Written in 1962, this book takes us back to the beginning of the era when women were starting to push back against the assumption that, even if they went to college, they would marry and have kids right after. Sarah, our narrator, is a bit surprised that her older sister, the stunningly beautiful Louise, is not just marrying, but marrying Stephen, a writer who is distinctly odd. The sisters have never been close, so Sarah has no idea why Louise might be marrying who she does. Stephen, an author of very literary books, does have money, but even that doesn’t seem to make it all make sense. Sarah doesn’t give it too much attention, though; she’s having her own crisis of trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life now that she’s graduated. Nothing really interests her. She might like to write a humorous novel, a la Kingsley Amis, but no idea how to go about it. She might wed but the man she might want to marry is studying in America. So she works at a job that she doesn’t respect. Louise’s situation catches her attention when Sarah discovers that Louise has been having an affair with John both before and after her wedding. This is a novel that is about women in the state of dissatisfaction. Sarah is dissatisfied with her business and personal life. Louise is dissatisfied with her husband and with her lover. Their mother is dissatisfied with her own life and with theirs. Sarah’s friend has just left her husband, an ultimate dissatisfaction. The men seem much happier with their lives, although we don’t really get to see that much of them. It’s interesting to note that all the dilemmas the women face are one’s that women today still face; there was a shift in the early 60s when many more women decided to have more of a life than being married and having children but there hasn’t been much change since then. I’m not sure there could be any more change; women (and men) must still face the existential question of what to do with their lives, and no matter what one does they will be missing out on something else. Although written fifty years ago, this book is a bit dated but still pertinent.
I read this on the back of Drabble's reputation and the fact I love A S Byatt's work. I was curious whether two sibling writers could inspire me equally. Well I was disappointed. Far from being a "sparkling" be but novel, as the jacket blurb promised, I found this as dry as toast. In Byatt's Frederica Potter #3 novel we find her eponymous hero pondering over the fact that "young ladies just down from Oxford, ought not to write novels about young ladies just died from Oxford" and on reading A Summer Birdcage I felt the autobiographical pang that so many critics have observed as existing between these two writers. Drabble's novel was also clearly an exploration of the dichotomous adversarial relationship she has with her own sister and it's not hard to see why the two are reputed not to get along all that well. When you use your own familial relationships to form the denouement of a novel and you paint the "other" sibling in such a light as Drabble paints Louise, it's not surprising that it might sour things somewhat. At one point in the novel Drabble claims that she could describe the clothes, the conversation, the hairstyles of those at her sister's party, but that she isn't " that sort of writer"; if I'd received this manuscript across my desk I'd have returned it with a post-it on this page suggesting she should at least try! I'll try another Drabble novel as this was merely the slimmest of books and clearly shows the teething marks of a freshly hatched writer ... I hope the next one proves more substantial.
What do You think about A Summer Bird-Cage (1992)?
Margaret Drabble’s A Summer Bird-Cage , is an age-old tale of sisterhood and rivalry, and if the reviews are true, a rather bitchy portrayal of her equally brilliant sister, A.S. Byatt. Drabble’s protagonist and her friends announce their education with casual references to French, Latin, and Italian, quoting Shakespeare and Keats in their correspondence, and Paradise Lost is Sarah’s bus reading. Whereas Byatt’s work imitates and skewers academia, this novel earnestly addresses the competing
—Christin
Margaret Drabble's wit and brains are surely stimulating and entertaining. But this book is a downer, about neurotic and half-formed middle-class Brits who talk trash about each other all day long (with virtual strangers) and spend inordinate amounts of energy keeping each other at arm's length (including siblings). She was only 23 when she wrote it so we have to forgive her. I have a soft spot for those "London bedsit" scenes, but you can get those in Barbara Pym or Agatha Christie, without feeling so bad about being a human being.
—Lydia
