Good Behaviour

Synopsis: 'I do know how to behave - believe me, because I know. I have always known...' Behind the gates of Temple Alice the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. This elegant and allusive novel established Molly Keane as thelike affection or respect natural successor to Jean Rhys.

Review: I loved this book. It takes the rather bold step of starting the book off by portraying the main character .. Aroon St Charles ... in a less than flattering light. We see her looking after her invalid mother and against her will practically force feeding her rabbit (actual game rabbit .. not the family pet or anything!) Mummie, who is quite feeble and bed-ridden, protests saying that rabbit makes her feel quite sick, but Aroon will hear none of it, and manages to get a couple of forkfuls down her. Mummie is promptly sick and then dies, much to the distress and consternation of her maid Rose (who promptly opens the window to let her mistress's soul fly free), but Aroon remains detached and unmoved as she telephones for the doctor. She seems to almost be taking a sadistic pleasure in treating her mother with such indifference.

So you start by thinking, this is a character that you're not going to like very much. Then gradually Aroon begins to recount the story of her life growing up at Temple Alice (once grand but no longer.) An awkward girl, searching for affection and not usually finding it. She forms a strong bond with her governess Mrs Brock but unfortunately (for reasons made clear to us but not twigged by Aroon) Mrs Brock suddenly leaves her post never to return.

Aroon falls in love with her brothers best friend Richard, and is deluded into believing he feels the same. She claims that she has once had a lover in her bed, but what she actually means is that someone she loves .. Richard .. has been in bed with her, but in actual fact all he did was chat and laugh .. 'I really must not touch you, we'd regret it always piglet .. wouldn't we?'. Aroon is totally unaware of Richard's true feelings though again the reader is one step ahead of her (you can constantly read between the lines of her narration.)

The only person to treat her with anything like true affection and respect is her father, who is touchingly protective but he is often wrapped up in his own affairs (literally) of which Aroon is, of course, totally ignorant. The family fortune soons begin to dwindle away and when an accident befalls her father it looks as if Aroon is destined to remain the unloved spinster daughter of Temple Alice.

'The girls lived near the Wine Cellars and he had often been known to call in and bask for an hour in their acidulated adoration. I can only suppose the girls and their lives were like a comic strip to Papa. He followed their activites, some of them rather shady; it was a game, laughing at their contrivances. Their bitter, nipped tongues kept him guessing at what they might say next. He liked to nose out their small scandalous escapades - nothing like love affairs, poor things, of course not, more like a sharpish bit of horse dealing. One of their pleasures was not telling. It put an edge on everything they did or said. Poor unhappy things. Much as I pitied and faintly despised them, they had the knack of making me feel I was lolling helplessly through an objectless, boring life. I never wanted to see them, or listen to them, or even eat any of the delightful food they produced from air, or sea, or garden.'

The writing is fantastic, calling to mind Mitford and Waugh. Marian Keyes calls it a tour-de-force and I think she's right, a highly enjoyable unputdownable book. Straight away I wanted to read more by Molly but after reading several reviews it would seem that this book is seen to be her literary highlight and therefore possibly everything else will be a disappointment .. I probably will read more by her though, this book was too good not to try for more.