Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

FICTION:LIFE ON THE family farm was never all that easy, but lately, for Helmer Van Wonderen, it has become a bittersweet routine enlivened only by a new development: the slow death of his unpleasant old father.

Dad had been a vicious brute in his day, but now, as he waits for death, he is meek, at times even moderately witty, particularly in his obsession with a hooded crow perched in the ash outside his window. Helmer, a candid, world-weary narrator, intent on the truth and possessed of a good memory, is middle-aged and well aware that his life has raced by while he has been milking the cows and counting the sheep. He has had enough, and having carried his father upstairs to Helmer's old bedroom, is about to make some changes, mainly to the decor.