'The Homesick Garden' by Kate Cruise O'Brien was a thoroughly enjoyable read. It tells the story of the life of a teenage girl, Antonia, whose life is turned upside down by the unexpected pregnancy of her unmarried aunt, Grace. The novel explores many controversial issues, including, alcoholism and child abuse. The story is told through the eyes of Antonia.

Isolation:The theme of isolation is vividly captured in this novel. Antonia is fifteen years of age. She lives with just her parents, as she is an only child. Antonia says she is ''surrounded by little pools of loneliness'' at home. Although Antonia said she ''quite likes it really'', I think that being an only child must be very lonely for her. This is especially true since she has no friends of her own age.

Having no friends doesn't seem to matter to Antonia, except at lunch-time in school, which must be the worst for her. Antonia said that lunch-time was a ''friend time'', which is why she spent every lunch-time at the library on her own. Antonia still enjoyed school. She found it ''comforting to see people I hardly knew and didn't care about.'' They were ''little people'' in Antonia's mind, her family were the ''big'' people

Conflict:The second distinct theme that the author deals with is conflict. Much of the conflict in the novel is due to Antonia's mother's drinking problem. Elizabeth is portrayed by the author as an alcoholic. References to her in the novel often describe her as with ''a glass of brandy in hand.'' This alcoholism is the cause of much friction in her marriage. This quote sums up what I have been implying ''there was a lot of door-slamming and talk about drinking (Mum's) and indifference (Dad's) and when I passed mum on the stairs she was crying but I noticed she had a small glass in one hand and her cigarettes and lighter in the other.''

The author shows conflict between Elizabeth and her husband. Antonia's father is aware of Elizabeth's problems, they often argue about it. Her husband tries to 'protect' her. ''He always offers Aunt Grace another glass of wine even if she's tipsy. If it's mum, he carefully corks the bottle and glares.'' When she complains, she just gets a ''you are my wife and therefore my responsibility.''

The theme of loneliness and isolation is also evident with Grace in the novel; she is an unmarried mother-to-be and worst of all, she's 'unattached'.Grace has nobody, so she locks herse

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Approximate Word count = 820
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)