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Genre | General Vision or Viewpoint | Cultural Context | Plot Summary | Themes and Issues
In essence The Homesick Garden is a growing-up novel. Antonia is exposed to personal scenarios and to moral attitudes with which she was not previously familiar. In truth, though, she doesn't change much, and her voice has the same precocious and priggish ring at the end that it had at the beginning.
It must be said too that that voice doesn't always ring true. It is hard to imagine that a narrator who could one minute say of break-time in school that there is "a lot of giggling and gossip" could later comment that her grandmother's house is "a seventies imitation Georgian house which looks like something a child might have assembled out of neo-vernacular building blocks" - even if she attributes this latter assessment to her father.
There are other inconsistencies in the text too. In particular, the revelation of Antonia's mother about having been sexually abused at the age of seven does not seem to emerge naturally out of the story that precedes it. It occurs during the final unfolding of things in the novel, yet it seems quite incidental to the main narrative. All told, it has to be said that there really isn't very much of a story here.
Genre
This novel is written in the genre of social realism.
It is semi-autobiographical and is recounted by Antonia in the first person narrative. Through this narrative voice we are given some very vivid insights into the quality of life at that time, the atmosphere in the family and the various frictions which constituted the different relationships between people.
General Vision or Viewpoint
Throughout this novel are given insights into Antonia’s family and their different relationships. Antonia’s mother is a woman who is quite weak and fragile. She has a poor relationship with her own mother who tries to patronize her repeatedly.
Certain issues from the past emerge such as the exposure of Antonia’s mother to Antonia about the fact that a fourteen-year-old boy abused her as a young girl. The influence of the past on people’s character emerges from this novel .We also see the reality of family relationships with their different types of friction and hostility.
Cultural Context
The particular cultural context of this text is middle class Dublin in the latter half of the twentieth century. There are insights given of family life in Castleknock Dublin, and in the old Victorian houses along the canal.
We are told how Aunt Grace's house is alongside the canal, and is the only house with a garden. All the gardens in the other houses have been used as car parks.
Plot Summary
A precocious young schoolgirl, Antonia, recounts the events, which surround a family crisis, namely, the pregnancy of her unmarried aunt, Grace. Grace is a special person in Antonia's life, her "companion, friend, heroine, all in one", even though they seem to have very different characters. Antonia, in spite of her young age, is quite priggish and conformist, while her aunt is a liberated spirit with advanced views, especially on men and sex.
The events during Grace's pregnancy have a deep impact on Antonia. The father of the baby, Brian, turns up at Antonia's house. Grace is avoiding contact with him, and he hopes her relatives can help him to get on to her. Life becomes more complicated still when Brian's wife, Marie, arrives. She ends up staying for a long while. Gradually it becomes clear that Grace feels no love for Brian; she simply wanted a baby from him.
Also that Brian and Marie are not what they seem. Brian is a bungling crook who womanises in order to get rich ladies to contribute to a non-existent charity; and Marie, whose relationship with him is unclear, simply tags along.
Towards the end of the novel, Antonia's mother, prompted perhaps by the laying bare of the great difference between her own attitudes and those of her younger sister, Grace, sums up the courage to reveal to Antonia that she was sexually abused by a fourteen-year-old boy when she was a child.
At last Grace gives birth to a baby girl. Her sister, Antonia's mother, is much more supportive than she was at first and she calls in on them often. Antonia herself is a little older and perhaps just a little wiser.
Themes and Issues
Growing up
Antonia is the teenage protagonist who goes to lengths to understand the adults in her life. Antonia recounts her experiences of growing up with her two parents who are always fighting. She becomes attached to her Aunt Grace who is pregnant. The father is married to another woman. Antonia pays many visits to her Aunt Grace's house along the canal in Dublin and spends time in The Homesick Garden.
As the story unfolds Antonia is faced with many dilemmas. She befriends Marie who is married to Brian the lover of Aunt Grace. Antonia is a very sensitive character caught in various situations that are difficult to deal with and finds herself out of her depth.
Towards the conclusion of the story Antonia learns more about the background of her mother and how she was abused as a child. Antonia is sufficiently mature at this stage to understand that her mother has never fully recovered from this situation.
Relationships
The novel gives us an insight into different types of relationships. Antonia finds her mother very difficult to live with and to understand. Initially, Antonia was more attached to her father but as she grows in insight and maturity she witnesses the growing conflict between both parents. In addition here grandmother is a domineering and a patronizing woman. She is indirectly responsible for the insecurity and instability in Antonia's mother. The grandmother is hostile towards people but in particular she dislikes children and has never contributed to making family life secure or happy.
Antonia finds friendship in Stephen and together they pay regular visits to Aunt Grace. Both Grace and Antonia possess the deep need to be loved and accepted and in many ways they identify with one another very well.
The characters are defined by their refusal to be conventional and their reaction to the lack of convention in others.
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