My Friend Sandy

My Friends #5

by Jane Duncan

Janet and 'Twice' Alexander break new ground in the island of St. Jago, British West Indies-a setting as far removed from the Highlands of Scotland as a calypso from a lament. But it takes more than a planter's punch compounded of island feuds, jealousies and intrigues to put out the exuberant Alexanders-as this further sparkling episode in the now-famous saga shows, through an unexpected drama provides a startling climax.

Genres: Fiction

292 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Jane Duncan was the pseudonym of Scottish writer Elizabeth Jane Cameron, best-known for her My Friends series of semi-autobiographical novels. She also wrote four novels under the name of her principal heroine Janet Sandison, and some children's books. She was born in Renton, West Dunbartonshire and brought up in the Scottish Lowlands where her father was a police officer, but much of her childhood was spent in the Highlands on the Black Isle in Easter Ross, on her grandparents' croft "The Colony", the "Reachfar" of her novels. She graduated in English from the University of Glasgow and did various secretarial jobs before serving as a Flight Officer (Intelligence), WAAF during World War II. Afterward, she lived in Jamaica for ten years, returning to Jemimaville, near "The Colony", in 1958 as a widow. In 1959 Duncan became something of a publishing sensation when Macmillan Publishers announced that it would be publishing seven of her manuscripts. The "Reachfar" (My Friends) series is narrated by Janet Sandison and follows her life (which in outline parallels that of the author) from the World War I period through to the 1960s, depicting the people she encounters and showing how her crofting upbringing influences her in whatever society and geographical location she finds herself.

Reviews

[Fiona Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Friend Sandy and we are back in St Jago meeting Don and Sashie, owners of the Peak Hotel in the Bay, as well as all the others at Paradise. This is a grand introduction to the many white people on the island and their various histories and rivalries. It's a fascinating look at British attitudes to colonialism and the language is not appropriate to today with reference to the way Black people and people of colour are spoken about or to - it is, sadly, of its time.

It hinges around a big play that is written by Janet for many of these (white) people to come together and perform in around Christmas. It is very funny, very moving, and we see Janet finding herself out of her depth in this new country, this environment and this world. Twice is happy as he can be an engineer on Paradise and work with his beloved machines...but Janet struggles and there are farcical moments plus revelations, not least about Sashie.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these books more than they merit, I think, but as with Duncan's earlier novels, I enjoyed this one a lot. In particular, I liked how very wrong Janet is about Don, about Sashie, about herself -- and how right she is that there is something 'queer' about the Mount Melody family. It is interesting to see someone behaving badly from the inside, so that the behaviour is just glossed off, barely described or thought about, and I liked how when it comes to a head in the scene with Don, Janet is so furious and humiliated by her own behaviour that she loses her temper entirely. And the larger things, that she knows things without understanding them, intuition or second sight, but cannot connect it up to act upon it. Also what I think Duncan sees and is trying to express, something we might now call the effects of nurture, or early environment, and generational differences; that Janet and Twice are both lucky in having had solid families, and enough older than Don & Sashie that they had a childhood in a settled world, and that these things combine to give them a confidence in their system of values that the younger characters are mostly lacking. There is a lot to be looked at, I think, in the generations; the two Madames who are Victorians through-and-through, Sir Ian whom I think is Edwardian, Twice & Janet born just long enough before the Great War that the societal changes only hit them as they were older, then Don and Sashie born in the aftermath of it and growing up in the 20s and 30s, and finally Isabel and David and Dorothy all born in the late 20s or early 30s and so particularly poised to be damaged or helped by the Victorian generation for whom things are so cut & dried.

What I can never decide about these books is whether they are actually quite good in their odd way, or if they are just very much the sort of thing I like, the first person narrator rushing on to tell you her story, talking far, far too much about certain things and refusing to look at others... it looks uncrafted, like the writer isn't sure what she is doing, but then it all hangs together to make a shape, and I have said this before, but there is always a sense of coming into contact with another personality, a real human being, and I like that very much.

Finally, about race: as a modern person, I disagree strongly with Janet's belief that the black population of the island are an alien race apart which cannot be comprehended. But I admire the fact that the book tries to grapple with this at all, that Janet is shown as being dismayed by the slave-owning mindset of many of the white people she comes into contact with, that to believe the black people as alien is for her a step away from the racism she is presented with, even though it is not a good place. I like also that she acknowledges her own immense discomfort and confusion and -- if I recall correctly -- in future books she begins to try to own it rather than blaming it on the environment or on the people.

[Ika Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth volume of a 19-book series which I think of as a single, serial, work. I've written longer reviews of Book 13, My Friend My Father (here: no spoilers for the series), and Book 19, My Friends George and Tom (a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... masses and masses of spoilers), as well as some brief reflections about Book 18, My Friends The Misses Kindness (a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... again, massive spoilers for the series) and Book 16, My Friend the Swallow (a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., spoiler-free).

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scottish Janet is having a hard time acclimatising to the Caribbean island sugar plantation where her husband has come to be an engineer. Keeping busy, she gets involved in a play put on by Sir Ian, heir to the estate. There is a handsome Lothario; an in-bred family with too much wealth; and this is the book where we meet Sashie, destined to become one of the special heroes of the series.

Sandy is a delightful 8-year-old boy who has resisted the emotionally undermining influence of the tropics. Where adults are reacting in ways inapproprate to themselves and their lives, Sandy is as clear as a tuning fork.

[Alexis Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these books although they were written a long time ago! Jane Duncan a Scot, who lived in the Caribbean,for many years, wrote her books in the linen cupboard because her husband didn't approve. These are funny gentle books that lift your spirit. Duncan also writes as Janet Sandison.