Queen Lear: 2 [Hardcover]

Molly Keane (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Keane's distinctive powers remain at their wickedly brilliant height despite the 60-odd years that have elapsed since she first wrote as M. J. Farrell. As in Good Behaviour , her setting is the decaying, yet flamboyant, country-house life of the Anglo-Irish gentry during the first half of this century; again, her heroine's personality is woefully misshapen by the heedlessness and cruelty of her parents. Through eight-year-old Nicandra Forester's eyes, we see the "Day of Disaster" when her beautiful, beloved, but capricious "Maman" absconds with both the family's dashing land steward and her widowed sister's jewels. Nicandra's "silent little father" Sir Dermot, who named his daughter after a horse, is emotionally remote, preoccupied like most of his class with horse breeding and racing. Generous Aunt Tossie, a stout, gourmandizing tippler, on the other hand, overwhelms her niece with maternal affection, reminding Nicandra unbearably of what she has lost. Compelled to give love where none is required, the beautiful, grownup Nicandra finds her perfect nemeses in the debonair and grasping Andrew Bland and in her bosom friend, Lalage Lawless. Keene richly describes a lost age and the demise of the family Forester, along with its "Dear Old Place." Despite the simplicity of its overall con ception, this acutely perceptive novel plumbs deeper than the delicious mockery of its surface to expose the rottenness of a foundering, class-ridden society. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this sad, moving, and rather shocking novel, Irish writer Keane evokes in careful detail a lost world--that of a well-to-do Anglo-Irish family in southern Ireland in the period between two world wars, their main interests hunting and breeding race horses. The tragic theme is "the revenge life takes on those who please and give too much." From childhood to maturity, the sensitive and loving heroine, Nicandra, suffers a series of terrible betrayals. Like Shakespeare's King Lear (to whom she is implicitly compared in the title), she loses everything that is most dear to her. Her mother deserts her, she loses her baby, and her husband runs off with her best friend. At the end, in another echo of King Lear , happiness is momentarily restored only to be instantly snatched away. Not for the tender-minded.
- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (September 26, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525247998
• ISBN-13: 978-0525247999
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,632,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's no "Good Behavior", August 25, 2001

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gmemphis - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Queen Lear: 2 (Hardcover)

I bought this book because I was stunned by the perfection of "Good Behavior" which I expect to read again and again over the years. (I've read it at least 5 times over the past year alone.)

"Queen Lear" isn't up to the standard Molly Keane set in "Good Behavior." Where does it fall down, exactly? The dominant characters are largely unappealing, but that doesn't explain it. They are equally unappealing in "Good Behavior" and still Ms. Keane made me care about Aroon. In contrast, I can't care about the fate of Nicandra in "Queen Lear."

Molly Keane seems to attempt a repeat of the magnificent knockout punch she delivered in "Good Behavior" (an ending which perfectly and shockingly fulfills and transforms the beginning, built logically and inevitably on everything in between). For me, "Queen Lear" just doesn't deliver.

Why not? Some of the reason is technical, but there's also the unfortunate fact that the herione is a thorough pill with no redeeming qualities. By the time I reached the last pages of the book, I was heartily sick of Nicandra and her self-created, richly deserved misery. The final "revelation" from her childhood destroyed what little (very little) sympathy she might have earned.

In "Good Behavior," Molly Keane made me sympathize with and finally, grudgingly admire a truly fascinating herione, Iris Aroon. She's warped, stunted, horrifyingly self-deluded, and her unquestioning acceptance of the shallow values of her tormentors is rather disgusting. Still, there's the hidden audacity and sly creative stubborness with which she copes. The cards are certainly stacked against her, emotionally speaking--she's got the "underdog" thing nailed!

Reading "Queen Lear," I cannot summon sympathy for Nicandra. Amply gifted with almost everything Aroon lacks, she chooses a cruel, animalistic path that leaves her ripe for exploitation. Worse, she's not even interesting.

There are some fairly good supporting characters in "Queen Lear," but they're not enough to carry the story and can't compare with the beautifully drawn, perfectly cast supporting roles in "Good Behavior." The psychological elements Keane introduces never quite gel into anything authentic or even definite. I highly recommend that you read "Good Behavior" if you appreciate brilliant writing and characterization. Read "Queen Lear" for scholarly or comparative purposes only.