The Vet's Daughter
Books | Fiction / Family Life / General
3.7
Barbara Comyns
The Vet's Daughter combines shocking realism with a visionary edge. The vet lives with his bedridden wife and shy daughter Alice in a sinister London suburb. He works constantly, captive to a strange private fury, and treats his family with brutality and contempt. After his wife's death, the vet takes up with a crass, needling woman who tries to refashion Alice in her own image. And yet as Alice retreats ever deeper into a dream world, she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own.Harrowing and haunting, like an unexpected cross between Flannery O'Connor and Stephen King, The Vet's Daughter is a story of outraged innocence that culminates in a scene of appalling triumph.
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Author
Barbara Comyns
Pages
152
Publisher
New York Review of Books
Published Date
2003-04-30
ISBN
1590170296 9781590170298
Community ReviewsSee all
"A novel about a young woman who has a desperately ill mother, a violent father, and yet in the midst of never-ending hardship possesses a secret of her own. 1959.<br/><br/>Full review (and other recommendations!) at <a href="http://anotherlookbook.com/the-vets-daughter-barbara-comyns/">Another look book</a><br/><br/>A strange book written in a breathtaking style. Not the happiest of books, but not depressing, either, and so it's quite fascinating to read. Reminded me of Sylvia Townsend Warner's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/416164389">Lolly Willowes</a>. Recommended if you enjoy modernist stories with just a dash of surreal."
B S
Bree Sarlati
