The Hours Before Dawn

Rating:
Summary: Gothic in suburbia
Review: Celia Fremlin is one of the most underrated british mystery writers. She gave us near-twenty novels of a constant quality, sitting fear and nightmare in daily life, confrontating people next door to thrilling situations. "Hours", Edgar-winner for 1959, is one of her best works, often imitated (remember a Curtis Hanson movie, with Rebecca DeMornay...) but never equalled. Strenght of this book is the sharp observation of daily life of an housewife, her troubles with children, husband, insomnia... Powerfully written, plotted... A must.

Rating:
Summary: My All-time Favorite Book
Review: I read this book about once a year because it is so delicious. It's a great "read", quick and funny, and it's also a very, very smart commentary on domestic life in the early sixties in the USA. You will watch an ever more exhausted mother of small children encounter every day life as well as mysterious happenings from the gauzy gaze of exhaustion.