Review of O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

O Caledonia is a modern classic, literary fiction that encompasses darkly funny passages and tragic consequences set against a gloomy Scottish landscape that serves as a key character, it's so essential to the tone of the novel.

She often felt that they all lived such separate lives that any one of them could be a murderer or a god come down to earth and not one of the others would have known.

I bought O Caledonia at Powell's Books the last time I visited my best friend in Oregon and am finally reading this modern classic.

Barker's novel features Janet, a misunderstood, mocked, badly treated young woman coming of age in a family of obtuse, rigid, unkind members living in a gothic, ramshackle castle in Scotland.

Janet's only ally is her eccentric old Aunt Lila, who is herself powerless and in danger of being thrust from the family.

Boarding school leads to further ostracization and irritating demands upon Janet's time, when she'd prefer to lose herself in literature and avoid social interaction altogether.

This is darkly funny, with a surprisingly startling and tragic setup for O Caledonia's immersive, atmospheric story. I found the bookends that set the stage for (and close the loop on) a character's demise distracting, but I was captivated by the story inside.

Each attempt Janet makes to be her true self, delve into her interests, or behave naturally ends in a tragic reprimand or a disastrous set of consequences. She is punished for wanting, for knowing, and for achieving. Her family could be said to be paralyzed by societal norms if their imaginations weren't so lacking; no other routes appear to occur to them, so they plod cluelessly, and often cruelly, forward.

The bleak, unforgiving setting is as present as another character, with its dead orchard stretching into the distance; whipping, unrelenting wind; and dark, cold days.

More Gothic Tales

For Bossy reviews of other Gothic stories, please check out the titles at this link.

This is Elspeth Barker's only novel.