Rex seems like a visitor in his own home. After Irene leaves, Rex buys pigs and gives them the run of the farm, including her garden. Irene leaves Rex for another man for a month. It's hard to believe a full-flown family tragedy can be told so wholly and well in such small, deft snatches, but then rarely has a poet's skill at compaction been put to better use in prose. A novel that simmers with energy, passion, and thoroughly unresolved tensions.
Snake is clearly the work of a powerful imagination.
American readers will feel themselves fortunate to make the acquaintance of a writer like Kate Jennings.