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In a small Michigan town, in the late 1950s, the widow Etta Klein—wealthy and Jewish—has for more than thirty years relied for aid, comfort, and companionship on her Black housekeeper Harriet Gibbs. Between "Aunt Harry" and Etta, a relationship has developed that is closer than a friendship, yet not quite a marriage. They are inseparable, at once absurdly unequal and defined by a comic codependence.
Forever mourning the early death of her favorite son, Sargent, Etta has all but adopted Aunt Harry's nephew, the precocious, gay seventeen-year-old Oliver, who has been raised by both women. Oliver is facing down his departure to college—and fending off the advances of Etta's cook, Nella Mae—when the household is disrupted by the arrival of a self-proclaimed "warlock," one Maurice LeFleur, who has convinced Etta and Harry that he might be able to contact Sargent in the afterlife . . .
Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes was the debut of the extraordinary Henry Van Dyke, whose witty and outrageous novels look back to the sparkling, elaborate comedies of Ronald Firbank and forward to postmodern burlesques like Fran Ross's Oreo. There is nothing else quite like them in American fiction.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
January 30, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781946022899
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781946022899
- File size: 2681 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from February 1, 2024
Long out of print, Van Dyke's irresistible 1965 debut novel revolves around the "violent kinship" between Etta Klein and her former housemaid and longtime housemate Harriet, aging widows tippling rum, laughing, crying, bickering, and bantering in some "diabolical jest" poised between love and hate. Long haunted by the suicide of her bachelor son, Etta contracts the services of one Maurice LeFleur, a seedy charlatan billing himself as a "Warlock, Psychic Reader and Spiritualistic Consultant," who moves into their house to pick up emanations and case the joint. All of this is related with a charming mix of ingenuousness and droll wit by Harriet's young nephew, privy to the confidences of the whole eccentric family even as he dodges the emphatic advances of their lubricious maid. The farce comes to a hilarious and heartrending climax on the night of the s�ance, raising unexpected spirits that point the way to a poignant denouement. VERDICT With brilliant comic writing and dialogue evocative of Capote, McCullers, and Waugh, Van Dyke's delightfully unproblematized story of a Black queer youth's coming-of-age feels decades ahead of its time.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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