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The Daisy Rock
“They saw him flung clear of the waves almost upon the rocks and twice the sea snatched him back. It seemed to play with him like an angler with a fish on the line; and, like a hooked fish, Fergus was tiring…”
When Fergus saved his sister, Stella, from drowning in Tangie Bay, it should have been a triumph.
But now that Stella is head of her own company, Fergus seems to have festered in his retirement, growing more and more resentful, caring only for his fish.
His wife, Flora, can feel him slipping away. Flora views her husband’s inadequacies with wry tolerance and occasional despair and it and doesn’t help that their ghastly neighbours, Eleanor and Letty, keep calling at all hours and indulging Fergus’s drinking habit.
Now that Stella is visiting again, Flora is hoping for brother and sister to reconcile, for another miracle.
But it doesn’t look like she will get it.
If anything, Fergus and Stella seem to be dragging each other down.
Hoping to escape, Fergus and Flora take their fateful trip to Tangie Bay...
A delicately crafted tragicomedy, The Daisy Rock is a book that refuses to let you go.
Eva Hanagan was a Scottish author, who died at the age of 85, in 2009. During a Foreign Office posting to Vienna after the Second World War, Hanagan met her husband, with whom she had two sons. She published her first novel, In Thrall, in 1977. Following which, there was a fairly rapid succession of novels: Playmates (1978), and A Knock at the Door (1982). She settled in Sussex, from where she authored her novels.
When Fergus saved his sister, Stella, from drowning in Tangie Bay, it should have been a triumph.
But now that Stella is head of her own company, Fergus seems to have festered in his retirement, growing more and more resentful, caring only for his fish.
His wife, Flora, can feel him slipping away. Flora views her husband’s inadequacies with wry tolerance and occasional despair and it and doesn’t help that their ghastly neighbours, Eleanor and Letty, keep calling at all hours and indulging Fergus’s drinking habit.
Now that Stella is visiting again, Flora is hoping for brother and sister to reconcile, for another miracle.
But it doesn’t look like she will get it.
If anything, Fergus and Stella seem to be dragging each other down.
Hoping to escape, Fergus and Flora take their fateful trip to Tangie Bay...
A delicately crafted tragicomedy, The Daisy Rock is a book that refuses to let you go.
Eva Hanagan was a Scottish author, who died at the age of 85, in 2009. During a Foreign Office posting to Vienna after the Second World War, Hanagan met her husband, with whom she had two sons. She published her first novel, In Thrall, in 1977. Following which, there was a fairly rapid succession of novels: Playmates (1978), and A Knock at the Door (1982). She settled in Sussex, from where she authored her novels.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 16, 2017
GAB I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Eva Hanagan and Odyssey Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for sharing your hard work with me.
Eva Hanagan writes of the emotional turmoil we engage ourselves and our friends in when age and/or trauma warp our outlook. And she does it well. Classically British, this novel keeps you in the midst of paranoia as Flora deals with a Fergus who changes daily from the man she married to a stranger in a strange land.
Eva Hanagan writes of the emotional turmoil we engage ourselves and our friends in when age and/or trauma warp our outlook. And she does it well. Classically British, this novel keeps you in the midst of paranoia as Flora deals with a Fergus who changes daily from the man she married to a stranger in a strange land.
July 19, 2017
Quietly affecting, but ultimately unsatisfying, likely because any book about elderly UK people brings Staying On to my mind, and then I end up thinking about that instead of the book I'm reading. The Daisy Rock does have its moments and the small affections/annoyances between a long married couple come through, but the time jumps -- not even drastic ones, usually only a few days or a few hours -- are like being jarred awake by a phone call when you're almost asleep. The periphery characters are superfluous, an unnecessary widening of perspective. The whole thing could be tightened right into only the main characters, which is where the heart of this short novel is anyways.
Still, these faults are few, and while I wish Flora had a bit more self-awareness or introspection for what she ultimately decides (placing herself in a role that she disdained another woman being in earlier in the novel), The Daisy Rock is still a very genteel and moving story.
The Daisy Rock by Eva Hanagan went on sale March 17, 2017.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Still, these faults are few, and while I wish Flora had a bit more self-awareness or introspection for what she ultimately decides (placing herself in a role that she disdained another woman being in earlier in the novel), The Daisy Rock is still a very genteel and moving story.
The Daisy Rock by Eva Hanagan went on sale March 17, 2017.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 8, 2017
This is a delicately woven, meandering tale of Flora and her husband Fergus who are struggling in their retirement years. Fergus leans without purpose towards alcohol and ambivalence, while Flora swings between despair and despondency about his behaviour. The reader is interlaced into the life of this marriage, of their perceptions for the future, and of their past. Eva Hanagan creates for us the very details of their every day lives; their quirks and nuances, their interactions with their neighbours, and their notions of time.
“Tomorrow, she promised herself, climbing the stairs, holding herself very straight and resolutely refusing to as much as touch the bannister rail, tomorrow we will move away to some place that holds neither memory of youth past nor portent of what might yet be to come.”
This is an enchanting read for a summer’s weekend. It will make you feel as though you’ve heard this story over the garden fence, whilst simultaneously finding yourself immersed in the ‘goings on’ of this couple and their neighbours. It felt almost melancholic, with a forlornness of beautifully written prose that can engage the reader in this tale of tragedy.
“Tomorrow, she promised herself, climbing the stairs, holding herself very straight and resolutely refusing to as much as touch the bannister rail, tomorrow we will move away to some place that holds neither memory of youth past nor portent of what might yet be to come.”
This is an enchanting read for a summer’s weekend. It will make you feel as though you’ve heard this story over the garden fence, whilst simultaneously finding yourself immersed in the ‘goings on’ of this couple and their neighbours. It felt almost melancholic, with a forlornness of beautifully written prose that can engage the reader in this tale of tragedy.
November 28, 2018
I had a hard time telling when and where this book took place. I also felt bad for the main character who seemed to have no desires of her own.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews