Tag: private rites

Private Rites is a novel about three sisters as the world slowly floods, coming to terms with their father’s death and their relationship to each other. The rain has been ongoing for so long now, and sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes live separate lives, until their rich architect father’s death forces them back together. There’s his distinctive house, there’s the mystery of their mothers and what happened to them, and there’s the sense that this bleak, claustrophobia world expects something from them.

Vaguely ‘King Lear if all of the daughters were queer’, this apocalyptic novel feels very much a follow up to Armfield’s Our Wives Under The Sea, a damp-infused book in which not very much happens, but there’s a lingering sense of dread. The narrative moves between focusing on each of the three sisters, plus a kind of chorus of the ‘city’ that seems to be non-specifically London, and for a long time, the book seems to mostly be a family drama with the backdrop of this flooded world. I really wasn’t sure where it was headed, but the climax of the novel gives it a bit of a twist, bringing together some of the threads in a maybe unexpected way that changes the genre.

The ‘all three sisters are queer’ angle is interestingly explored, with each of them in a different place in their romantic lives and particularly Irene and Agnes’ relationships are important throughout the book. Agnes’ character development throughout the novel was one of my favourite elements, and I also liked Irene and Jude’s relationship. Iris is pleasingly flawed as a character, trying to control what she cannot, and once you get into the book enough to understand who these characters are and what’s going on with them, it is very character-driven.

I found it hard to get into the book at first, as it doesn’t feel like it is going anywhere, and I don’t think this was helped by the fact that I’d not read anything about it beforehand so wasn’t aware it is vaguely King Lear (which is one of my least favourite Shakespeare plays). However, as the slow tension rose (and so did the floodwaters), it became more gripping, and by the end, it felt like it did have a good payoff, though it does leave quite a lot of ambiguous. Armfield is great at the literary unsettling novel, and Private Rites is a fascinating take on a climate crisis future and sisters with pent up resentments once it gets into it.