On Barbara Pym

As readers of this blog know, Barbara Pym is one of my all-time favorite authors. On 7/7/13, on the occasion of the recent centenary of her birth, I wrote about some of the reasons I so appreciate and enjoy her work, not to mention laugh out loud while I am reading it. Her novels are serious but also understatedly hilarious at times. I have read each of the novels at least twice over the years, but the centenary inspired me to decide to re-read all her novels yet again, this time in order of the year of publication in the UK (not necessarily in order of the years they were actually written, or of when they were published in the USA). I have re-read the first six so far: “Some Tame Gazelle” (1950); “Excellent Women” (1952); “Jane and Prudence” (1953); “Less Than Angels” (1955); “A Glass of Blessings” (1958); and “No Fond Return of Love” (1961). I will not be posting about each of these, and the ensuing novels, individually, as I have written about Pym's work before, and individual posts about each of a dozen novels might be too much. But I will point out a few more of the reasons I admire and savor Pym’s novels: She writes about the small events of everyday life, the things we actually spend most of our time on, and makes us care about them, as well as smile with recognition. She writes about a variety of love that is not often written about: the kind of innocent crushes most of us sometimes get, even when we are in relationships and even when the objects of our crushes are unsuitable; we don’t plan to do anything about them, but they add to the pleasures of life. She often has her characters quote a few lines of English poetry, which are often just slightly off-topic or misunderstood, but also demonstrate Pym’s deep knowledge of, and true love of, poetry. She writes a lot about what people eat and drink, including the ubiquitous, always-soothing cup of tea apparently so necessary to the English people (I happen to share this tea-loving characteristic with the English, and my love of tea is somehow bound up with my love of the British novel). Characters from one novel often make cameo appearances in later novels. And in a "meta" style and for fun, Pym sometimes indirectly refers to herself and her own work. For example, in one novel she refers to a novelist called Miss Pim; in another, she lists the books on someone’s bookshelf, and casually includes her own “Some Tame Gazelle.” I reiterate my urging that readers find and read one or more of her novels, so they can see why I recommend her fiction so highly. As I suggested in my 7/7/13 post, I recommend beginning with “Excellent Women.” And, incidentally, I may find I like this plan of re-reading a favorite author’s works in order, and might decide to do the same with some of my other most-cherished authors’ works. On another note: This post is my 800th on this blog.

Playing the Card Game "Authors"

Did you play the card game “Authors” when you were a child? My brothers and I played a lot of board and card games (Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, Risk, etc.) when we were kids, and even as adults we occasionally played while at my parents’ summer cottage in Michigan and at other family gatherings. One of my favorite games was – and I suppose this will not be a surprise! – the card game of “Authors.” If you don’t know this game (which appeared in various versions over the years, but I will describe the one I remember): It involves a set of 52 cards, which includes a card for each of four books by each of 13 classic authors. The object of the game is to collect sets of the books of each author, and whoever has the most sets by the end of the game wins. What I remember is how much I liked the look of the cards: each card had a drawing of an author, with the card’s book written above the author’s picture, and the other three books in the set listed below his/her (mainly his, with the exception of Louisa May Alcott) picture. I also remember how I loved the way it sounded when we would ask each other for a card: “Do you have ‘Rip Van Winkle’ by Washington Irving?” “Do you have ‘The Prince and the Pauper,’ by Mark Twain?” “Do you have ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ by Robert Louis Stevenson?” “Do you have ‘The Brook,’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson?” And so on. Soon we had all the titles by all the authors memorized, and I can still to this day hear the rhythm of these questions, and remember the satisfaction of asking them, and of course the even greater satisfaction of hearing one of my brothers reluctantly admit that yes, he did have “The Deerslayer,” by James Fenimore Cooper, and have to hand the card over to me, augmenting the set I was collecting. Of course if he -- or another brother -- had in his hand “The Last of the Mohicans,” I might be in trouble, as on his next turn, he would triumphantly ask for all my James Fenimore Cooper cards back. We must have played this game hundreds of times over the years. “Authors” is a relatively simple and straightforward game, similar to other card games in which one collects sets, but the fact that we were collecting book titles made it special to me, and I still remember those games vividly and with great nostalgia.

"The Engagements," by J. Courtney Sullivan

J. Courtney Sullivan, author of “Commencement” and of “Maine” (see my post of 7/30/11) has a new novel: “The Engagements” (Knopf, 2013). The cover shows a woman’s hand displaying a ring with a huge diamond, and in fact the novel’s main motif is diamonds. The novel tells the stories, in alternating chapters, of four very diverse couples: diverse in time, socioeconomic status, age, personality, and more. In each case, there is a diamond ring involved. The fifth element, interwoven among the chapters about the four couples, is a fictionalized version of the life of a real historical character, Frances Gerety, who worked for an advertising agency and created the advertising line “A diamond is forever.” Her story shows how hard it was for a woman to succeed in business, despite talent, but fortunately her abilities and achievements were eventually recognized. The other stories deal with love, children, death, illness, financial problems, and of course engagement and marriage. The book does not avoid the issue of the destructive and exploitative way that diamonds were, and sometimes still are, mined, and the efforts that were eventually made to ameliorate those conditions. Although the stories are paramount, as they should be in a novel, there is a lot of “content” in the form of issues about women’s lives, business, and political and social struggles and evolution (e.g., one of the marriages portrayed is between two gay men). This is a book bursting with ideas, themes, events, and emotions, and I (mostly) found it quite satisfying. I want to add a note here about the prevalence, in novels I have read recently, of the technique of skipping back and forth in time and among various characters’ stories. Although this can be interesting and enriching, it can become a bit wearying at times. (I do appreciate it when the authors at least write the date or year at the beginning of each chapter.) I find myself suddenly wanting to read a novel that tells one story straight through, chronologically. It is not that I don’t appreciate or like the other type; I just find myself needing a sort of literary palate cleanser.

"Life after Life," by Kate Atkinson

“Life after Life” (Little, Brown, 2013), by Kate Atkinson is a BIG book, and the volume I read is even bigger -- 683 pages -- because it is large print (occasionally I borrow a large print book from the library if it is the only copy available at the time). I read many reviews of this book, and although it came highly recommended, I initially resisted it because the premise – that the main character kept dying and coming back to life over and over again – sounded too science fictionish for my tastes. Finally, after reading more and more positive reviews, I decided to give it a try. I absolutely loved it. The premise I mentioned is in fact a focus, and at first is slightly disorienting, but then becomes a sort of rhythm of its own, and a relief when the character Ursula, whom we repeatedly thought lost forever (her death generally announced to readers with a variety of the phrase “and then darkness fell”), repeatedly comes back to life. Sometimes everything proceeds in the next chapter as if nothing bad had happened. Other times it turns out that there is an alternate story that is the true story. Occasionally the death or bad event averted is of one of her family members or friends. Ursula is aware that she has odd cloudy memories and inklings, but she never speaks as if she clearly understands that she has avoided tragedy over and over again. And in fact, although she doesn’t die in an untimely manner, she does experience other tragedies, other losses. The story takes place, mostly in England, from near the beginning of the twentieth century to near the end of that century, but the most important events take place during the first half of the century, and especially during the two World Wars. The main character, Ursula, is a member of a large, upper middle class family living in the countryside outside of London. We learn much about this family and their neighbors, extended family, friends, lovers, co-workers, and more. The story is told in chapters that go back and forth in time (with the dates listed at the beginnings of the chapters), focusing on various characters, but most of all on Ursula herself. World War II is like another main character, as is the city of London, where much of the story takes place. So the book jumps, for example, from 1910 to 1918 to 1910 again to 1926 to 1940 to 1967 and so on, with many other jumps along the way. We learn much about the horrors of the bombings of London during World War II. To me the main fascination is the way the novel looks at history through the lens of one family, including the trying-out of alternative versions of life and history, such as a visit by Ursula to Germany and Hitler’s inner circle, in which she hopes to assassinate Hitler. And the always reliable, for me, further fascination is the one with how families work, how they love and support and sometimes hate and sometimes betray each other in endless permutations. I have to add that an added attraction for me is that this novel is about a time and place that I love to read about, and return to repeatedly: England during the first half of the twentieth century. But even for readers without that particular fixation, I highly recommend this book.

"Blue Plate Special," by Kate Christensen

Who could resist a book titled “Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of my Appetites” (Doubleday, 2013)? Certainly not I! This memoir by novelist Kate Christensen is aptly described on the front book flap as follows: “In the tradition of M.F.K. Fisher, Laurie Colwin, and Ruth Reichl, “Blue Plate Special” is a narrative in which food – eating it, cooking it, reflecting on it – becomes the vehicle for unpacking a life.” I have read and enjoyed the three authors listed, with a special fondness for the late Laurie Colwin. So I dived headfirst into this book, and devoured it in a couple of days. It is candid, sometimes very sad, sometimes celebratory, and absolutely mesmerizing. It is a memoir of family, friends, a series of loves, and a series of homes scattered across the U.S.; it tells of struggling to be a writer and struggling to overcome the legacy of a very difficult childhood. And woven throughout are the author’s connections with food: learning about different types of food, learning to cook, being comforted by food, being fascinated by food, maturing in her tastes…and always, throughout, cooking and eating. She describes the food in her life in vivid detail. The food is important, even central, but finally, the biggest strength of this book is Christensen’s honest depiction of her life and evolution. I have known of but not been drawn to her novels, but perhaps now I will look for them.

"Fin and Lady," by Cathleen Schine

Cathleen Schine, whose “The Three Weissmanns of Westport” I posted about on 4/11/10, has a new novel out: “Fin and Lady” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), and it is just as lively and engrossing as the earlier novel. (She has also written several other novels.) Both are full of life, full of interactions, meditations, surprises. In “Fin and Lady,” an eleven-year-old boy is orphaned and goes to live with his glamorous, fun but restless and moody, older half-sister in Greenwich Village in New York in 1964 (but it somehow seems like a slightly earlier era, perhaps because the expectations for women were still so restricted...). It is a huge change for young Fin, who has not only lost his parents but also his roots on a dairy farm in rural Connecticut. Lady is warm and welcoming to Fin, admirably seeming not to hesitate for one moment to take on the sudden responsibility of being guardian of a young boy she has only met a couple of times, but they make an odd pairing, and they know so little about each other’s very different lives. Lady isn’t sure how to be a guardian/big sister/substitute mother, and Fin has to learn how to adapt to the new situation. He is in fact remarkably adaptable (the one thing I find not entirely believable is the swiftness with which he does adapt, although perhaps it is because he has no choice, and because Lady is genuinely loving if an atypical “parent”), and comes to love Lady profoundly. He also finds that she is unsure about what is important in her life, and her constant need to do new things, go to new places, be with new people is a sign of this. She wants to marry, she says, but she seems at the same time to resist this kind of commitment, and she keeps several suitors dangling. These suitors develop the habit of all visiting Lady and Fin, sometimes at the same time, each hoping she will make up her mind in his favor. I don’t want to reveal more of the story than this, but there are many plot developments, and they definitely kept me glued to the book. There is a bittersweet ending, but one that readers can accept and even celebrate some aspects of. These two unusual characters, Fin and Lady, and their touching if unusual relationship, are the central draw of this engaging novel.

Jane Austen on England's ten-pound note!

I opened my newspaper a couple of days ago to see my beloved Jane Austen's face on a sketch of a future British ten-pound note -- hurray! The new bank note will appear in 2016 or 2017. Apparently there had been many complaints about the lack of women on English money; fortunately, "The Bank of England chose the chronicler of 18th century English country life as the new face of the note, bowing to critics who complained that the venerable institution was ignoring women on their currency" (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/25/13, p. A6). It seems to me that the issue of equal treatment of women, although a very important one that readers of this blog know I am passionately positive about, is not the main one here; the main point is that next to Shakespeare, Austen is the greatest English writer ever, and should be honored as such. In any case, I am thrilled to learn this news.