Jane had a pen and a notebook with her, just in case; she liked to write things down. She was the kind of girl who felt New Year's should be in the fall, at the beginning of school, the kind of girl who begged for chores and saved quarters in a jar to buy a pony. At nine Jane began to want a room of her own. She was writing a book.
It has been said that children are great observers but poor interpreters. Jane, who dreams of being part of a happy family, thinks she's responsible for her parents' misery. She wishes everyone would follow her grandmother's advice in times of crisis -- think of England -- a phrase that makes her feel safe.
When the MacLeods gather for the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Jane sees in the band the same profound pining she feels in herself. But later that night a tragedy dashes her hope for the future and burdens her with guilt for decades to come. Years later, Jane travels to London, where she meets a man who reignites her desire for a happy life, but again she is disillusioned. It isn't until she is a single mother with a daughter of her own that, at another family gathering, Jane comes to terms with the mystery of her past.
Alice Elliott Dark has been celebrated for her short fiction, collected in Naked to the Waist and In the Gloaming. Each of these stories, said Joyce Carol Oates, "exudes the gravitas of a radically distilled novel." With Think of England, Dark rises to Oates's prescient praise, revealing herself to be a master of the longer form.
