“Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.” (Victor Borge)

/ madamebibilophile

I received my copy of The Visitor by Maeve Brennan (written in the 1940s, published after her death in 2000) from lovely Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, having read her wonderful review. I’d not read Brennan before and I was really keen to; having now read this 81 page novella I definitely want to explore her writing further.

Twenty-two year old Anastasia King returns to her grandmother’s house in Dublin, having spent six years in Paris with her mother who has now died.

“She was still the same, with her delicate and ruminative and ladylike face, and her hands clasped formerly in front of her. Anastasia thought, She is waiting for me to make some mistake.”

Little does Anastasia know she has already made the mistake by leaving with her mother. Her grandmother is entirely unforgiving and inflexible about the hurt caused to her son who has also died, and makes no allowances for Anastasia having been the child of the marriage.

Anastasia expects to be able to live with her grandmother as she has nowhere else to go, but her grandmother has other ideas. She does not view this house as Anastasia’s home any longer and is determined to keep her in the titular role. Her imperviousness and lack of welcome border on Gothic and I was reminded of Janet in O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. The Visitor lacks the overt Gothic tones of that novel but they share the dislocation of a young adult in her own home and the almost eeriness that evokes.

“She turned and looked at the mirror, but it reflected only empty chairs, and the firelight played indifferently on polished furniture as it had once across her parents’ faces. There is the background, and it is exactly the same.”

Her grandmother’s elderly housekeeper Katharine does her best to welcome Anastasia, but her kindness is vastly outweighed by Mrs King’s seemingly endless bitterness. Brennan adds complexity to the tale with the introduction of old family friend Miss Kilbride. Anastasia’s actions towards Miss Kilbride stop the story becoming fairytale-like or straightforward. By portraying human beings in all their complexities Brennan doesn’t allow trite conclusions to be reached.

I don’t want to say too much about the novella as it’s so short, but its length doesn’t mean it lacks power. The loveless, withholding atmosphere that Mrs King creates is masterfully drawn and really gets under the reader’s skin. The ending is ambiguous and adds to the feeling of dislocation throughout the story. Brennan doesn’t waste a single word.

“Home is a place in the mind. When it is empty, it frets. It is fretful with memory, faces and places and times gone by. Beloved images rise up in disobedience and make a mirror for emptiness.”

25 thoughts on ““Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.” (Victor Borge)”

    • Perhaps I should have said “she feels she has nowhere to go”. She is certainly a young 22 and there’s no sense that she has ever earned a living or has many life skills. Her grandmother often refers to her as ‘child’ but then also wants to kick her out. She seems to oscillate quite precariously between childhood and adulthood throughout.

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      • Interesting. These days, people at 22 are still considered ‘young adults’ which is a term that applied from about 16 onwards. Many of them still live at home even if they’re working. But in the forties, when people could start work at 14, and 21 meant reaching one’s majority, 22 was adulthood. Just a few more years, ha ha, and a woman might feel she was ‘on the shelf’.

        Of course in Britain in WW2, women of all classes went into the services. But the Irish, for reasons I have never admired, chose not to fight with the rest of the free world against fascism.

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  2. This was on my list of wants after reading kaggsy’s review too. I didn’t really need extra persuasion or fuel to my covetousness but, it is still lovely to read your review too! I’m glad it did not disappoint. I’ve been enjoying several Irish authors so far this year – several new to me authors (Deirdre Madden, Molly Keane) but not yet Maeve Brennan.

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  6. A lovely reminder of a brilliant novella! “The loveless, withholding atmosphere that Mrs King creates is masterfully drawn and really gets under the reader’s skin.” Yes, that’s it exactly – it’s remarkably powerful for such a slim book.

    If you’re looking to try more of Brennan’s fiction, I can thoroughly recommend her short story collections, The Rose Garden and The Springs of Affection – the latter, in particular, because the stories are all set in the same Dublin house (Brennan’s own childhood home).

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  8. I’m so glad you enjoyed it Madame B – it certainly is a powerful novella, isn’t it? Picking up on what Lisa says above, I do agree with you that the narrator is very naive, with no real idea of how to look after herself and no idea of how to embrace life. I would say that she certainly needs help and nurture, rather than rejection – I feel she’s somewhat damaged by her past…

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    • Thank you so much for sending it to me Kaggsy! It’s really powerful. I agree that her past seems to have traumatised her in some way. It’s really clever how Brennan doesn’t explicitly state it but it’s definitely felt.

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  10. Ooh this is such a lovely novella. The writing is pitch perfect, the characterisation sharply observed. I have enjoyed one collection of her short stories too, The Springs of Affection which I definitely recommend.

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