Daphne Du Maurier - Jamaica Inn

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+Little, Brown and Company

Most of Daphne Du Maurier's books are set in a grand house which is beautifully described at the outset.  Jamaica Inn is also about the eponymous inn that stands forlorn and ramshackle, close to Launceston in Cornwall.

There is no detailed description of the Inn, however, when the heroine, Mary Yellan, reaches it.  There is a sense of an evil of which Mary gets enough evidence when she tries to get to the inn. Coachmen don't want to stop there and people seem to recoil when she mentions her destination.

Newly orphaned Mary Yellan has been asked, by her mother just before she died. to go and live with her Aunt Prudence whose husband runs an Inn some 40 miles away from Helston.  On reaching Jamaica Inn, Mary finds that her Aunt is a shadow of her former self.  She is frightened and cowed by her rough husband, Joss Merlyn.

Mary resolves to stay at Jamaica Inn and get to the bottom of the mystery that surrounds the doings of her Uncle Joss.  She wants to take her aunt away to a safe place.  She runs into Jem Merlyn, Joss's kid brother.  He is up to no good either, just like the rest of the Merlyns.  He is a horse thief.  However, he is full of charm and seems easy to talk to.  Mary is charmed by him despite her best efforts to the contrary.

She also befriends the vicar of Alternun, Francis Davey.  She finds it easy to confide in him and tells him freely about all that worries her about her uncle.  She finds she will soon need the help of all her friends if she is to survive the terrible happenings at Jamaica Inn.

Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca was supposed to be based on Jane Eyre.  This book is so like Wuthering Heights.  If Catherine Earnshaw had married Heathcliff they could have turned into Prudence and Joss Merlyn.  Catherine had exclaimed at one point, "If I marry Heathcliff he will drag me down."  This is borne out in Jamaica Inn.  Prudence is shattered and wrecked for having married a brutal man who has no scruples.

Like Wuthering Heights, Jamaica Inn is also built in the moors of Bodmin.  The wild weather of the place adds to the misery of the inhabitants of the Inn.

The younger couple (Mary and Jem) could well be Catherine Linton and Hareton.

Just like Wuthering Heights, this is a book about love that can wither a person.  It is a gothic tale with a lot of drama.  We never did learn how Heathcliff made his money, here we get some kind of an inkling about the dark deeds he could have done to earn the trappings of a well-heeled gentleman.

This is a little less like other books by Du Maurier.  Here she is not writing about upper-class landowners, but about peasants and common workers.

The novel contains a surprising passage which is a severe indictment of love and marriage.  Du Maurier writes about Mary being aware that romance soon sours when the sheen wears off and the lady is left holding babies while the man is bored of the whining and just wants to be looked after.  The only happily married couple in the book, the Squire and his lady, are terrible bores.

The book is full of strong descriptions of the goings-on, even when they are extremely unsavory.

Kiran Manral - The Face At The Window

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+Kiran Manral

Julia McNally is an old woman now.  She watches her body degenerating slowly.  It is gradually becoming harder for her to go about her daily routine. Her joints are creaking and she is besieged by ill-health.

She is a retired schoolteacher and lives in a cottage on a remote hill-station along with her faithful retainers who take good care of her.  There are caring neighbors that she can depend on.  Her beloved granddaughter, Nina, studies in a boarding school close by and visits her whenever she can.

Despite all appearances, Mrs. McNally is not at peace.  She is beleaguered by her past.  There are secrets she has that she has not shared with those closest to her, her daughter Millie and her granddaughter Nina. Surely they need to be told things from her past that affect them as well.  While she is mulling over these thoughts, she finds ghosts from her past reach out to her.

The Face At The Window is beautifully written.  It takes some time for the reader to sink into the story, as most things are referenced to, but not explained.  Once you get the drift, the story sails along smoothly.  A lot happens which keeps you glued to the book.

I grew fond of all the characters in the book.  Mrs. McNally is the narrator and she grips our attention and our heart.  Nina is a young teenager who is trying to learn about life.  She is a happy go lucky child and does not have the angst that her mother and her grandmother suffered from.  Dr. Sanyal who takes care of Mrs. McNally's health, Sumit the author, who lives close-by and is writing a book, Bimla and her husband who are Mrs. McNally's retainers, Col. Dayal, a neighbor that Mrs.McNally depends on, all these character flesh out the book nicely.

Not all of us are destined to a clear identity.  Right from the birth of a child, the parents are around, the family is at hand to provide a child with an unambiguous legacy.  What of the orphans?  The little babies who are discarded at birth to be brought up in orphanages?  What goes on in their minds?  Don't they ever long to learn about their natural parents?  What of the people who die in disgrace and are buried hurriedly, do they return as ghosts?

Kiran Manral has written books that cover all sorts of genres.  All Aboard was a light romance as was Once Upon a Crush.  The Reluctant Detective was a delightful book about a housewife who is drawn into solving a mystery.  The Karmic Kids is about parenting.

It is heartening to see a young author experimenting with so many genres and coming up with this lovely tale where the main protagonist is a 75-year-old woman who has an unusual story to tell us.  The ending will blow you away.