I’m not sure what I was expecting when I bought Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. To be perfectly honest, I bought it for the cover primarily- as I mentioned in the Book Porn post, I couldn’t resist a book with bunnies designed by Eley Kishimoto (the design is called ‘Bunny Dance’. How could I not?) so I had no idea if I would actually like the story within the gorgeous cover. As it turns out, I did. Described as a black comedy, I found it to be far less funny than this suggests. The humour is of the uncomfortable kind, where you want to hide behind a cushion until it’s over, but it worked really well in the context of the narrative. It’s the story of Aroon St Charles, the daughter of an impoverished Anglo-Irish family in the early Twentieth century. It begins with matricide. From there, the narrative goes back to Aroon’s childhood and her experiences with unrequited love, a suicidal governess, a disturbed and loveless relationship with her mother and her desire for her father to notice her. Put in those basic terms, it sounds much less enjoyable than it actually it. The characters are really well-written, and each emotion is concisely put out in the open for the reader to feel. Aroon is not a likable character, but she is interesting in her naivety and snobbery, and knowing how the narrative ends/the book begins makes the tale compulsive reading.
4/5
October 10th, 2011 at 18:47
It is a pretty cover – I have the whole set even though I really have not enjoyed any of the MollyKeane books I’ve read
October 18th, 2011 at 21:23
I’ve never heard of this book before but I really love the cover too
In response to your comment over on my blog, I am still looking for people to take part in my A Perfect Ten feature. But I have had a lot of interest and I am now scheduling people in for January! If you are still interested, send me an email at onceuponaseries (at) live.co.uk
October 31st, 2011 at 21:48
When I visited London I was SO tempted to buy this for the bunnies alone. But I already own the title in a different version. Verity and Ana made me feel hesitant to read this because they both didn’t really enjoy books by Molly Keane, but now I’m a little more hopeful
November 1st, 2011 at 21:29
I can easily see why it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea- it’s not exactly a sunny read. Having said that, Aroon is so awful that it’s a great read if you need feel a bit better about yourself! Plus….bunnies!