God On The Rocks

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

'A meticulously observed modern classic' Independent

During one glorious summer between the wars, the realities of life and the sexual ritual dance of the adult world creep into the life of young Margaret Marsh. Her father, preaching the doctrine of the unsavoury Primal Saints; her mother, bitterly nostalgic for what might have been; Charles and Binkie, anchored in the past and a game of words; dying Mrs Frayling and Lydia the maid, given to the vulgar enjoyment of life; all contribute to Margaret's shattering moment of truth. And when the storm breaks, it is not only God who is on the rocks as the summer hurtles towards drama, tragedy, and a touch of farce.

'Tantalising, funny, sharp' Daily Telegraph

'So charming a novel that you don't want to give away a single one of the many twists of its plot' New York Times

'Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift' Times Literary Supplement

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Things are coming apart at the seams for Margaret Marsh during one cataclysmic season in her eight-year-old life. Born between the wars and brought up by her Holy Roller father and his compliant wife as a "Primal Saint" to eschew entertainments and to memorize and recite Bible chapter and verse, Margaret is in rebellion. With the arrival of a new baby in the household, her parents have hired the bawdy and buxom Lydia to help at home and escort Margaret on seaside outings, during which she encounters some eccentric residents of a home for the elderly and insane. At the same time, her mother renews the acquaintance of her childhood friends Binkie and Charles, from whom she'd been estranged since she went to work at the post office and they left for Cambridge. Both new and old acquaintances come together to shake up the once ordered lives of the Marshes. Verdict Published in the United Kingdom in 1978 and only briefly available here, this Booker nominee will appeal to readers who love the Penelopes (Fitzgerald and Lively) as well as Gardam's more recent novels, like Faith Fox and Old Filth. This treasure should send them back for all her books. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/10.]-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

American readers first turned on to Gardam via Old Filth are in for a surprise with the witty though decidedly more serious story of Margaret Marsh, who comes of age in interwar England. Margaret grows up the only child in an oppressively religious household, and her world gets a much-needed shaking up when her mother, Ellie, has another child and hires a maid, the bawdy but loving Lydia. Lydia immediately begins taking Margaret on day trips that open her eyes to the way others live. Margaret's father, Kenneth, meanwhile, sees Lydia as a laboratory for his Godly work, though he ends up being a less than ideal practitioner of the moral lifestyle he preaches. Then there's Ellie, whose reintroduction to a long-lost love tempts her down the path of what might have been. It all leads to a precipice of disillusion for Margaret regarding her parents' behavior, shattering her perceptions and leading to tragedy. Gardam doesn't waste a word, and the story reads as fresh and relevant now as when it was originally published in Great Britain in 1978. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

With the birth of her baby brother, eight-year-old Margaret Marsh is banished from the house every Wednesday afternoon to enjoy the idyllic English seaside at peace between the world wars with the family's new, young, and bawdy maid. Largely ignored, the child has all the freedom she needs to observe and quietly condemn the adults around her. Gardam's novel, originally published in the UK in 1978, offers a searing blend of upended morals, delayed salvation, and emotional purgatory, especially where love and sex are concerned. Margaret's mother, Elinor, begins to lose the faith thrust upon her by her zealot husband, who is bent on the conversion of the young maid, despite protest from both women. How perfect, then, that Mrs. Marsh's childhood sweetheart should return to town and provide a decidedly secular contrast to her saintly husband. After a pivotal tea party, everyone hurtles toward inevitable tragedy, with Gardam's intricate prose and keen divining of human nature driving the action.--Jones, Courtney Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Gardam (The Pineapple Bay Hotel) delights in setting off the mad impulses of her characters--with results that often approach antic caricature--and surrounding the resulting helter-skelter with heavy atmospheric effects. Here the scenes for odd frolic are the spouting sea by a small English village between world wars and the enchanted garden of the local mental institution. Rosalie is the owner of this mansion-cum-asylum, a wizened matriarch with the ""head of a wooden little monkey."" who dreams of a love lost long ago. Meanwhile, her disinherited children--Charles and lumpish Binkie--are receiving a visit from Elinor, who some years ago turned down a careful proposal by Charles (he would be marrying much beneath his station) and married instead dapper little bank manager Kenneth Marsh, hellfire preacher of the Primal Saints. Dazzled by the possibilities of public exposure, Marsh soon has his Saints booming out hymns before bathers on the sands, which seems to carry him to an even saltier billow of confidence--into the bedroom of cheeky, ""pudding soft"" maid Lydia, who tells him off right and proper. But not before the pair are observed; by Elinor--who lunges off to cavort nudely before undersexed Charles; and by Elinor's eight-year-old daughter Margaret--who splashes on through the sea, sick and furious. And that night Rosalie, an old Queen Lear, will change her will while lightning flashes and rescue-boat rockets roar outside. Odd doings--with an epilogue twelve years later that shows how these lives will have been snipped and tidied--but Gardam's immaculate specificity of incongruous detail and earth-toned dialogue gives the gloriously implausible a haunting, entertaining substance. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.