O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
Welcome to this Gothic book review blog. For the first blog I have chosen O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. This book was first published in 1991 by Hamish Hamilton Publishers.
This is a novella, runing to approx 150 pages, which makes it easy to read in one or two sittings. The story is set in the 1940s and 50s in Scotland, partly in Edinburgh and partly in the fictional Auchnasaugh Castle near Aberdeen. The title is taken from lines in The Lay of the Last Minstrel by Walter Scott:
Meet nurse for a poetic child.
The poetic child is Janet, and the story opens when she is sixteen, or rather, when she was sixteen, because she is dead, murdered, and lying at the bottom of the stairs in her mother's dress. The book looks back at Janet's life to ascertain who killed her, for what reason, and why her family are not terribly upset by the event.
Janet was born during WWII and while her father was away serving his country, she and her mother live with her father's parents in Edinburgh. The family grows, and eventually Janet has a younger brother and three younger sisters. She resents the attention her younger siblings inevitably get, and is a loner, preferring nature and the company of animals to people. She also enjoys reading poetry. Janet has a malicious streak, never afraid to tell a lie or two if it serves her purpose, and exacts revenge when she feels it is justified. On one occasion she pushes the son of visiting guests into a patch of giant hogweed.
When she is older she is sent to a girls' boarding school, where she is initially bullied as an outsider, but comes to terms with matters in her own way. Her mother is keen for her to act in a more feminine manner and takes her to a ball, which is not a success. She is, however, transfixed by a boy reading ancient Greek at a classical verse reading competition. As she knows the boy's cousin from school, she obtains a photo of him. Her parents find the photo, however, and create a scene, which indirectly leads to her death.
This is Scottish Gothic at its best. It has most of the defining features. Janet is a loner, who lives in a ramshackle castle in the middle of nowhere. She is a troubled individual, who loves poetry, daydreams and longs for adventure. This clashes with her Calvinistic upbringing, where God is one who pronounces judgement on those who don't conform to social norms. Janet's father believes girls are an inferior form of boy, but this can be improved upon, even remedied completely, by education. Janet studies languages and is particularly drawn to Latin.
There is a dark humorous undercurrent to the book, and attention to detail brings scenes to life. For example, Lila, the widow of her father's cousin, lives in the castle, in her own apartment. She is Russian, brought to Scotland when she married, and because of the subsequent Revolution, did not return after her husband's death. Lila lives with her ageing cat. She drinks a lot and to Janet her apartment had 'the aroma of ancient tom and evaporating spirits combined with Schiaparelli's Shocking and Craven A tobacco, to create an air of risque clubland.'
Janet can be opinionated and annoying, but she is a teenage girl struggling against the expectations of society in the 1950s. Readers can empathise with her, while secretly wishing they had the courage to break free like Janet.
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Reviewed books will be given a 'Gothic rating' based on the following criteria:
B S
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