Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
NYRB Classics (2018), Edition: Reprint, 192 pages
Description
"Bella Winter is homeless and jobless. The mother of a toddler by a man whose name she didn't quite catch, her once pretty face is now marred by a scar from a car accident. She's recently disentangled herself from a selfish and indifferent boyfriend and a cruel and indifferent mother. But she shares a quality common to Barbara Comyns's heroines: a bracingly unsentimental ability to carry on. It's not long before Bella has found not only a job but a vocation; not only a place to live but a home and a makeshift family. As Comyns's novel progresses, the story echoes and inverts the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale The Juniper Tree. Will Bella's hard-won restoration to life and love come at the cost of others' happiness?"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member DameMuriel
The Juniper Tree is about a woman with a scar on her face and an illegitimate child. She works in a small antique store and befriends a well-to-do couple. The couple takes a special interest in the woman and her child. Things turn sinister later on and birds and trees do very strange things...this
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book is kind of a fairy tale. Comyns is one of the great writers of magical realism but no one ever really discusses her in relation to this form. Or at all. Show Less
LibraryThing member Petroglyph
Comyns’ The juniper tree is a novel based loosely on the Grimm fairy tale of the same name. The main character, Bella, is a single mother to a mixed-race daughter. She finds a new job running an antiques boutique and becomes friends with a nearby wealthy family whose husband decides she needs an
As the book develops, the story flows along nicely, avoiding major speed bumps. Gradually, though, a few details start feeling slightly off: there’s thieving magpies in the garden; the narcissist mother turns up for semi-regular visits and turns out to be horribly racist as well; her ex-boyfriend wants to impress her with his new conquest. Pushing in from beyond Bella’s new idyllic life are ominous reminders that the Outside World is cruel and self-serving, though they remain under the surface; their pressure is subtle. .
It was nice to read a book centring onthe stepmother character , and a sympathetic portrayal at that. Other than that this book was just plain well done. It was a gentle, languid read, and, like a fairytale, feels largely untethered to the decade in which it is actually set (the 1980s) -- large sections of the books it could have been set in pre-War London, too, or even the 1800s. If I have any point of criticism it is that the events in the plot were kept a little too much in the middle distance -- again, like in a fairy tale: sometimes it feels more like we’re being told about a series of events rather than seeing them happen through the main character, particularly as the story nears its conclusion.
But on the whole this book was a quiet, understatedly nasty read. Not quite character-driven enough, but the buildup and the gentle flavour of the narrative more than make up for that.
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education in literature, art, and theatre; the wife, Gertrude, becomes a close friend. Their mansion’s garden becomes a park that Bella and her daughter frequent. Then there’s her mother, who is a severe narcissist, though Bella is rather good at enforcing No Contact -- the mother doesn’t even know about Bella’s daughter. As the book develops, the story flows along nicely, avoiding major speed bumps. Gradually, though, a few details start feeling slightly off: there’s thieving magpies in the garden; the narcissist mother turns up for semi-regular visits and turns out to be horribly racist as well; her ex-boyfriend wants to impress her with his new conquest. Pushing in from beyond Bella’s new idyllic life are ominous reminders that the Outside World is cruel and self-serving, though they remain under the surface; their pressure is subtle. .
It was nice to read a book centring on
But on the whole this book was a quiet, understatedly nasty read. Not quite character-driven enough, but the buildup and the gentle flavour of the narrative more than make up for that.
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Bella, a single mother who runs an antique shop and lives above the shop with her mixed-race daughter Marlen, has a chance encounter with Gertrude and Bernard Forbes, a childless wealthy couple who are longing for a child of their own. A close friendship develop, and soon Bella and Marlen are
Once again, Comyns details the events of ordinary day to day life, and yet there's something magical or unreal lurking beneath. One critic described it as the "unsettling union of matter-of-fact description and random, inexplicable plot." This is one of Comyns' later novels, and her skill and growth as a writer are evident. Highly recommended.
4 stars
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spending every weekend at the Forbes' estate. I won't say much about the rest of the plot, but the story closely follows the arc of the fairy tale.Once again, Comyns details the events of ordinary day to day life, and yet there's something magical or unreal lurking beneath. One critic described it as the "unsettling union of matter-of-fact description and random, inexplicable plot." This is one of Comyns' later novels, and her skill and growth as a writer are evident. Highly recommended.
4 stars
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1985
Physical description
192 p.; 7.97 inches
ISBN
1681371316 / 9781681371313