"Shrove House: the palace, the house of pictures and secrets, dolls and keys, books and shadows.""The Crocodile Bird" tem uma introdução bastante misteriosa. Eve e Liza são, respectivamente, mãe e filha. Longe da sociedade, vivem isoladas por opção própria, como residentes da Casa de Shrove, uma mansão na qual Eve é governanta, sucessora da sua mãe. Atormentada por um passado distante mas doloroso, Eve está determinada a criar a sua filha longe de qualquer contacto com o mundo real.Ruth Rendell insere-nos num momento crucial destas duas vidas, deixando-nos por momentos enfeitiçados pelas palavras, incapazes de parar de ler em busca de respostas que nos elucidem sobre estas duas mulheres, ainda desconhecidas, tão peculiares. Confesso que, por alguns segundos, me senti como uma intrusa, mas num ambiente familiar, sem compreender os acontecimentos que se desenrolavam perante os meus olhos. Contudo, ninguém deu pela minha interrupção e eu fiquei logo envolvida, estimulada pelo mistério e as suas promessas de futuras revelações. Infelizmente, estes sentimentos foram sol de pouca dura. O livro é, de uma forma muito linear, a história de vida de Lizzie, contada por si mesmo ao primeiro homem por quem se apaixonou.A história é muito original e as personagens são maravilhosamente estranhas. As suas vidas são imensamente diferentes daquelas da sociedade dita normal e os seus valores e moral bastante desviados da norma. Apesar disso, o enredo desenrola-se a um ritmo excessivamente lento e pausado. Foi para mim dificil focar a atenção e manter o interesse. A história vai-se arrastando e arrastando até que, a certa altura, conseguimos prever as próximas palavras.Esta foi a minha estreia com Ruth Rendell e a percepção com que fiquei desta famosa escritora é que as descrições são a sua praia. Descrições de todas as formas e tamanhos: de pessoas, lugares, objectos, sentimentos, enfim, de tudo. Se o seu objectivo é delinear imagens ordenadas na nossa mente, exactamente como ela as vê, então é bem sucedida. Deixa pouco para a nossa imaginação, porque vai ao mais ínfimo detalhe, dizendo-nos as coordenadas exactas da posição de um simples quadro, por exemplo. Dito isto, o nível de envolvimento na história e nas personagens que a habitam ficam para segundo plano. Relativamente aos diálogos acho que a senhora tem medo deles! Eles destacam-se pela sua ausência.Um thriller psicológico? Dificilmente.Um livro repleto de mistério e suspense? Talvez até à página 50.Um livro ideal para uma noite de insónias? Certamente!
Liza… a bright, insightful 16 years old, raised in isolation at Shrove House by her mother, Eve… and sent to make a solitary trip to her mother’s friend in London so as to avoid the police. Instead, she joins up with Sean – the young man who works in the estate lands and with whom she has developed a sexual relationship with…And over the next 6 months she tells Sean (in a Sheherazade type story telling way) the story of her life, as she gains the knowledge and skills she needs to live in the real world…. (like how to buy groceries or make a phone call)…Her grandmother was the housekeeper at Shrove House, and Eve grew up with the house grandson, Jonathan… and in trade for caring for the grandfather, he promised them Shrove House at his death…. But he changed his will at the end… Eve left, had some rocky years – was gang raped, had Liza… and when Liza was 3 years old, was invited by Jonathan to live in the gatehouse in trade for caring for the estate. And she raises Liza in isolation… being her teacher – with emphasis on literature, arts, language (Latin & French), and philosophy. Liza rarely was allowed into town, and only knew the postman, milkman, Matt (Jonathan’s friend) and Jonathan by name. To protect their life style, Eve murders three times… the 1st time when Liza is 5 years old, a door to door salesman that returned with the intent of raping Eve… the 2nd time when Liza was about 12, when Eve’s live in lover starts to push for them to move & for Liza to go to school… and the 3rd time when Liza is 16 (almost 17), and Jonathon is selling the property because he needs the money… and though Liza doesn’t directly see Eve do this, she hears & sees the evidence of it & the cover-up. In the retelling of these aspects to Sean, she is distant, and sees the logic in her mother’s actions… only feeling horror over the 2nd murder when she accidently found the body after a storm…Eve is sentenced to life imprisonment (over the 1st murder), and Liza is beginning to see that Sean is not the man for her… she makes plans to do away with him (a la mother) with sleeping pills overdose, but on the morning she was going to do it, she wakes up and throws the pills away… she is not her mother…And she and Sean amicably split ways; she makes plans to visit her mother and to go to law school… she’s going to be okay…
What do You think about The Crocodile Bird (1994)?
One of Rendell’s finest works, combining the right mix of thrills with atmosphere. The story, set in rural England, tells the tale of a young girl whose mother has severely sheltered her from all aspects of the world. She does not associate with young people her age, she does not go to school, she rarely accompanies her mother into town for shopping, etc. When her mother gets arrested, she is forced to flee the only home and solace she has ever known. She begins to slowly share her dark, mysterious story with a young man whom she loves. What she reveals about her life are secrets no child should ever know about their mother. Not an “action-packed” story, but a stunning psychological thriller that will keep you turning the pages.
—Cecilia
A psychological study of a girl (Lizzy) growing up in a reclusive situation with her mother (Eve). The story opens with Lizzy being sent away from home for the first time, because police are coming to arrest her mother for murder. Running to her secret boyfriend's trailer for safety, she then tells him of her secluded life and what led up to the arrest.Although the novel is not a "thriller", it did keep me turning pages to read about Lizzy's life with her strange mother. The writing is very good, but subtle, and the author even got me to see things from Eve's point of view. There is a bit of suspense at the end involving Lizzy, and an ending that I liked. A great character-driven book.
—Cheryl
Oh, jeez... where do I start? I reckon with the characters. First, you've got Liza, a Mary Sue who is so naive I kind of want to smack her. Shit, I want to smack every character in this book. But more than Liza, I would like to smack Sean, her pedophile boyfriend. Granted, I'm American, which by default makes me ignorant, so I have no idea if it's okay for a 22-year-old to be dating a 16-year-old in Britain, but in my culture, you're considered a sexual predator. By the end of the book, Liza realizes he's a major douchebag, but that doesn't really make her anymore appealing to me. Other than these two horny toads, the other characters are so forgettable that I wished the book itself was actually about a bird that is a crocodile, or even a crocodile that is a bird. Perhaps if Miss Rendell had spent less time using flora pornography to make a point (I don't know what half these plants and flowers look like. Can't really paint a picture in my head cause I have no idea what a begonia is) and more time developing these bland as pie characters, she could have redeemed herself. On top of that, the whole book is filled with typos and grammatical errors and just all around asshattery that I kind of just wanted to sit there and cry.
—Deirdre
