I love Barbara Comyns writing, her way of looking at the world, is deliciously eccentric. My favourite to date is probably The Juniper Tree – a book I couldn’t stop thinking about. When reading Comyns – one can’t help but wonder where her rather skewed view of the world came from. Sisters by a River, Barbara Comyns’ debut novel gives us something of an idea. Although described as a novel, Sister by a River has the taint of memoir about it as Comyns used her first novel to tell the story of her childhood.
It is a story of chaos, genteel poverty, sibling squabbles, unsuitable governesses and antics on the river running past the family home. Her childhood was obviously quite extraordinary. It’s hard to know if Comyns viewed any part of it as happy – but it quite clearly informed her writing and ignited her imagination.
“When we were very young people would sometimes forbid us to play on the path that ran by the river, but it didn’t make any difference, we always did. We used to fall in but were never completely drowned, the village children often were though. There was a family called Drinkwater and no less than five of them were drowned, they were a very poor family, the mother was very handsome and fierce looking, with a figure rather like a withie, which was quite suitable because she stripped the withies on the river bank as her living, most of the village women did and after they were stripped they were made into baskets and cradels.”
(NB spelling errors in quotes entirely deliberate)
The novel is narrated by young Barbara – we see the world through her eyes, and in her words and with her own sometimes eccentric spelling. This narration is odd at times, it is much more like that of an adult recalling childhood than a child themselves.
Barbara is one of six sisters – though one doesn’t appear in the story, as she wouldn’t like it. Told in a series of usually short chapters and vignettes, with titles like – Aunts Arriving, God in the Billiard Room, It wasn’t Nice in the Dressing Room and Mice and Owls, Comyns recreates a childhood full of unreliable adults and the animals that fall foul of them. It is a story that is colourful and strange, told with humour and some affection.
“Mammy had always looked and been rather vague, she had a kind of gypsofilia mind, all little bits and pieces held together by whisps, now she grew vaguer still and talked with a high floating voice, leaving her sentences half finished or with a wave of her hand she would add an ‘and so forth’ which was a favourite expression.”
However, Comyns’ light, bright, breezy tone is very deceptive, behind the humour there is a lot that is really rather dark. Comyns wraps that darkness in witty anecdotes but that is her way of talking about times which must have been frequently alarming, unpredictable and sometimes violent, which she is oddly matter of fact about, it’s her way of highlighting an upbringing that must have at times taken its toll.
Barbara’s parents were generally responsible for the violence – towards one another or unwanted animals, they are neglectful and inconsistent allowing the children to run pretty wild. There are plenty of disturbing events, her father threatens to shoot himself, a local child drowns in the river. Barbara’s mother, who went deaf following the birth of her sixth daughter, is vague, their father frequently bad tempered and beset by money worries.
“One evening we elder ones returned rather late after a visit to the cinema, we were all kind of in a coma, degesting the film we had just seen, but we were soon rudely awakened, there was an awful uproar, Mammy was screaming and crying in the morning-room, and Daddy bellowing away like a bull, as we came into the room he hurried out without speaking to us, he locked himself in the billiard-room, always his stronghold during rows. Mammy was in the most frightful state, it was difficult to make out what had happened, she seemed almost crazy, and I felt all sick.”
The household reminded me of the Mitfords, though maybe the Mitfords were less dysfunctional. There are unattractive aunts, a messy grandmother whose bedroom smelt of vinegar. None of the adults seem to have much going for them. The elder sister Mary bullies the other sisters badly and Barbara grows up closest to her sister Beatrix. Childhood ends as it must, crashing to a sudden halt when tragedy strikes.
Comyns storytelling is much more than her quirky, humorous anecdotes might have us believe. This is a quick engaging read, not my favourite Comyns but one I couldn’t help thinking a lot about. What, strange and frightening days of childhood lie behind this novel?
heavenali 
A very appealing review. I din’t get on with Comyns’ The Vet’s Daughter, but this one sounds much better – possibly closer to Our Spoons, which I loved. As you say, there is often a undercurrent of real darkness beneath the outwardly breezy surface in her writing – that’s certainly my recollection of the ‘feel’ of Spoons.
This is different to A Vet’s Daughter, perhaps it is closer to Our Spoons… Her breezy matter of factness is quite unsettling at times.
Great review Ali. I think that it’s actually underselling Comyns to just describe her as quirky, as people do – she’s actually quite dark and subversive underneath, isn’t she?
Yes she is dark and subversive and I had to stop from time to time and think about what lay behind her anecdotes. She is a fascinating writer.
How interesting! She must have been a confident writer to insist on misspellings in her debut, and that almost casual mention of drownings in your first quote is striking. From your mention of memoir I assume she had a lot to draw on from her own childhood experience.
Actually, according to the introduction to this edition by Celia Brayfield the spelling errors were Comyns’ own and reproduced (to her anger) by the publishers who thought it added charm. After this novel her husband corrected her manuscripts before they went to the publisher.
(I really should finish reading the introduction properly before writing the review. 😀)
That’s such an amusing story! You obviously agreed with the publishers.
Well it would have been better if was her choice to include the spelling errors (which I had originally assumed.)
Breezy with darkness underneath is exactly how I’d describe her. In some ways, Guard Your Daughters has a feel of this, as well as I Capture the Castle, but no one does dark and breezy like Our Barb.
Oh I think Guard your Daughters is similar in that respect. I want to gobble up the rest of her books and space them out at the same time.
Your review reminded me of Beryl Bainbridge. She can be very matter of fact about the most dreadful and dysfunctional things. I love the idea of a publisher thinking spelling errors added charm!
Yes Bainbridge is similarly matter of fact about about all sorts of dark or odd things in her books though I haven’t read that many. I remember Harriet Said… with something of a shudder – good book though.
I have enjoyed every Comyns book I’ve read so far: Sisters, Our Spoons and The Vet’s Daughter. Two words come to mind when I think of her work: squalor and Gothic. But both effects are handled with a light touch and with some optimism, maybe because her narrators are young and spirited. Thanks for the review. It made me realize that I enjoyed Sisters even more than I thought I had.
Squalor and gothic, yes, I can see that too.
This sounds fascinating Ali. I’ve only read Our Spoons and she does seem to portray real darkness with such a light touch. It’s beguiling but deeply unsettling too.
Beguiling and unsettling are definitely great words to describe Comyns’ writing.
I posted on this a couple of years ago; just reminded myself of it – ‘powerful, dark, bizarre’ I concluded. Deceptively childlike narrative voice – a very strange, compelling novel. I liked her others, too. The quirkiness is to be found in other writers, as comments above suggest, but Comyns is a one-off, inimitable.
Absolutely, definitely a one off. Powerfully dark and bizarre sums it up nicely.
This is the Comyns which landed her on my Must Read Everything list, on the strength of a single – and skinny AND strange – book. But, as you know, she is such a wonder. I still haven’t read very many of her books but now it is because I find them such delightful surprises. I would have thought that the language in this one would have put me off (I was a much younger reader and impatient with that kind of thing overall) but it felt so natural and organic to the story that I couldn’t imagine it told any other way.
Comyns is certainly someone I want to read everything by. I’m trying to space them out.
[…] Sisters by a River was Barbara Comyns first novel, one which gave me a lot to think about, as Comyns light, bright, breezy tone is very deceptive, behind the humour there is a lot that is really rather dark. Comyns wraps that darkness in witty anecdotes, that rather belie some of the content. […]