Like other books by Keane,
Two days in Aragon is centred on a house; Keane seems to use this as a vehicle for bringing her characters and plot together. The house belongs to an Anglo-Irish family and shows how they are influenced by the changes of the 1920s over the period of two days. I'm not a huge fan of Keane but I like her characterisations, particularly this description of one of the main characters:
"Grania was a fat little blonde with pretty bones under her flesh; rather a slut and inclined to wear party shoes with her old tweeds. She would be in her bath and forget to wash very much, but she was a great hand at curling up her blonde hair of which she was very vain"
This has been published twice by Virago; I picked up the second version for only 50p earlier this year. 2.5*
What a damning description! Thanks for posting Verity.
ReplyDeleteHannah
I adore Molly Keane, but see that she can be an aquired taste. I think she skewers the anglo irish beautifully but sometimes the humour is a bit cruel. Maybe by the time you've worked your way through all of them she will have grown on you...
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