Customer Reviews

First Fruits (A&B Crime)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kate Carr at 14 lives in Scotland with her father, a preacher of the old puritan school. She is a lucky girl, the center of attention. We hope our own children can be like her. Not much scope for a good read here.... Not so.

Penelope Evans brilliantly recreates parallels with our own school day memories. Schools are the same the world over. There are people we recognize and perhaps still know. But no one will comfortably admit to being at this school.

Children can be manipulative and deceitful. Evans does not take the easy option of brutish teenage behaviour. Small pleasant acts can have great significance.

Why is Kate thinking and behaving like this? Somewhere there is a story of a lost past which is tantalizingly close to the surface. It comes with such power the reader is left stunned.

My review doesn't ruin anything for the potential reader: At first glance, the protagonist's (Kate) life seems perfect and the reader assumes her gripes are the usual teenage angst. As you read on you discover the subtle creepy undertone becomes more and more ominous and real. Being the constant center of attention isn't all it's cracked up to be - as Kate shows us. Her fundamentalist preacher father and bitter grandmother are the mak'ins of one scary a** family. Kate's grandmother is especially chilling once you discover what is REALLY going on. The fact that this novelist does not resort to a tabloid description but rather, uses subtle hints and slow reveal of the true nature of this family made it all the more frightening for me. There are so many layers and issues to this story which makes it a true work of art - I consider it a modern masterpiece. The whole novel is a mystery - the circumstances leading to Kate's crippled leg, the mother's disappearance and so on......Nothing is as it appears to be which includes Kate herself. The issues of religion, being a "good mother" or person for that matter, sex, concept of beauty, being part of the "in" crowd, self-confidence, manipulation, and love are all touched in this story. The end was a little too pat for me but didn't ruin the overall beauty of the storytelling. This work made me want to read everything else written by this author. No heavy handed writing or fad sensationalism here, just a pure gem regarding a heavy and disturbing subject.

I just finished reading `FRIST FRUITS' by Penelope Evans and I think that I must have been reading a completely different book that most of the other reviewers. While I did enjoy this book it was certainly not what I would describe as bone chilling. Slightly disturbing maybe, sad definitely, but bone chilling absolutely not, nor did I find fourteen year old Kate Carr to be remotely evil. Quite the opposite in fact; I believe that Kate is an average teenager who thinks the world of her extremely egotistical and very much disturbed father. Keith Carr is Kate's fanatically religious father who preaches one thing but practices something completely different, and unfortunately Kate believes everything he has taught her and is left to deal with what happens as all her beliefs are slowly stripped away from her.
I really don't want to give too much of this book away, but it is almost impossible to write a proper review without doing so. However, I will say that although this book is primarily about Kate what disturbed me the most were the actions of her father who always believed that there was a "lesson" to be taught and his very unorthodox methods of teaching them. If in purchasing this book you are expecting a book frightening enough to keep you up at night this is not it. But if you are looking for something that explores the psychological effects that growing up in a household such as Kate's has on an adolescent girl this is the book for you.

Penelope Evans is one of the most original writers I have ever encountered. Her novels are weird and thought provoking. Having read The Last Girl and Freezing, her previous efforts, I couldn't have expected anything different from Fresh Fruits. Like the previous novels, the main character in this book, this time a girl, unlike her previous efforts, is evil. The author takes us on a journey inside the quirky mind of this young girl and the torture she inflicts on others and herself. The writing has the same unique language that the previous novels had -- a language that is far more vivid than one could hope for. I recommend this chilling and original novel from a very talented British writer.

A chilling, haunting, plaintive story of psychological suspense, Penelope Evans' "First Fruits" explores the claustrophobic world of a disturbed Edinburgh teen, spiraling us downward into her internal storm of self-deception, powerlessness and abuse.

Kate Carr, the narrator, vows she couldn't be happier. Though her mother is mysteriously absent, she is the one and only daughter of the exceptional Keith Carr, the most mesmerizing preacher in Scotland, the man with "It." "And I'm his daughter, the luckiest girl alive." Kate has "It," too, she tells us, the power to see what people want and manipulate them to her will.

The novel opens as a new girl arrives at school and Kate sets out to maneuver Lydia into her orbit. Playing one friend off against another, sneering at them all, Kate works hard at her dark persona. But there are cracks; things she hides within herself, such as her missing mother, her badly burned leg, a frightening recurrent dream, her longing for the love of a mother like Lydia's. Even the disturbing stare of a classmate, large, moony Moira, rattles her hard-won self-possession. But Kate shores herself up with her mantra - special, lucky, happy, brushing off doubts: "Every family has to have rules."

But then something changes. Lydia meets Kate's father and Kate suddenly wonders what would happen if he had someone to focus on besides her. Being perfect, she admits, is difficult and no one knows the corrections her failures are subject to. In the presence of her father she freezes at a slip of the tongue, a frown from him, an innocent transgression by one of her friends.

As Lydia falls under the influence of Kate's charismatic father, twinges of regret mar the fruition of Kate's plans. Lydia, innocent of "It," has no idea what's in store. Ignored by her own idolized father, she's in thrall to the charms of Kate's. Almost, for the sake of Lydia's under-appreciated mother, Kate hopes for Lydia's rescue. Almost.

Evans ("The Last Girl," "Freezing") creates a nuanced, sympathetic character, a young girl wrestling with her helplessness, longing for the approval of the only parent she knows, burying her fears under a hard-shelled exterior. The father is a demonic presence but no less real for that. The prose is simple and effective, creating a story as moving and hopeful as it is creepy.

This is one of the more disturbing books I have read in the past month, and what a good book it is. Kate Carr and her little family of father and Gran live a claustrophobic life together hiding secrets that are gently alluded to throughout the book. Kate is the fourteen year old girl holding the mysteries in her head that she works out slowly through dreams and shards of memory. Yes, she is deceitful and manipulative and ever so disturbed, but she is coping in that Gran and Dad world where no one is allowed to talk about her mother, the woman that left her behind. The fact that Kate feels she needs to have her school "friends" divert some of Dad's attention from her to one of them is just one part of the chill in this novel. Penelope Evans has fleshed out the major and not so minor characters so well that each has a place in my mind long after I finished this novel. This is a winner of a mystery.

I loved this book so I'm rewriting a short review, since I already wrote one 3 weeks ago but it disappeared--I suppose--but that just falls in line with this strange and wierd but terrific story. This is a trip through a young teenaged girl's mind with all of her wierdness. This book will keep you turning pages and believe me, the ending is soooo surprising. This author has a magnificent imagination. I can not wait for the next book to come out. Read this book and join these young girls' pajama party....you won't forget it!! Keith Carr, the father, as well as the wicked grandmother are a bit on the strange side also.

Fourteen-year-old Kate Carr lived with her father and grandmother. Her mother, we were told, had left when she was too young to remember. As Kate saw it, she was a lucky girl, with her father giving her every attention she needed, and classmates fighting to be her friends. Yet, we the readers have a nagging suspicion that Kate¡¦s world was far from perfect. It was a gripping ride for the readers as we follow Kate¡¦s complex thoughts all the way till the truth was revealed.

This is one of the most satisfying read of the year 2000. As in her previous two books (The Last Girl and Freezing), the author lets the readers see the story through her character¡¦s eyes. The unique thing about this is that the characters are always far from perfect and are prone to complex thoughts. The readers are often left in the dark as to what is the truth behind these thoughts which make her books thrilling to read.

Ruth Rendell is my favorite novelist and any time I hear a writer compared to her I am skeptical. But this book is the closest I have read in a very long time. Like Rendell's psychological suspense this book draws you slowly in to what at first appears to be a "normal" schoolgirl world but is really something else. If you are a fan of Rendell you will probably like Ms. Evans. I am looking forward to reading her other work.

In First Fruits by Penelope Evans, we hear the story of Kate Carr yet gradually realize that her voice is not an authentic one. Tightly controlled by her father, Kate is not free to think independently. This novel depicts, in a chilling way, Kate's fearful submission to her father. Her thoughts, actions and choices are all dictated by his beliefs -- everything that is, except her dreams.

The ways in which the minister has achieved such control over his daughter are deeply disturbing. Exceedingly charasmatic as he preaches God's word, Mr. Carr is a tyrant at home as he dictates what his daughter needs to do to be "good." Using God to abuse his parental authority, Mr. Carr has made his daughter's existence a precarious one.

Ms. Evans takes us slowly into this jarring reality; until Kate's classmate stays over we don't see how extremely dark and dismal her home is. The golden aura surrounding her father is extinguished by a biting chill; to experience the minister's harsh dominion and demands for perfection is to understand why Kate uses her friends for self-preservation. This is NOT your average story of teenage behavior. This is a young woman who is using whatever resources are available to survive her father's forceful and unforgiving attention.

Kate's mother attempted to intervene once, with dire consequences. Years later, Kate's dreams of her mother become increasingly vivid. Ultimately, her mother's influence puts into action events that allow Kate to escape her father's grasp. In a welcome resolution, true and selfless love prevails.

To read this compelling novel is to enter into a thorny briar patch, but arrive at a field of soft grass and brightly-colored flowers.