The Pollen Room
As Jo's child's eye narration covers everything from a haircut to an abortion in the same mesmeric deadpan style, it soon becomes apparent that this is not so much a narrative as a portrait of a state of mind in extremis...At times reminiscent of both Plath and Hemingway - a memorable debut.
SUNDAY TIMES
Portraying a child’s eye-view of divorce, this is the story of Jo, torn between the father who raised and protected her and the ravishing mother who abandoned her for 12 years but who now may at last need her help - and rescue from a tomb of pollen and despair.
Abandonment by her mother precipitates a sad and debilitating chain of events for a young girl as Lucy, a mother departing her first marriage, leaves kindergarten-age Jo in the care of her father, a publisher of books “no one ever bought.” Swiftly, deftly, Jenny captures the loneliness of a young child whose father works at his press all day and drives a delivery truck all night to make ends meet. Fifteen years later, Jo is living with her mother and Alois, an artist. When he dies suddenly, Lucy retreats into his painting studio, gathering flowers from the garden at night and spreading their pollen all over the room. Jo witnesses her mother’s mental breakdown and crashes through the studio windows to save her. Lucy refuses her help, and finally runs off with no explanation to an island in the Indian Ocean. Jo is left on her own to find herself, and to find someone to love her…
Zoe Jenny's account of a marriage break-up is both barmy and believable and her words are an exciting mish-mash of dreamy images and reminding realism.
THE TIMES
A moving account of a disturbed childhood, and the prose works many of its best effects through understatement and absences.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
