Brothers and Sisters by I. Compton-Burnett (1929)

This is Ivy Compton-Burnett's third novel and very typical. The thing to reckon with in her writing is the unreality. These deceptively quiet novels are full of characters displaying their frustrations with tight circumstances, usually associated with family. In this case the core is, extraordinarily, incest. Though unwitting transgression it must be affirmed. Her people inhabit a seething world where speech is a swordfight and amused irritation and its harsher darker companion-feeling the instigators. But the way this plays out is not what can really be called realistic, other than in its essence, perhaps. The play of it is theatrical, over-stark - "not the way real people behave or speak". This, by rights, should make it ultimately unsatisfying, and to some extent that's true, but there is an odd pleasure to be gained, mainly based in fascination with Ivy's originality of craft. What an unusual effort these books are. I can see why they are not popular, and conversely why she is lionised among a tiny sector of the reading population. Certainly the feeling is that she deserves notice, but so do her faults - she has virtually no universality in the ordinary sense at all, the sense that helps a writer survive down the ages. But I can't help it - I'm intrigued..........