Book List - Excellent Women

As previously threatened, I am going to be writing about books that I'm reading. It's mostly for my own sake because whenever anyone asks me what I'm reading, I always go blank and lose my turn in the conversation. My plan is to write my opinions here so that the information is burned into my brain and I'll more readily have the answer the next time the question comes up.  I would welcome a community conversation to, so if you've read any of my selections, please do pipe up.

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Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

I came across a thread at Metafilter about Barbara Pym. The terms "effulgent humor", "powerfully visually evocative language"and "wonderful writer" were used. so I thought I was missing something. I sent my $1.00 to Abebooks.com and in a matter of 5 days, the book was here.

That is 5 times longer than it took me to read it.  Its not exactly a romance novel -more of a romance denied novel, smoothly written with a well-paced and easy flow, but not above the level of the  "novel of the month" that used to be found in the back of  Good Housekeeping magazine. The characterizations remained intact with no questions raised as to continuity.That's about the best thing I can say for it.

Its a look into the world of spinster women in the 1950's London, as told through the inner dialog of the main character. The excellent women of the title is a patronizing sobriquet for the do-gooding spinsters and church ladies who lie on the fringes of married society. The arena of action is narrow with few characters, and underdeveloped ones at that. The device that drives the story is undiscovered potential not matched to conventional societal expectations. Hopes are raised in the early pages for a satisfying development of this but, sad to say, those hopes ultimately go wanting.

The one thing that did make an impression on me was the meager fare that passed as supper here - most often a curl of cheese that had been around for a while, maybe some stale bread and tinned fish. The only time food was given any more prominence is when the dialog was set in a restaurant, and that was always driven by the action of a male friend. I suppose that is a metaphor for the ladies having a dull and colorless time of it on their own compared to the good life when they are accompanied by men, but that is as good as it gets here. Really, any Harlequin Romance novel can do that for you.

My opinion is that it's hardly worth further discussion. In the end, I was underwhelmed. I should have known better than to take a cue from the pretentious knuckleheads at Metafilter.

What I'm Reading Now:
Goodbye Columbus by Phillip Roth

In The Queue:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Daddyji by Ved Mehta
Mamaji by Ved Mehta

Comments

[tina]

Stay away from the Oprah list.. besides that "faux" tell all book.. her list is depressing dark and STUPIDO.

Suzette says: "Tell me about it - in a moment of airport desperation, I picked up something from her list called "Fall On Your Knees" two years ago - I'm still not over it."

[OTTami]

Except for Pillars of the Earth. It's very long, but excellent. I have no idea why Oprah thinks that the sort of people who join her book club would enjoy it.

I've just offended SO MANY people!

Suzette says: "I adore long and excellent. (TWSS)."

[Kim]

Anything by Jasper Fforde. Those books are fabulous. In fact, I need to start rereading them. You're a very literary sort so you should munch them up happily.

Suzette says: "I'm a little worried. My boss kept telling me I need to read this - something about my lousy IM typing reminded her of the device in this book where the letters drop off or shift around and change the meaning of what you're reading."

[Teresa]

I LOVED The Eyre Affair. Unfortunately, I have only read 2 others in the series, so I need to get myself in gear and start reading again. I'm not going to say much about it because I think you should just dive right in without preconceptions. *grin*

I met Jasper Fforde when he came through Chicago on a book tour for his second book - he did an excellent talk. He's a very funny man... the rest of his family are all "doctors" of some sort or another - he considers himself to be rather the black sheep in that regard. I've gotten behind in the series (I know it was supposed to be a limited series so I guess I need to start reading again and catch up).

He also has an entire website devoted to Thursday Next (heroine of the series) - but I wouldn't check it out until after reading the first book.

Barbara Pym - I could swear I tried to read one of her books years ago and I gave up and just took it back to the library. It never held my interest at all. I'm admiring you for sticking to it up to the end.