a technically remarkable work, as sharp as a blade. “An extraordinary tour de force of fictional presentation. “Enchanting.” -Edna O’Brien, The Observer I love all her books, but Good Behaviour and Loving and Giving are the ones I return to most.” -Maggie O’Farrell Nobody else can touch her as a satirist, tragedian, and dissector of human behaviour. “I have read and re-read Molly Keane more, I think, than any other writer. a wonderful tour de force.” -Marian Keyes
“A fine novel, wickedly alive.” -Victoria Glendinning, The Sunday Times Charles is Molly Keane’s great creation, Good Behaviour her masterpiece.” -Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books “Simultaneously light and dark, pleasurable and harrowing, Good Behaviour may appeal chiefly to readers drawn to characters who are a mixture of well-meaning and hilariously vile, victimizer and victim. You read it with mounting horror and hilarity as you begin to grasp her delusion.” -Hilary Mantel
A real work of craftsmanship, where the heroine is also the narrator, yet has no idea what is going on.
It’s a tragi-comedy set in Ireland after the First World War. Hilarious and sinister.” -Allan Gurganus, The New York Times Though she herself tells the tale, we somehow see her morality's disastrous consequences. "Molly Keane's Good Behaviour presents a character whose own strict Christian code wreaks havoc on all those around her. Keane’s prose roils with affect denied but persistently, pungently alive." -Anthony Domestico, Commonweal There are many moments of brilliant, farcical comedy. She must make us see all the things that Aroon doesn’t see. "Keane has set herself a technical challenge. Keane’s brilliant sleight of hand is to allow her blinkered heroine to narrate her own development from neglected child, to ungainly debutante, to bitter spinster: Aroon understands nothing, yet she reveals all. In the pages that follow she will make her case, reminiscing about her youth among the hunting-and-fishing classes of Ireland,Ī faded aristocracy dedicated to distraction even as their fortunes dwindle. “All my life so far I have done everything for the best reasons and the most unselfish motives,” says Aroon soon after. In fact, a single whiff of the stuff is enough to knock the old lady dead. Charles prepares to serve her invalid mother a splendid luncheon-the silver gleams, the linens glow-of rabbit mousse, a dish her mother despises. Is it possible to kill with kindness? As Molly Keane’s Booker Prize–short-listed dark comedy suggests, not only can kindness be deadly, it just may be the best form of revenge. “I really wish I had written this book…A real work of craftsmanship, where the heroine is also the narrator, yet has no idea what is going on.” -Hilary MantelĪ biting, dark satire of 20th-century Irish society that is both “hilarious and sinister” ( The New York Times)
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