One across two down ruth rendell biography
Ruth rendell husband
One across two down ruth rendell biography.
One Across, Two Down
June 13, 2019
As she does so often, Rendell offers up a slim, strange dive into unhappiness and murder. What this reminds me of more than anything else is Patricia Highsmith's The Blunderer, where an inept almost-criminal botches the cover of the man he's imitating; it feels like Rendell folded that plot up accordion-style and came up with One Across, Two Down.
The novel enters on an unhappily married couple, Stanley and Vera, who have lived for years in the same slightly soiled and out-of-date house; for the last few years, Vera's slightly shrewish mother, Maud, has lived with them.
The novel enters on an unhappily married couple, Stanley and Vera, who have lived for years in the same slightly soiled and out-of-date house; for the last few years, Vera's slightly shrewish mother, Maud, has lived with them.
Maud and Stanley despise each other and have never bothered to hide it. Poor Vera is trapped between them, and just trapped in general, slogging back and forth between overwork at home and being on her feet all day at a dry-cleaner's.
Once, she was a bright, vivacious girl, but she understandably chafed at Maud's control of her and rebelled by dating the working-class ex-con Stan