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Rain Kirsty Gunn Books

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Rain Kirsty Gunn Books

It's amazing the amount of emotion and insight Kirsty Gunn has managed to contain in this brief book. The story is told from the point of view of 12 year-old Janey, looking back as an adult on a pivotal summer spent at a house nestled by a lake in New Zealand with her little brother Jimmy and her parents. Janey loves her brother intensely -- at times she seems more like a parent to him than a sibling. He is the center of her life, and they spend hours and hours together each day, away from the house, away from their parents, usually in or near to the lake.
The parents in this story are not abusive -- at least, not overtly -- and it seems that they do love their children. Abuse isn't always about hitting and bruising -- it can be just as devastating when it is psychological. I was left with the impression that they were unsure how to act as parents. Each night of the summer, in the lake house, they host parties for their neighbors and friends. If the children don't manage to slip upstairs to their rooms unnoticed, they are called upon by the parents to perform for the guests -- or at the very least, to be put upon display. The impression is given that they did this to give substance to their union, to show that their were indeed fruits to their marriage, that it was real.
Through a marvelous style and pace of narration, the young Janey allows us to peer into her life -- we see and hear and feel things very believably and accurately from her perspective. The success of Gunn's attempt to do this attests to a formidable talent within her. The physical details are given life by the child's voice and observations -- and it rings very true, focusing on the things that a child would notice, the things that speak to her through the years and curtains of memory.
I can heartily recommend this book -- I enjoyed it much more than the author's THIS PLACE YOU RETURN TO IS HOME collection of short stories.


Tags : Amazon.com: Rain (9780802134479): Kirsty Gunn: Books,Kirsty Gunn,Rain,Grove Press,0802134475,Psychological,Brothers and sisters - Fiction,Reading Group Guide,American First Novelists,Brothers and sisters,Brothers and sisters;Fiction.,Domestic fiction,Domestic fiction.,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Psychological,General,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction,General & Literary Fiction

Rain Kirsty Gunn Books Reviews

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ. IT'S THE KIND OF BOOK THAT PULLS YOU INTO A WHOLE OTHER WORLD WHERE YOU FORGET YOUR LIFE WHILE YOU ARE READING. THE WRITING IS SIMPLY AMAZING. I READ THIS BOOK ALL IN ONE SITTING. WHEN I FINISHED IT I SAT THERE HOLDING THE BOOK NOT WANTING TO COME BACK TO REALITY.
I can only describe this book as lyrical and languid. It is a tale of loss, and hope and that in the darkness, there is beauty.
The story centres around a young girl who is forced to look after her brother, who appears to act as her one type of stability. In the background is the scenery of a summer holiday that is quintessentially New Zealand - slow, sweet, and yet bitter.
The novel is short, but after 90 or so pages it leaves the reader yearning for more - but there is no more, because in the pain is the never ending desire that hope floats.
"Rain" by Kirsty Gunn is a beautifully written and very intriquing. You almost feel like you're reading a poem. The language and word choice is very special and I found myself very captured by main character Janey. The connection between older Janey (the narrator) and young Janey is very strong and powerful. It's a wonderful tale of a dangerous childhood and certainly grips it's reader into Janey's world. It's full of emotions and feelings that very few people can fully identify with. A brilliant first novel.
Under a hundred pages, but full of emotion and at times beautiful writing. You get a strong feeling for each of the characters and though certain events are fairly obviously foreshadowed, the time when the truth comes out is still quite powerful. Near the end I was actually uncomfortable with what was happening, cringing at what was happening, it isn't very often that I feel anything for characters in a book, but Gunn's writing brings them out and makes it easy it identify with the them, and no more so than in the more difficult moments. A good book, well worth the 3-5 hours it may take to read.
This is one of the most engrossing 20th century fictions I've read. The narrative is lyrical and almost dreamlike, which shifts the reader's mindscape twice once to distant memories of childhood and the open-eyed wonder of coming of age, and once again to the emotional distance that we must put between ourselves and those hardest moments.

Gunn's voice is often dark and macabre - at times you feel for Janey's abandonment amidst her hard-partying parents and the adults who pay all forms of discomforting attention to her. The prose is tactile, yet fluid, a word on the tongue and a fleeting sensation of what was and will never again be.
Janey and her family spend their summers at their lakeside vacation home. The lake is a refuge for Janey and her little brother Jim, a place where they can get away from their parent's endless parties and the suffocating heat. Janey sees Jim as her child and her mother as an untouchable object of beauty that even her father cannot touch. When Janey realizes her mother's friend wants Janey, she gives into him leaving her young brother to spend his time playing alone as their parents stay in the vacation home.
This novel is a fast read filled with vivid descriptions of the lake, rain, water and just about everything else. The imagery is beautiful but at the same time too much description of the environment clogs the details of story. There are only so many times you can read about what the lake looks like, especially since you got it the first time around. The details of the story fall second to the environmental description but the story was an interesting one even though I was left wanting more details.
The poetry-like writing style distances the reader from the emotional aspects of the story. Even though I understood what Janey and her father felt, I never became involved to the extent that it affected me. The climax of the story was anti-climatic and mundane in it's instructional execution. I felt this novel, though beautifully poetic, could have been so much more.
However, I am looking forward to the movie which opens in theatres today. I am hoping that the visual execution will live up to this story's potential.
It's amazing the amount of emotion and insight Kirsty Gunn has managed to contain in this brief book. The story is told from the point of view of 12 year-old Janey, looking back as an adult on a pivotal summer spent at a house nestled by a lake in New Zealand with her little brother Jimmy and her parents. Janey loves her brother intensely -- at times she seems more like a parent to him than a sibling. He is the center of her life, and they spend hours and hours together each day, away from the house, away from their parents, usually in or near to the lake.
The parents in this story are not abusive -- at least, not overtly -- and it seems that they do love their children. Abuse isn't always about hitting and bruising -- it can be just as devastating when it is psychological. I was left with the impression that they were unsure how to act as parents. Each night of the summer, in the lake house, they host parties for their neighbors and friends. If the children don't manage to slip upstairs to their rooms unnoticed, they are called upon by the parents to perform for the guests -- or at the very least, to be put upon display. The impression is given that they did this to give substance to their union, to show that their were indeed fruits to their marriage, that it was real.
Through a marvelous style and pace of narration, the young Janey allows us to peer into her life -- we see and hear and feel things very believably and accurately from her perspective. The success of Gunn's attempt to do this attests to a formidable talent within her. The physical details are given life by the child's voice and observations -- and it rings very true, focusing on the things that a child would notice, the things that speak to her through the years and curtains of memory.
I can heartily recommend this book -- I enjoyed it much more than the author's THIS PLACE YOU RETURN TO IS HOME collection of short stories.