Rain

This is one of the most engrossing 20th century fictions I've read. The narrative is lyrical and almost dreamlike, which shifts the reader's mindscape twice: once to distant memories of childhood and the open-eyed wonder of coming of age, and once again to the emotional distance that we must put between ourselves and those hardest moments. Gunn's voice is often dark and macabre - at times you feel for Janey's abandonment amidst her hard-partying parents and the adults who pay all forms of discomforting attention to her. The prose is tactile, yet fluid, a word on the tongue and a fleeting sensation of what was and will never again be.

I can only describe this book as lyrical and languid. It is a tale of loss, and hope and that in the darkness, there is beauty. The story centres around a young girl who is forced to look after her brother, who appears to act as her one type of stability. In the background is the scenery of a summer holiday that is quintessentially New Zealand - slow, sweet, and yet bitter. The novel is short, but after 90 or so pages it leaves the reader yearning for more - but there is no more, because in the pain is the never ending desire that hope floats.

It's amazing the amount of emotion and insight Kirsty Gunn has managed to contain in this brief book. The story is told from the point of view of 12 year-old Janey, looking back as an adult on a pivotal summer spent at a house nestled by a lake in New Zealand with her little brother Jimmy and her parents. Janey loves her brother intensely -- at times she seems more like a parent to him than a sibling. He is the center of her life, and they spend hours and hours together each day, away from the house, away from their parents, usually in or near to the lake.The parents in this story are not abusive -- at least, not overtly -- and it seems that they do love their children. Abuse isn't always about hitting and bruising -- it can be just as devastating when it is psychological. I was left with the impression that they were unsure how to act as parents. Each night of the summer, in the lake house, they host parties for their neighbors and friends. If the children don't manage to slip upstairs to their rooms unnoticed, they are called upon by the parents to perform for the guests -- or at the very least, to be put upon display. The impression is given that they did this to give substance to their union, to show that their were indeed fruits to their marriage, that it was real.Through a marvelous style and pace of narration, the young Janey allows us to peer into her life -- we see and hear and feel things very believably and accurately from her perspective. The success of Gunn's attempt to do this attests to a formidable talent within her. The physical details are given life by the child's voice and observations -- and it rings very true, focusing on the things that a child would notice, the things that speak to her through the years and curtains of memory.I can heartily recommend this book -- I enjoyed it much more than the author's THIS PLACE YOU RETURN TO IS HOME collection of short stories.

The beautiful prose in which this story is written gives vivid images. The reader can feel the tears in the air that Janey is breathing.

'Rain' is an incredibly crafted book that will touch deep places within any reader who relates to the kind of neglect that these two children suffer. A sense of timelessness and set in 'no place' this novella is an courageous exploration of childhood suffering