A Work in Progress

Number Five: Barbara Pym it Is!

And the lucky number/winner is #5 Barbara Pym's An Academic Question.  I must admit, I was seduced by the new Virago Modern Classic editions of several of Barbara Pym's titles.  I chose this one somewhat randomly and am still waiting for my copy to arrive from the UK.  In the interim I have a library copy.  This was a posthumously published novel that was completed/edited by Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym.  She had two versions that she had been working on but abandoned.  I did not quite realize this when I chose it, but I feel like Barbara Pym is pretty marvelous and even an unfinished manuscript later edited will still be better than a lot of other books out there these days.  The blurb:

"In a provincial university town, Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers to read to a blind, esteemed anthropologist in a nursing home, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers - research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague. A delightful comedy of manners with a touch of mystery, An Academic Question is prime Barbara Pym territory."

I did read a bit of criticism written in 1987, which was rather critical of this work, but I will read with an open mind and see where it takes me.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Has anyone read this?  Did you join in the classic club spin, or are you reading a classic at the moment?  I am looking forward to this and as a shorter novel I should have no problem finishing well before August.

Teaser Tuesday: Quartet in Autumn

Barbara Pym has such a knack for telling a story of seemingly misfits and eccentrics with a deftness and lightness of touch that you just can't help smiling to yourself.  Buried in Print and I decided (well, maybe I sort of nudged but happily BiP is a willing partner in reading) on whim to pick a Barbara Pym novel and decided on Quartet in Autumn--a reread for BiP but a first go for me (and this is a novel I had wanted to read last summer when I bought the lovely Picador reissue that you see here).  What I like about Pym's novels is that I often see bits of myself in her characters, and what I like more is that they (or maybe she) doesn't take themselves/herself too seriously.

This is a novel set in 1970s London.  It follows a quartet of friends (colleagues in an office) who are in the autumn of their lives.  Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia.  "Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and - perhaps most keenly felt their worries about having missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them."  And since this is Pym, we're talking stylish, sparkling prose.

On the day we meet them, all four have (though not together) visited the library.  So, of course, this is where I draw my teaser from.

"Of the four only Letty used the library for her own pleasure and possible edification.  She had always been an unashamed reader of novels, but if she hoped to find one which reflected her own sort of life she had come to realize that the position of an unmarried, unattached, ageing woman is of no interest whatever to the writer of modern fiction.  Gone were the days when she had hopefully filled her Boots Book Lovers' library list from novels reviewed in Sunday papers, and there had now been a change in her reading habits.  Unable to find what she needed in 'romantic' novels, Letty had turned to biographies of which there was no dearth.  And because these were 'true'  they were really better than fiction.  Not perhaps better than Jane Austen or Tolstoy, which she had not read anyway, but certainly more 'worth while' than the works of any modern novelist."

Edwin's visit is to consult reference works for research on a certain clergyman, Marcia uses the library as a warm place away from the office for a change of scenery, a place to pick up free leaflets and also a place to dispose of unwanted objects (not rubbish for the dustbin mind you, but other unclassified objects that could be left in a corner somewhere).

Maybe modern novelists don't write about people of a certain age who are solitary souls, but lucky for us Barbara Pym does.

A Few Good Tidbits from Barbara Pym

This is going to sound a little silly, but reading really good books like Barbara Pym's Crampton Hodnet make me feel all warm and fuzzy.  It's the sort of story she writes (and I can rattle off a list of other authors who would more or less fit the same description) and the way she writes.  I can call her charming and delightful and she is that, but let me add, too, that her prose is crisp and smart and she's funny.  I mean really funny.  Not necessarily the laugh out loud type but the kind that is witty and amusing and will elicit from me a string of guffaws and bring out a silly smile on my face.  And keep in mind that Crampton Hodnet was her first novel, though published last after her death.  So this is only an apprentice novel and not even her best work.

I've just passed the midway mark in the novel and am torn betwen wanting to gulp the rest down and wanting to continue at my leisurely pace and simply enjoy the story and writing (I'll likely do the latter).  But I did want to share something about it sooner than later in honor of the Barbara Pym Reading Week that's going on right now.  I'll write about the book properly later, but I wanted to share a few great passages.

I don't know much about Barbara Pym, though I'll be rectifying that in time.  She is one of those rediscovered authors that I admire so much (like Elizabeth Taylor and Dawn Powell).  Pym's renaissance is owed to Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil who named her one of the "most underrated writers of the century" in the TLS.  I can thank my TLS subscription for access to their online archives where I read a glowing review of her novel Jane and Prudence (also in my small but growing Pym collection).  The reviewer noted the the reissue of Jane and Prudence was being reprinted as a Virago Modern Classic.

"The accolade 'classic' is appropriate because, although Pym’s novels record the manners of a segment of society in a period of post-war England, her wit and humanity are timeless."

There are so many great lines and scenes in this novel, it's hard to choose only one or two.  Hopefully they won't lose anything in pulling them from the narrative.  The story is filled with her typical vicars, spinsters, academics, a pair of young lovers and dewy-eyed students.  A 'not young though not old' curate has come to North Oxford sending titters through the little community as he is intelligent and handsome.  But he's also practical.  He is living with one of the local spinsters and her companion.  It's Miss Morrow, the companion, on whom he has set his sights.  He thinks he should marry, and certainly he could do much worse . . .

"A glass of sherry would not do much for him, but Mr. Latimer felt encouraged.  'How well you understand me,' hs said.  'You must feel it too, the gloom here, the sense of being imprisoned . . . '  He fluttered his hands in hopeless, birdlike gestures."

"'Of course I have,' said Miss Morrow briskly.  'I warned you about it wen you came.  It's different for me, I'm paid a paid companion and as such I expect gloom, it's my portion.  But on the whole I'm lucky and I really enjoy life'."

"'You enjoy life?' asked Mr. Latimer, as if this were something new to him."

"'Yes, of course I do.  And you ought to even more because you're young'."

"'But I'm not,' said Mr. Latimer.  'We're neither of us young, if it comes to that.  But we aren't old yet'."  His voice took on a more hopeful note.  'Oh, Miss Morrow--Janie,' he burst out suddenly."

"'My name isn't Janie'."

"'Well, it's something beginning with J,' he said impatiently.  It was annoying to be held up by such a triviality.  What did it matter what her name was at this moment'?"

I'll leave out the rest of the conversation, but I think you won't be surprised by Miss Morrow's tone that she turns him down.

"Well, thought Miss Morrow, looking down at her new green dress, so it had been an occasion after all/  A man had asked her to marry him and she had refused.  But did a trapped curate count as a man?  It had been such a very half-hearted proposal . . . poor Mr. Latimer!  She smiled as she remembered it.  'I respect and esteem you very much . . . I think we might be very happy together . . . '  MIght.  Oh, no, it wouldn't do at all!  Even Miss Morrow's standards were higher than that, so high indeed that she feared  she would never marry now."

No worries I've not shared all the good bits, so there will be lots to amuse you still should you pick up the book.  She began writing it in 1939 but it was not published until 1985.  I'm thoroughly enjoying reading Crampton Hodnet (Crampton by the way is meant to be the name of a village but is actually taken from Pym's family name).  I read Excellent Women years ago and am not sure why I waited so long to pick up another of her books (I liked her so much the first time out that I proceeded to buy as many novels as I could find by her,  however).  Now I think I'll try and make my way through all of her works!

June 4: Reading Notes

Even though four months (four very long hot summer months by the way) separate me from San Francisco I am finding it hard to concentrate on things (work things, home things, pretty much everything).  It's just that first flush of getting used to the idea of a vacation and getting things organized so I can then sit back and think about the fun things I'll do when I am there.  I'm sure I'll share more about it all later (especially the reading I hope to do in anticipation), but as I get those details worked out I think tonight's post will have to be bits and pieces of bookish things that have come my way of late (alas, no bullet points tonight). 

I came across this great (short) video about Barbara Pym, so will start there.  Did you know there is a Barbara Pym Society?  Thomas attended their Spring Conference earlier this year and shared photos of it.  It looks like it was great fun and I am contemplating joining the Society myself as I am enjoying reading her so much.  I wish I had planned for the Reading Week better, but will hopefully finish reading and write about Crampton Hodnet properly later this week.  Make sure you check in with Amanda and Thomas to follow all the festivities.  It's pretty cool to see such a wide and varied group of readers all enjoying her work, don't you think?  She was already one of my 'must read everything' by her authors, but now I am going to try and make a concerted effort to actually read more of her work this year.

It's not feeling much like summer yet, though I am not complaining as I prefer it a little cooler than hot.  Temperate, mild, sunny and 70F/21C is my perfect weather.  But the summer reading lists will soon begin pouring in.  Here's one to start with, well, a ten books for June list anyway.  I'm already reading one and have another on my radar.  I may have to come up with my own summer reading list . . .

L.M. Montgomery is one of those 'I really should have read her by now' authors.  I don't really know how I missed reading her growing up.  Sourcebooks will be publishing her works here in the US, including issuing ebook editions beginning next year.  I have a Modern Library edition of Anne of Green Gables and it is on my list of books to read (of course). 

Convenient segue into a mention of Round 7 of John Mutford's Annual Canadian Book Challenge.  Even as I am trying to tie up this year's challenge I am contemplating the next one that begins July 1.  I have fallen short of my goal to read thirteen books, but even eight (though I hope to finish one more--Louise Penny's first Inspector Gamache mystery) is pretty good for me!  Maybe I'll start with Anne of Green Gables!

Recently I mentioned a French crime novel that made its way into my mailbox.  Alex by Pierre Lemaitre has made the shortlist for the CWA International Dagger Award.  I always keep an eye on these awards and think I'll read the shortlists, but the problem with mysteries is the books are often one in a series and I always like reading them in order.  Alex, however, is a standalone novel so is being bumped to the top of the pile.  It may be the only one I read, and how cool if it was the one to win?  In any case I'm looking forward to exploring the list in more detail.

Let's see, what else.  I usually have a library book on the go all the time, but I never picked up a new one when I finished the most recent Maisie Dobbs novel (post to follow this week I hope), so I am in the market for a new library book to fill the slot.  I've finished two of my Melville House novellas (Jacob's Room and Lady Susan) back to back so now must turn my attention to my NYRBs!  I am quickly falling behind so will be spending some time with Transit this week.

Did I mention that I have started subscribing to TLS (The Times Literary Supplement)?  It was such a great (meaning cheap) offer that I couldn't pass it up.  They have great reviews but I am quickly falling behind in my reading (is this a surprise?).  I usually take one or two with me to work thinking I am going to use some of my abundant (she says tongue in cheek) reading time reading them.

If nothing else I am always a wishful thinker!