Ursula’s life is shaped by encounters with two corpses. Her mother, who died of dengue fever, leaves Ursula trapped for two days in a bathroom in Morocco with her dead body blocking the door. By 1987, Ursula is sixteen, having moved through children’s homes and a halfway house with recovering addicts and released prisoners. She gets a trial job at Winchester School of Art’s postroom and befriends Sue, whose family is warm and rambling. Ursula’s relationship with Sue becomes intimate and foreboding, with scenes from a future documentary about Sue’s murder punctuating the narrative. In 1987, Ursula watches horror films with Sue, Vince, and Raymond, and moves toward a derelict house setting that intensifies the horror atmosphere.
"Ursula's destiny is shaped by encounters with two cadavers. And as the book oscillates between social realism and gothic horror, these two unruly corpses destroy her life. The first is Ursula's itinerant, troubled but loving mother, who'd been busking with her child alongside her since giving birth at 16. Aged seven, Ursula spent an appalling two days stuck in a bathroom in Morocco, with the door trapped by her mother's dead body after she died of dengue fever."
"By the time the novel opens in 1987, Ursula is 16, and has been moved between seven children's homes before ending up at a halfway house alongside recovering addicts and released prisoners. She lands a trial job in the postroom at Winchester School of Art: there she makes friends with bold, madcap Sue, who thrusts on Ursula an unfamiliar intimacy, introducing her to her enviably warm and rambling family. Ursula is narrating the book 40 years later, and it's clear from the start that something will go so horribly wrong between Ursula and Sue that a prurient documentary-maker will end up making a film about Sue's murder."
"Scenes from this documentary, Dark Descent, punctuate the book, adding to the sense of foreboding. Back in 1987, Sue and Ursula are watching horror films with Sue's delinquent boyfriend Vince and brother Raymond, with whom Ursula is falling in love. They watch The Stepford Wives and The Shining, and when Sue suggests Ursula move with Vince to a derelict house, it's inevitable that The Underwood will be a suitable setting for a horror film."
"Thick dust coats abandoned doilies in the warm and soupy air. Nothing has been moved since the preposterously named Mr and Mr"
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]