Molly Keane–TIME AFTER TIME
Posted in Coming-of-age, Humor, Satire, Absurdity, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Literary on Jan 11th, 2011
The cruelties of life, both deliberate and accidental, play out with delicious irony in this very dark precursor to the modern noir novel. An elderly brother and his three aging sisters, all physically and emotionally maimed, are required, under the terms of their mother’s will, to share the rapidly deteriorating family estate, Durraghglass, near Cork, Ireland. Each of the Swift family members, firmly controlled by “Mummie” and her memory, leads an almost totally isolated, secret-filled life, unable to share feelings or care for anyone else. Their already precarious lives are tested with the unexpected arrival of Leda, a formerly glamorous, half-Jewish cousin from Austria, whom they all thought “perished in some cold, unnamed camp, most likely. Who wants sordid details?” Irony builds upon irony as Leda’s actions and remarks, often misunderstood, succeed in turning one sibling against another.
