Set on Edge by Bernice Rubens

This is the second Bernice Rubens novel I’ve read and although my friends highly recommend her, she’s not doing it for me. She writes as an observer, never really engaged with or absorbed by her characters. It’s like being a voyeur into their very odd, distinctly uncomfortable lives. As the raconteur, Rubens takes us through the day to day uncomfortable moments of their small existences as they resolve who they really are – in this case a middle aged lady called Gladys who has martyred herself to look after her siblings and aging mother, and is indeed, pretty much a replica of her mother. Turns out she is who she is. Some have suggested there is a black humour about her books. Black, definitely, but as for humour, well it’s not really apparent to me. I don’t believe in this writer’s characters and I don’t find their stories interesting, just small, gloomy and depressing.