Dark and heavy worlds

Press, 15 February 1986, Page 20

Dark and heavy worlds

The Tree of Hands. By Ruth Rendell. Arrow, 1985. 269 pp. $8.95 (paperback). Watson’s Apology. By Beryl Bainbridge. Fontana, 1985. 256 pp. $10.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Ken Strongman) These two books are both written with a deft touch for which their authors are well known. Ruth Rendell seems to go from strength to. strength as a crime writer and will only add to her reputation with “The Tree • of Hands.” “Watson’s Apology” is Beryl Bainbridge’s first foray into the field of crime fiction, but with it she instantly helps to dispell any doubts that this type of fiction can be as good as any other. “The Tree of Hands,” although constructed and written well enough to more than maintain attention, is not a book which leaves a good taste. It concerns a successful female writer whose young son tragically dies. Her mentally disturbed mother steals another child from a flighty unpleasant young woman who does not care much anyway. So two sets of lives become loosely interwoven into a cloth which gets heavier and heavier with each page. None of the characters has any charm, nor is even adequate in the face of life’s pressures. The tone of the book becomes increasingly

reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith’s works. The world it portrays is nasty and lowering, but one which cloaks the reader in a shroud of deaths and murders that have to occur. With “Watson’s Apology,” Beryl Bainbridge also puts the reader into another world, but this time of London in the latter part of the last century. In some ways, it is a simple tale of drab people leading dowdy lives, but it is told with such force and precision, such elegance and sheer skill, that it is a splendid novel. It is based on a true occurrence. An elderly ex-headmaster and clergyman killed his wife and then, two days later, tried to poison himself. He was tried and found guilty. Straightforward enough, if a little surprising. But Beryl Bainbridge explores the background in great detail and creates a Dickensian world in which one is pleased to have had no part. Again, everything unfolds with weight and inexorability, but with an artistry in the writing that is a fine demonstration of Beryl Bainbridge’s talent. These two are not merely run-of-the-mill crime fiction. They are more than entertainments and leave lasting impressions, although not necessarily pleasant ones. It is probably best to read them either dispassionately, or at least to save them for a time when you have something else to read that can immediately change the mood.