DAUGHTERS OF THE HOUSE By Michele Roberts (Virago, $140) THIS is Michele Roberts' sixth work of fiction and for fans of her writing it may initially appear familiar territory.
Many of the themes, both nascent and overt in her earlier books, pervade this one: the overlay of recent wartime history in France, the influence of the Catholic Church in that same period and the sensuous use of language.
But it is there that the similarities end. Daughters of the House is a departure from her earlier, less-ambitious prose.
It presents a more sophisticated analysis of the burden of guilt and the insidious secrets of Catholic Vichy France, using a set of literary devices that disturb the senses rather than the cerebellum.
In the opening episode - a 11/4-page mini-chapter The Wall - Ms Roberts introduces us to the suffocating environment that we are about to explore in the cathartic reunion between two cousins after 20 years apart.
Leonie has been abroad; Therese has entered a convent. One has attempted to shed the skin of her religious sensibility while away from France; the other has sunk deeper, despite the efforts she makes to preserve her innocence, into the murky underbody oflife in her provincial town.
Thus, Leonie's arrival at The House is portrayed as the first of many nostalgic, yet suffocating, experiences.