Customer Reviews

The Minotaur

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Minotaur is the latest production by Ruth Rendell under her alter ego of Barbara Vine. The Vine novels concentrate on "why" rather than "who" or "how" in exploring the psychological reasons for crimes which take place in the past and are slowly revealed to the reader by narrators who witnessed some or all of the events. At Vine's best, as in her first two novels A Dark Adapted Eye and A Fatal Inversion, this technique produces an engrossing read which is difficult to put down and leaves one with much to ponder.

Unfortunately The Minotaur, while satisfying, is not on the same level as Vine's earliest work. This book contains many of Vine/Rendell's signature plot elements: a character from Scandinavia, a dysfunctional family, psychologically disturbed individuals, other individuals who are autistic, and an East Anglian setting with one or more old houses covered in Virginia creeper. In The Minotaur these characters and settings aren't as well developed and tend to be more stereotypical than illuminating. The story also doesn't jump back and forth from the past to the present quite as much as other Vine works do. Some readers might like that, but one of the things I myself find most appealing about Vine is that shift from time period to time period.

Despite these disappointments, I did enjoy The Minotaur. It is a satisfying little mystery which in typical British fashion leaves much unsaid and the reader with much to sort out for himself. I also liked the glimpses back to British life in the late 1960s and the comparisons with life thirty five years or so on.

I recommend The Minotaur unreservedly for Vine/Rendell veterans. If you are just discovering Barbara Vine, you will get a more developed introduction to her work by first reading the two books I mentioned above or by reading some similar in spirit Rendell works like The Crocodile Bird or A Sight For Sore Eyes.

Ruth Rendell's latest novel under her other name, Barbara Vine, is one of her best efforts to date. As with all the books under the Vine name, the question here is not so much whodunnit as how did something awful come to happen: in this case, we know that the heroine, Kerstin Kvist, went to an Essex manor house called Lydstep Old Hall in the Sixties to help care for a disturbed adult man who libes with his arrogant old mother and four slightly unhinger sisters, and that something awful happened while she was there. We spend the rest of the novel waiting to find out what exactly happened.

This is Vine's most Gothic novel in quite some time, and though the gigantic Virginia creeper-entwined Lydstep Old Hall reminds the heroine of Brontė and Du Maurier, the novelist whose work this novel seems really closest to is Iris Murdoch. The Cosways, with their unusual first names, short tempers, love of sex and high-handed behavior, seem to recall the Britons from Murdoch's novels, and the novel's fine sense of place will call to mind some of Murdoch's most striking books from the early 60s like THE TIME OF THE ANGELS and THE UNICORN. The characterization is quite strong, although the character of Ida Cosway never comes as fully to life as those of her sisters, and the intelligent narrator's inertia when faced with the Cosways' rude behavior to her is often hard to believe (although Vine keeps trying to explain it to us). The other characters, however, are quite intriguing, particularly the Minotaur himself, John Cosway.

This is a very compelling read narrated by the story's protagonist, Kerstin Kvist who is working in England. The story takes place in rural England in the 60s, a village that has not been touched the 'revolution' sweeping other parts of the country. Kerstin is employed by a dysfunctional and sinister family made up of the tyrannical mother, four sisters and one brother who is supposedly mad. Family secrets threaten to spill over onto everyone that knows them, including Kerstin, making for a very dramatic ending. Barbara Vine has carefully constructed a tale that absorbs, twists, entangles and finally leaves you wishing for more. Her characters are psychologically profiled and one can almost feel the goosebumps, not knowing what to expect. More please, Barbara (aka Ruth Rendell)!

This haunting tale of an autistic savant is the latest to be written by that master of psychological suspense - Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine. This book is a masterpiece that only could have been imagined and written by her! The book is set in the late 1960's set in the Essex countryside. It is charmingly told by a young Swedish nurse who was hired to help with John Cosway. Everyone said that he was hopelessly insane and they kept him drugged up from dawn to dark. Kersten begins to suspect that perhaps John isn't insane, and she tries to help him. His very dysfunctional family is revealed to us in bits and pieces as we read the story that Kerstin writes in her diary. And as we read, we know that inevitably this family is on a track to destruction and we read in awed fascination as it happens. John lives with his mother and his three unmarried sisters. There is also a widowed sister that appears regularly throughout the story. What a wonderful depiction of some truly horrific ladies.

Though not my favorite of Rendell's books written as Barbara Vine (her best are the first three she published as Vine - "A Dark Adapted Eye", "Fatal Inversion" and "House of Stairs") this was still an excellent psychological thriller and much better than her last "The Blood Doctor". I really felt her depiction of John's autism "rang true" and found it interesting that all of the true Cosway sisters had quicks that could be considered "soft" signs of autism or Aspberger's Syndrome. Like most Rendell/Vine stories the characters are far more interesting than the ultimate crime.

Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell is the best writer in her genre. She is streets ahead of anyone else in the field. The plot has been dealt with by several reviewers (on Amazon's UK site) so will not repeat it here. What is so marvellous about Vine's writing is her building up of the story to a great (and usually unexpected climax). True, the plot was fairly obvious but it was the way she approached the story that made it so interesting. I also have the problem of wanting to gallop ahead and yet rationing myself so that I don't finish the book too quickly. I have read all her books and most of them twice. Her ability to deal with and develop the characters in her books is just amazing. Each and every one of the Cosway children as well as Mrs. Cosway and the outside characters were made so human and so believable. This book deserves 6 stars

Having completed degrees in both English and Nursing at the University of Lund in Sweden, the narrator of Barbara Vine's The Minotaur is twenty-four-year-old Kerstin Kvist. Kvist follows her English boyfriend Mark to England to continue their relationship. Through Mark's sister-in-law, she secures a position as private nurse to mentally disturbed John Cosway, and thus begins a novel that is at once classic gothic and unconventional murder mystery.

The wind in the leaves of the Virginia creeper vine covering Lydstep Old Hall when Kerstin's first sees it, gives the illusion of movement, of a constantly shifting perspective. So too is Kerstin's view of the Cosway family constantly shifting, as like Theseus of myth, and she wanders inevitably closer to the monster at the heart of this maze of a story.

From the first, Kerstin is unconvinced that schizophrenia is what afflicts John, and the daily doses of both Phenobarbital and a highly powerful anti-psychotic, make her deeply uncomfortable. Though Julia Cosway, the family matriarch, insists it was John who requested a nurse, Kerstin finds it hard to believe John is capable of doing so while under the influence of these drugs. But why would Mrs. Cosway drug her own son? And what traumatic event did he witness that caused his supposed illness?

In addition to Mrs. Cosway, Lydgate Old Hall is also home to John's four sisters, Ida, the drudge; Winifred, the vicar's fiance; Ella, the schoolteacher; and Zorah, the jetsetter--who complete the portrait of this supremely dysfunctional family, all members of which trade in secrets, lies, and emotional blackmail.

Vine plays on many stereotypes of the English gothic country house novel and even Kerstin compares Lydstep Old Hall to Manderley and Thornfield. But this is no gothic romance and the unavoidable climax of The Minotaur is more disturbing than Rebecca or Jane Eyre ever were.

FYI: Barbara Vine is a pen name for Ruth Rendell, the bestselling crime novelist. She has written many novels, including The Lake of Darkness, The Killing Doll, The Tree of Hands, Live Flesh, Heartstones and The Veiled One.

Armchair Interviews says: A book that will appeal to readers on many levels.

This book started to annoy me early on with a narrator who didn't really have a purpose in the story other than for the characters to share their confidences with (within her first hour of meeting them). A nurse is sent to watch over a 'mentally ill' man, but her sole duty is to take a short walk with him every day and to occasionally put him to bed. There are 4 other people living in the house, so this set-up seemed stilted from the start. Despite being a nurse, she asks no questions about his inconsistent behavior relative to his diagnosis or the seemingly unorthodox drug treatments. And there is constant reference to the fact that she is Swedish and the correct pronounciation of her name, which is irrelevant to the story.

The creepy tone of the book is established from the first description of the vine-covered house looking like it's breathing because of the wind, and continues to the creative use of a library in the shape of a labyrinth (I want one). Without the annoying presence of the narrator, this would probably have been one of Vine's best.

I am being harsh in rating this book a 3 rather than a 4, but Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine sets the bar high.

This is a worthwhile read for many reasons, not least of which is the deeply psychological and provocative way in which the author writes, her cultivation of depth and complexity in her characters, and the (often) surprising way she can hold your attention while writing about apparently routine or everyday details. But where it is disappointing is in that there are at least two mysteries that remain unsolved in the central plot of the story, and the ending -- usually a Rendell/Vine 'twist' -- is lackluster.

So we are left with great writing, fascinating characters, and mild suspense. Still head and shoulders above other writers, but not up to her usual standard.

In Greek legend, the minotaur is a bull-like monster who dwells in the midst of a vast labyrinth. In Ms. Rendell's novel, the title appears to be referring to John Cosway, an autistic man who lives with his mother and four sisters in a run-down, ramshackle estate. As the story develops, however, it seems that this is an entire family of monsters, with the son being,in actuality, the most human of them all. The mother and four sisters are almost completely selfish and self-motivated, often at the expense of their children or siblings, although one sister is perhaps a little better than the rest. This is not my favorite work by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine but I think it is one of the most memorable. Whether writing as Ms. Rendell or Ms. Vine, Ms. Rendell is such an expert at developing character, motivations, and interesting situations, that her books under either name are highly enjoyable and a true pleasure to read.