Title: Hideous Kinky
Author: Esther Freud
Number of pages: 186
Started: 16 April 2011
Finished: 20 April 2011
Opening words:
It wasn't until we were halfway through France that we noticed Maretta wasn't talking.
She sat very still in the back of the van and watched us all with bright eyes.
I crawled across the mattress to her. 'Maretta will you tell us a story?'
Maretta sighed and turned her head away.
John was doing the driving. He was driving fast with one hand on the wheel. John was Maretta's husband. He had brought her along at the last minute only because, I heard him tell my mother, she wasn't well.
Bea glared at me.
'Maretta ...' I began again dutifully, but Maretta placed her light white hand on the top of my head and held it there until my skull began to creep and I scrambled out from under it.
'You didn't ask her properly,' Bea hissed. 'You didn't say please.'
'Well, you ask her.'
'It's not me who wants the story, is it?'
'But you said to ask. I was asking for you.'
'Shhh.' Our mother leaned over from the front seat. 'You'll wake Danny. Come and sit with me and I'll read you both a story.'
I looked hopefully at Bea. 'Oh all right,' she relented, and we jumped over Danny's sleeping body and clambered up between the two front seats.
Plot summary:
While Mum immerses herself in the Sufi religion, and contemplates wearing a veil, the children begin to rebel: Bea insists on going to school while the five-year old narrator dreams of mashed potato and fantasises that Bilal is her father.
Read an analysis of the book in The Guardian.
What I thought:
This was a tale of two children being dragged to foreign climes in order for their mum to live the carefree life she aspired to. It was an interesting read and was a well written book. It was an engaging and, in some ways, a fairly light story. But you felt for the children at times who were looking for things from their mum and those around them and sought “normality”, which was rather at odds to their mum’s aspirations. A good read.
2 comments:
Did you find it in '1001 books?' It's in my copy and I have it ear-marked to read, having enjoyed the film.
Although my intrinsic masochism is always alarmed by the word 'light!'
Sarah - yes 1001 Books is indeed where I found it.
I am trying to remember why I used the word "light". I think maybe I was concerned that I might give the impression it was some angst ridden story, which it isn't, primarily because the narrator is a child.
Don't be put off!
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