Miranda's parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983. Miranda's father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda's mother likes to bring conversation back to 'the War,' although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports 'the usual desire to kill'.
Wickedly delightful ... Family secrets emerge, but the plot mostly revolves around the scheduling of a hip replacement. I loved it completely ... Delicious.
With this intimate novel, Barnes explores long marriage, sibling rivalry, truths behind shifting memories, and family secrets as well as examining the decisions people make in life, the long-term effects of those decisions, and how well one truly knows the people they love.
A quietly dazzling, sharp-witted generational drama ... Relishing this quintessentially English domestic comedy, readers peeking below the surface will be astonished by the complex generational and emotional undercurrents guiding Barnes's memorable characters.
