“Rosy is My Relative” proves that there is a considerable difference between being a funny writer and funny novelist. Durrell is undoubtedly very funny, but he is at his best as a teller of anecdotes. Which is hardly a bad thing: if you can assemble enough funny stories, tell them in a sufficiently funny manner, and come up with some sort of connective tissue that leads the reader from one incident to the next without letting him or her get bored in between, you can have a very funny book indeed. The canonical example here is of course “Three Men in a Boat”, but Durrell’s “My Family and Other Animals” and “Birds Beasts and Relatives” are undoubtedly strong contenders in this category. However, these books, though they have many merits and are some of my personal favorites, are not novels. A novel is more than just a string of incidents: it needs things like plot and character development, and in “Rosy is My Relative” Durrell shows that he had not yet mastered these elements. The plot is pretty minimal, mostly consisting of our hero, Adrian, first deciding that he doesn’t want the elephant his uncle left him in his will, and then, after traveling around the South of England with her trying to find somebody to take her off his hands, changing his mind. There’s also a romantic subplot which is so perfunctory and unpersuasive that the book would almost certainly have been better off without it. When you compare this to something like Wodehouse (not even necessarily peak Wodehouse), where at least three or four plots are constantly whizzing along, driving the action rather than just floating alongside of it, you can see how far Durrell still has to go as a novelist. Durrell’s attempts at plot are also undermined by his difficulty with characters. His strength is in writing “types”: thus, in this book we have the innkeeper who’s always telling people about his past lives, the perpetually confused Judge Turvey (known as “Topsy”), the bombastic defense lawyer, the fluffy-headed lord, etc. However, the characters who need to have a little more depth to help the plot make sense, primarily Adrian and his love interest Samantha, are lacking. We barely get to know Samantha at all, and Adrian is not much better: in fact, in a way he’s worse, as Durrell sets him up as rather hapless and querulous at the start, but isn’t quite able to make him as sympathetic as he needs to be by the end of the book. The exception is, of course, Rosy the elephant, who is the real hero of the book and has the reader’s entire sympathy from beginning to end. Still, if Durrell fails to come up to the mark as a novelist, he’s as funny as ever: the scenes of Rosy innocently wreaking havoc are hilarious and Adrian’s trial is also very well done. The classic Durrell combination of funny stories and animals still works, it’s just that the attempt to move it to a novel format is not entirely successful.
This is a funny and gentle tale of Adrian Rookwhistle’s trek across England’s green and hazard filled land with his last remaining relative: Rosy. An elephant. Rosy, having retired from the circus some years earlier, has a fondness for the odd pint (or barrel) of ale and an unerring ability to attract havoc however innocent her actions may seem - such as having a scratch. A scratch against a caravan containing Black Nell, a witch with a way with words “avaunt”! So the pair head towards the coast encountering hunts, birthday parties and a rather nice young lady. This is a brilliant book which makes me laugh every time I read it.
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This book is excellent! Full of laughs, you can't go a single page without splitting your sides. Adrian and his last living "relative," Rosy, go on many destructive adventures. Adrian blames Rosy for everything that goes wrong, and plans to give her to a circus. Well that plan certainly goes astray. Then he meets Samantha and her father who says he can remember all of his past reincarnations. In the end he is taken to court, and what a judge and jury! And a lawyer for that matter. Everything ends well thanks to a lord, a couple of actors, and a white witch. This is recommended for everyone!
—νєяαℓι∂αιиє
This is one of the funniest things I have ever read! (Even though this is the fifth time I`ve read it.) Adrian inherits Rosie, an Elephant with a weakness for drink, and decides to walk her across Victorian England. The plan is to reach the coast and find a circus that will take her. Along the way, they meet with a series of adventures and characters that warm the heart and tickle the funny-bone. The style is very much like P.G. Wodehouse; irreverent, ridiculous, and touching. Durrell`s only novel, he freely admits that the adventures of Rosie and Adrian, unlikely though it may seem, are closely based on a true story. If you are a Durrell fan, a lover of Wodehouse, or just in need of a laugh, this is a must-read.
—Leora
