WHO WAS CHANGED AND WHO WAS DEAD

Comyns novel is deranged in ways that shouldnt be disclosed. Ben Marcus This is the story of the Willoweed family and the English village in which they live. It begins mid-flood ducks swimming in the drawing-room windows quacking their approval as they sail around the room. What about my rose beds? demands Grandmother Willoweed. Her son shouts down her ear-trumpet that the garden is submerged dead animals everywhere she will be lucky to get a bunch. Then the miller drowns himself . . . then the butcher slits his throat . . . and a series of gruesome deaths plagues the villagers. The newspaper asks Who will be smitten by this fatal madness next? Through it all Comyns'' unique voice weaves a text as wonderful as it is horrible as beautiful as it is cruel. Originally published in England in 1954 this overlooked small masterpiece is a twisted tragicomic gem.