Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
The new novel from acclaimed Glasgow-based author Heather Parry is a surreal Gothic exploration of marriage, class and sexuality
Carrion Crow follows Marguerite Perigord, eldest daughter to crumbling French nobility in Chelsea, as she begins a confinement in the attic overseen by her mother to prepare her for married life.
The plot may have been inspired by the tragic case of Blanche Monnier, known as ‘the confined woman of Poitiers’ who was imprisoned in her family’s attic for twenty-five years to prevent a marriage considered unfavourable by Blanche’s mother. The timeline shifts between Marguerite’s imprisonment in the attic and the early married life of her mother Cecile and her transformation from Cecilia Hargreaves, humble soapmaker’s daughter, to Cecilie Perigord, nouveau-riche wife of a hedonistic and absent aristocrat.
Heather Parry’s imagery and atmosphere are visceral and she creates evocative character studies of Marguerite and Cecile. The novel interrogates spectacle and metamorphosis, with the misfortune of a declining lineage represented through images of soap as both luxurious and abject and the titular carrion crow nesting in the rotting rafters. This is further underscored by the aviary in London Zoo, setting of a life-altering romantic meeting, and the stuffed platypus, a gift by Lord Graves from the colonies which amuses and then unnerves by its bizarre appearance.
A surreal and abject little monster of a novel, artful in its exploration of women’s unspoken and unfulfilled ambitions, and the transformations they make to try and achieve them.