So, it's not really what you'd call a cheery book. Janet is a very bookish girl who never really fits in, either with her family (her father seems indifferent and her mother impatient) or at boarding school. Her only real friends seem to be animals. She struggles through her childhood and then is murdered at sixteen. The prose is quite charming, and there are some laugh-out-loud moments and other wry observations, but the ending is abrupt and hard to fathom, and just adds to the overall feeling of bleakness.
This author's only novel, written when she was 51, is peculiar, but in a good way. I would have given it another star but for the weak ending, which disappointed in an otherwise strong piece of writing.
Janet is the star of this story that is the tale of her short life which ends at 16 (revealed at the book's outset). She is a true romantic and passionately loves nature and animals, considerably more than she does people. She and her family live in a cold and old, drafty castle in the country outside of Aberdeen, Scotland. Definitely a loner, even within her family, Janet quotes poetry interlaced with observations of birds and plants and the wind in a magical world of her own. She reads incessantly and has a stunningly unique perspective. On a trip to the zoo she's watching the lions:
"The lions stiffened, moved forward to their …
This author's only novel, written when she was 51, is peculiar, but in a good way. I would have given it another star but for the weak ending, which disappointed in an otherwise strong piece of writing.
Janet is the star of this story that is the tale of her short life which ends at 16 (revealed at the book's outset). She is a true romantic and passionately loves nature and animals, considerably more than she does people. She and her family live in a cold and old, drafty castle in the country outside of Aberdeen, Scotland. Definitely a loner, even within her family, Janet quotes poetry interlaced with observations of birds and plants and the wind in a magical world of her own. She reads incessantly and has a stunningly unique perspective. On a trip to the zoo she's watching the lions:
"The lions stiffened, moved forward to their fence; suddenly they were alert and purposeful. Perhaps it was feeding time. Janet turned to see what they were watching. A group of nuns were coming along the path, their black habits billowing against the leaden sky. Were ancestral voices whispering to these lions, reminding them of what might be done with missionaries? Cheered by this thought she moved on."
Pretty funny in a dark sort of way. Much of the book is like this...and full of eccentric characters behaving oddly and often badly. Although Janet is looked on as an outsider, as weird even, she is a great foil for the actually weird "normal" people in her life, and by the end of the book it's clear that she is much saner than the folks around her. If you've ever felt different from the people you're thrown together with, this heartbreakingly sensitive portrait of a solitary child is cathartic. It's a kind of coming of age story, but different from any others I've read because it's always evident that she is going to make her way in the world with great difficulty. Barker's writing is mostly beautiful (she does a great job evoking the broody Highlands) and I'm sad that this is the only novel she left behind.
