Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

I listened to this book in audiobook format.

This novel is about a mother (likely autistic) and her teenage daughter in mid-late 1900s England. A flamboyant and warmly inviting couple move in next door and befriend, and then envelop, the mother and daughter. But they are not entirely what they seem. The novel is an astute and unorthodox social commentary, since it is narrated by the autistic mother. It is a subtle psychological thriller. And it is about a woman coming into her own even though she is different and disapproved of by society. I really enjoyed listening to this book. The performer is excellent. Much of the narration focuses on dialect, intonations, and accents, so I am unsure how this would come across is paper copy.… (más)

People who perform on instinct do not keep vast libraries of information in their heads. They do not concentrate in company as if taking an important exam. They do not need to shut down frequently and turn off all the lights to find relief. And even then, find that peace does not come.

Sunday is living in a small town in the Lake District of England, divorced and with a 16 year old daughter she loves deeply, but is also somewhat in awe of. Sunday is easily overwhelmed, needs her foods to be white, or at least pale, and has trouble navigating relationships, despite frequently turning to a book of etiquette. It's the 1980s, so while in a later time, she'd be labeled autistic, here she's mostly thought of as peculiar or difficult. Her refuge is her work, in the greenhouse of her ex-husband's farm. Then a new couple moves into the house next door and Vita sweeps Sunday into the heady whirlwind of her erratic life. It's not a friendship that should work, but Vita is so self-centered and her husband so eager to keep everyone having a good time that it all works and before long, both Sunday and her daughter are centering their lives around this couple. Which works so well until it doesn't.

This is gorgeously written book told from the point of view of a woman for whom the world is a frightening and hostile place, but who nevertheless keeps trying to find a way to belong. She is both keenly observant, as a survival tactic, and utterly unaware of much of what is going on around her. There's a sense of rising dread in this book, something the reader can see coming, but not clearly, because we're seeing the world through Sunday's eyes, and how the author managed to do that is astonishing from a debut novelist.… (más)

Reason read; it was long listed for Booker. I don't know why other than that I chose to read this but I enjoyed it! It is a story of an autistic woman and mother of a daughter. And I now find that the author is also autistic and that this is a debut novel. Sunday basically raises her child alone though she is employed by her ex-in laws farm. Her daughter Dolly does receive support from them but they basically don't acknowledge Dolly's mother as part of the family. A strange couple inveigles themselves into Sunday's and by extension into Dolly's life. There is something sinister in this relationship. The writing is a window to the struggles that an autistic person puts into deciphering the world. Sunday is a heroic narrator who you love to know and cheer on. She is a survivor. This was a really good novel for a debut novel.… (más)