WHEN I WAS OTHERWISE

by Stephen Benatar ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 29, 1984

In Wish Her Safe at Home (1982), Benatar offered an appealing, piteous, madness-bound spinster. Here, however, his heroine/eccentric is a more robust sort: octogenarian Daisy, a delightful/appalling, parasitic hellion, an enemy of dullness and the commonplace, a Mauna Loa of desperate ego--erupting sporadically with sound and fury signifying plenty. After a gruesome, foreshadowing prologue, we meet the aged Daisy as she arrives at the semi-detached house belonging to her brother-in-law, widower Dan, and his sister, widow Marsha. But the bulk of the novel flashes back to Daisy's monstrous past, dramatizing her notorious ""inability to suffer fools gladly."" Her father was a ""poor fish,"" eviscerated by the praying mantis that was Daisy's mother. Her sweet husband Henry, an aspiring poet, was also dominated by a she-bear (his mum Florence); and, despite Daisy's efforts at pulling him out from under, he faded fast, dying of TB. So Daisy's attentions were thereafter largely focused on her in-laws--especially ""pretty nincompoop"" Marsha, whose miserable husband was sour Andrew: his philandering yens were encouraged (up to a point) by wily Daisy. Throughout the years, in fact, Daisy has sprayed the extended family with Instant Insult of the multiple-warhead variety. (After labeling Dan's wife Erica as Jewish and ""foreign,"" Daisy acknowledges that Christ too was, well, not exactly English, ""except perhaps in character."") She has cadged meals and favors, collected charmed strangers, shown No Gratitude--yet has always been able to coerce a smile from the stoniest, most exasperated victim. And now Daisy becomes a nerve-wracking housemate for poor, gentle Dan and Marsha. . . before her last ornate fulminade and her literal downfall. In sum: domestic horror aplenty, British-style--but dreadful Daisy (reminiscent of both Jean Brodie and a super-villainess à la Molly Keane) is beguiling enough to make this a black comedy of modest, ingratiating sparkle.

Pub Date: June 29, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION