Doves in My Fig-Tree

by Ruby Ferguson

349 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1957

About the author

Ruby Constance Annie Ashby Ferguson
aka
Ruby Ferguson and R.C. Ashby

Reviews

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Chartrand returns to Jersey after seven years away. He is a successful poet who broadcasts regularly on the radio, but he has a yearning to return to his roots. He finds his mother contentedly running a small shop selling miscellaneous goods, much to the distress of his aunts and uncles, who think it is beneath her. He gets involved in the various problems his relatives have and tries to sort them out, feeling a family obligation, but he begins to wonder if he will ever have time for his own needs. This is quite an interesting story, I liked Eric and his mother, and there are some unexpected twists to the plot. But I thought there were rather too many characters, people appear and disappear rather abruptly without really being fleshed out, I feel a few less characters would have been better. A strange thing about the book is that although the war, which has only been over for ten years, is mentioned several times, the Occupation is never mentioned at all, which I thought odd. What were they all up to, Eric’s family, during that strange period? I would have liked to know.