It made me laugh so many times. I'd be reading away with a small smile when something so ridiculous, so unexpected, would be so delightfully funny that I'd laugh out loud.

Marian Leatherby is 92 and has been living with her son and daughter-in-law for the last fifteen years. She's almost deaf, so she can't hear what her family is saying about her until her friend Carmella gives her a hearing trumpet. Carmella is a wonderful character, as are Marian and all the other old ladies in this book.

Weird things happen. Wait till you find out what happened to the leering nun whose portrait overlooks the dining table.

I don't usually read Fantasy, but I loved this book. ( )

For 'crone' in Into the Forest group challenge. I probably won't like it, but I'll give it a good go.

Fierce and surreal feminist fiction. I'm not well-read enough to have caught all the literary allusions Carrington peppered throughout this astonishing little book, but I did catch a few. I never knew where Marian's adventures were headed but it was pure delight to go tripping along with her. ( )

What a delightful, magical, and unexpectedly apocalyptic tale of a 92 year old woman whose family put her in an old people’s home. Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington’s writing is deft, mysterious, and extremely funny. I was reminded of [b:Lolly Willowes|937105|Lolly Willowes|Sylvia Townsend Warner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320554609s/937105.jpg|922084] and [b:Two Serious Ladies|215262|Two Serious Ladies |Jane Bowles|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1172774282s/215262.jpg|208395], in which women considered excess to requirements by their families also rebel against the situation. ‘The Hearing Trumpet’ abounds with beautiful imagery, deadpan humour, and a sense of magical possibility that make it a joy to read. The edition I read also features charmingly unsettling illustrations. The narrator Marian Leatherby is a definite role model. I also loved her hyperbole-prone friend Carmella, as well as the other inhabitants of the institution in which Marian finds herself. The dialogue is very entertaining, for example:

Georgina suddenly stared curiously at my crochet scarf. “Talking of animals, is that a jerkin for a grass snake that you are knitting?” Georgina could hardly be expected to guess it was a scarf. Still it was obvious that I was doing crochet work, not knitting.
“No.” I said slightly nettled. ”It is not.”
“Where did you get such nauseatingly green wool? It makes my dentures chatter.”
“There are times when you are far too critical, Georgina. Maude Somers very kindly made me the present of this nice green wool, and I think it has a very pleasant springtime colour, like early chestnut leaves.”
“I hope you don’t intend to wear it eventually?” said Georgina, ignoring my reproach. “You would look like Noah after he was drowned in the flood. Green is not your colour, you are far too green as it is.”
“Surely you don’t expect me to look like a debutante?” I asked. “Besides Noah was not supposed to have drowned. He had an ark, you know, full of animals.”
“Everybody knows that the whole bible is inaccurate. True, Noah did go off in an ark, but he got drunk and fell overboard. Mrs. Noah went aft and watched him drown, she didn’t do anything about it because she inherited all those cattle. People in the bible were very sordid and a lot of cattle in those days was like a bank account.”
Georgina got up and threw her cigarette end into the bee pond, it fizzled unpleasantly.
“Where are you going?” I asked, as I always enjoyed Georgina’s conversation.
“I am going to read a novel so can go knitting your beastly sock.” She stalked off with a certain creaking elegance, leaving a faint scent behind her that reminded me of rue de la Paix.

Although I found the central section about the mysterious Abbess a little too long, I have no other quibbles with this enchanting book. The sudden escalation of events in the final sixty pages was quite simply brilliant. ’Friendship, solidarity, and black magic amongst old women faced with a new ice age’ deserves to be a much more popular theme for fiction. ( )

I couldn't tell you what I was expecting, but I guarantee it wasn't any of this. Delightful and funny and ridiculous. ( )