From Publishers Weekly
American readers know English writer Mantel as the author of The Giant, O'Brien, A Place of Greater Safety and other critically hailed novels. This work, a twisted romp through the lives of long-time widow Evelyn Axon and her mentally handicapped middle-aged daughter, Muriel, was her debut novel, originally published in the U.K. in 1985. The peculiar dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship, and the complications arising from assorted meddlers, offset the disarmingly chipper narrative tone and well-appointed language. Evelyn lives with Muriel in a once respectable but now dilapidated house in a tony neighborhood, and she doesn't take kindly to social workers' insistent, condescending interest in her daughter. While Evelyn and a revolving door of social workers--including young and inexperienced Isabel Field--believe Muriel to be severely impaired, she's actually crafty and manipulative, like her mother. Much of the novel's dark humor lies in Muriel's outrageous thought processes, for while she cannot function "normally," her mind is far from simple. Evelyn, who practices the art of the s?ance, is also thrilling to watch as she defends herself against her daughter and the various spirits who taunt her with mysterious household mishaps. When elderly Mrs. Sidney visits Evelyn, hoping to make contact with the late Mr. Sidney, a series of coincidental events convinces Evelyn that Mrs. Sidney's daughter, Florence, is responsible for the social workers' increasing surveillance. Other complications occur through Florence's married brother, Colin, whose contemplated affair with a young woman in his evening writing class involves him in the Axon family circus. Mantel proves that even early on she was an excellent prose stylist and storyteller, expert at threading quirky characterization with black humor and a somewhat macabre imagination. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A rundown, and possibly haunted, Victorian house takes center stage in these back-to-back black comedies, written by British novelist Mantel (The Giant, O'Brien) with a distinct Rendellian flavor. In the first story, set in the mid-Seventies, Evelyn Axon, a terrorized, guilt-ridden widow, lives with her dull-witted daughter, Muriel. Into their lives comes the nettlesome social service bureaucracy, primarily in the person of Isabel Field, the last in a long series of social workers assigned to their case. Isabel has problems of her own, though, the main one being a stagnating affair with Colin Sydney, a married man she has met in an evening class on creative writing. Muriel has been encouraged to participate in weekly workshops for the mentally handicapped at the local community center, but she eludes both her mother and her case workers and manages to get herself pregnant. All these lives intersect at the novel's bizarre conclusion, as Evelyn dies, Muriel is institutionalized, and Colin Sydney's family take up residence in the Axons' house. The second novel opens ten years later as Muriel is caught up in the Eighties trend to deinstitutionalize the mentally challenged. Out on the streets once more, she knowingly adopts multiple personas with the misguided intention of exacting revenge on those she believes have wronged her, principally Isabel Field and Colin Sydney. Slowly, all these entangled lives begin to come undone. Like her fellow Brits Rose Tremain and Penelope Fitzgerald, Mantel continually produces novels that chart fresh terrain and derive from a wellspring of creative imagination. These two early novels herald the promise of the rich and varied literary career that followed. Recommended for most public libraries.-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Kathryn Harrison
...a black comedy of such spite that its mordancy could be surpassed only by a sequel, Vacant Possession.


From Kirkus Reviews
The first American edition of a 1985 novel, the debutand first of a paired set (see also below)of the versatile and inventive British author (The Giant, OBrien, 1998, etc.). The story begins and ends with a death, and bristles with a graveyard wit that's most effectively balanced by Mantel's scrupulous empathy with its several characters' lonely and frustrated lives. Among them are widowed Evelyn Axon, a truculent professional ``medium'' who lives alone with her mildly retarded adult daughter Muriel and the supernatural ``entities'' she imagines capering menacingly through their house; the aforementioned Muriel, whose aggrieved, sardonic reflections on her mother's complacent and unsympathetic world are quite brilliantly rendered; the social worker who aims to improve their lot; and the married man with whom she unwisely involves herself. The latter characterswistful Isabel Field (who lives at home with her own widowed parent) and sexually beleaguered Colin Sidney, a history teacher and an embattled reluctant husband whose mother is a client of Evelynspropel the narrative in continually surprising directions, as Isabel's visits to the Axons, her trysts with Colin, and Evelyn's mean plans to rid herself of the problems Muriel keeps creating uncover one level after another of relationships and affiliations among these people and such others as Colin's sister-in-law Florence (also a widow). It's all rather feverishly overplotted (albeit in the poker-faced manner of Beryl Bainbridge and Muriel Spark, to name two obvious influences). But Mantel keeps the pot boiling merrily, fills her story with pungent conversational exchanges and observations (e.g., ``Women never forget their handbags. They're womb symbols''), and brings her story to a mordantly funny, improbably moving violent climax. An exhilarating combination of kitchen-sink realism and grim expressionist farce: convincing further proof that Mantel is one of England's best contemporary novelists. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Fay Weldon
"A terrific book."


Review
"A terrific book." (Fay Weldon)

"Hysterical, the dialogue is spot-on. . . . Muriel and her ma are cunning creations." (Margaret Foster)

* Strange . . . rather mad . . . extremely funny . . . reminded me of the early Muriel Spark." (Auberon Waugh)



Auberon Waugh
Strange . . . rather mad . . . extremely funny . . . reminded me of the early Muriel Spark."


Review
"A terrific book." (Fay Weldon)

"Hysterical, the dialogue is spot-on. . . . Muriel and her ma are cunning creations." (Margaret Foster)

* Strange . . . rather mad . . . extremely funny . . . reminded me of the early Muriel Spark." (Auberon Waugh)



Book Description
Stephen King meets Muriel Spark in Hilary Mantel's first novel.

Evelyn Axona-medium by trade-and her half-wit daughter Muriel have become a social problem. Barricaded in their once-respectable house, they live amid festering rubbish, unhealthy smells-and secrets. They completely baffle Isabel Field, the social worker assigned to help them. But Isabel is only the most recent in a long line of people that find the Axons impossible. Meanwhile, Isabel has her own problems: a married lover, Colin. He is a history teacher to unresponsive children and father to a passel of his own horrible kids. With all this to worry about, how can Isabel even begin to understand what is going on in the Axon household? When Evelyn finally moves to def Muriel, and Muriel, in turn, acts to protect herself, the results are by turns hilarious and terrifying.



About the Author
Hilary Mantel is the critically acclaimed author of eight novels, seven of which are available in paperback from Henry Holt. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize, she lives in England. Ms. Mantel reviews for The New York Times and the New York Review of Books.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Stephen King meets Muriel Spark in Hilary Mantel's first novel.

Evelyn Axona-medium by trade-and her half-wit daughter Muriel have become a social problem. Barricaded in their once-respectable house, they live amid festering rubbish, unhealthy smells- and secrets. They completely baffle Isabel Field, the social worker assigned to help them. But Isabel is only the most recent in a long line of people that find the Axons impossible. Meanwhile, Isabel has her own problems: a married lover, Colin. He is a history teacher to unresponsive children and father to a passel of his own horrible kids. With all this to worry about, how can Isabel even begin to understand what is going on in the Axon household? When Evelyn finally moves to defend Muriel, and Muriel, in turn, acts to protect herself, the results are by turns hilarious and terrifying.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

American readers know English writer Mantel as the author of The Giant, O'Brien, A Place of Greater Safety and other critically hailed novels. This work, a twisted romp through the lives of long-time widow Evelyn Axon and her mentally handicapped middle-aged daughter, Muriel, was her debut novel, originally published in the U.K. in 1985. The peculiar dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship, and the complications arising from assorted meddlers, offset the disarmingly chipper narrative tone and well-appointed language. Evelyn lives with Muriel in a once respectable but now dilapidated house in a tony neighborhood, and she doesn't take kindly to social workers' insistent, condescending interest in her daughter. While Evelyn and a revolving door of social workers--including young and inexperienced Isabel Field--believe Muriel to be severely impaired, she's actually crafty and manipulative, like her mother. Much of the novel's dark humor lies in Muriel's outrageous thought processes, for while she cannot function "normally," her mind is far from simple. Evelyn, who practices the art of the s ance, is also thrilling to watch as she defends herself against her daughter and the various spirits who taunt her with mysterious household mishaps. When elderly Mrs. Sidney visits Evelyn, hoping to make contact with the late Mr. Sidney, a series of coincidental events convinces Evelyn that Mrs. Sidney's daughter, Florence, is responsible for the social workers' increasing surveillance. Other complications occur through Florence's married brother, Colin, whose contemplated affair with a young woman in his evening writing class involves him in the Axon family circus. Mantel proves that even early on she was an excellent prose stylist and storyteller, expert at threading quirky characterization with black humor and a somewhat macabre imagination. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

A rundown, and possibly haunted, Victorian house takes center stage in these back-to-back black comedies, written by British novelist Mantel (The Giant, O'Brien) with a distinct Rendellian flavor. In the first story, set in the mid-Seventies, Evelyn Axon, a terrorized, guilt-ridden widow, lives with her dull-witted daughter, Muriel. Into their lives comes the nettlesome social service bureaucracy, primarily in the person of Isabel Field, the last in a long series of social workers assigned to their case. Isabel has problems of her own, though, the main one being a stagnating affair with Colin Sydney, a married man she has met in an evening class on creative writing. Muriel has been encouraged to participate in weekly workshops for the mentally handicapped at the local community center, but she eludes both her mother and her case workers and manages to get herself pregnant. All these lives intersect at the novel's bizarre conclusion, as Evelyn dies, Muriel is institutionalized, and Colin Sydney's family take up residence in the Axons' house. The second novel opens ten years later as Muriel is caught up in the Eighties trend to deinstitutionalize the mentally challenged. Out on the streets once more, she knowingly adopts multiple personas with the misguided intention of exacting revenge on those she believes have wronged her, principally Isabel Field and Colin Sydney. Slowly, all these entangled lives begin to come undone. Like her fellow Brits Rose Tremain and Penelope Fitzgerald, Mantel continually produces novels that chart fresh terrain and derive from a wellspring of creative imagination. These two early novels herald the promise of the rich and varied literary career that followed.Recommended for most public libraries.--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Harrison - The New York Times Book Review

A black comedy of such spite that its mordancy could be surpassed only by a sequel. It would be hard to overemphasize the mean pleasure to be found . . .

Charlotte Innes - Charlotte Innes, Los Angeles Times Book Review

[Readers] will surely be seduced by her sharp humor, reminiscent of Muriel Spark or Edna O'Brien, and her nail—biting narration in which ambiguous political and religious concerns are wrapped in the brisk plotting of a suspense thriller, a la Graham Greene or Brian Moore.

John Mellors - John Mellors, London Magazine

An accomplished novel of striking originality.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING