everything for the best reasons and the most unselfish motives,” says Aroon soon after. In fact, a single whiff of the stuff is enough to knock the old lady dead. Charles prepares to serve her invalid mother a splendid luncheon-the silver gleams, the linens glow-of rabbit mousse, a dish her mother despises. Is it possible to kill with kindness? As Molly Keane’s Booker Prize–short-listed dark comedy suggests, not only can kindness be deadly, it just may be the best form of revenge. May 2021 selection of the NYRB Classics Book Club. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |