I am honestly not sure what to make of this book. I initially discovered this book (and author) through a random Amazon-crawl, where I assume it was recommended to me based on some of my other highly-rated books. I vaguely remember reading that Excellent Women was satirical, funny, biting, etc., and there were several comparisons to Jane Austen. I don't share the crush that virtually all well-educated white girls seem to have for Jane Austen (despite being a well-educated white girl myself), but I did enjoy Sense and Sensibility well enough for me to take a second look at any author who's compared to Austen. The main character of Excellent Women is a single 30-year-old woman named Mildred who lives in London in the 1950s. This being the '50s, and Mildred being 30 already, she is considered to have entered the spinster stage and is treated very patronizingly by everyone around her, as though she had suddenly gone mad and started collecting vast amounts of cats. The plot of the book describes her very provincial and narrow life, which consists of making tea, eating really sad lunches of lettuce and cheese, and interfering with/getting dragged into other people's lives and helping to sort out their problems.There are a few witty, clever lines in this book, but any pleasure they might have provided is withheld since they almost seem to be delivered unconsciously, as though Mildred could never imagine herself as someone who ever says anything funny. In fact, the moments that were supposed to be funny had a very sad quality to me, as though the author were rubbing it in our faces how miserable the main character was, but somehow also expecting us to be a sport and laugh anyway. I kept thinking, 'Oh, Mildred seems unassuming, but this is where she's about to assert herself and become a real, three-dimensional person!' But it never happened. Instead of being redeemed, she just slipped slowly and sadly into her permanent role as a doormat and sounding-board for other people, and her individuality was lost in a bland mist of apathy and tea-making. There's one scene where Mildred is at a church committee meeting and one of the women leading the meeting starts making tea for everyone. Mildred, who has already consumed about four cups of tea that day, feebly suggests that perhaps they don't need tea for this meeting. Here's how that scene continues:"...she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea?' she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needed tea always, at every hour of the day or night."I recognize that this scene has a big 'laugh here' sign on it, but I just found Mildred's complete acquiescence and sheepishness to be depressing. There is the seed of social commentary in this book – after all, Mildred does get weary of constantly meeting everyone's demands and expectations towards the end of the book, and seems on the verge of telling everyone off – but instead of taking that social commentary to its logical conclusion by having Mildred rebel, however mildly, Pym takes the alternate route of having Mildred sink into resignation and acceptance of her pathetic lot in life. In fact, the book ends with her getting roped into doing some clerical work for a pompous scholar who's a friend of hers – without pay, of course. The presentation of women in this book is really unsettling (as it often is in Jane Austen's books, too). Mildred (who we're presumably meant to identify with?) is a fussy, boring, spineless drone, and the foil to Mildred is a woman named Helena, who is an anthropologist. Helena is described as being passionately interested in her work and committed to her field of study. She is also described as being an awful housewife who leaves dishes unwashed, rooms untidied, and meals unprepared. In the author's estimation, you can either be an intellectual or a good wife, but not both; smart or feminine, but not both; interesting or good, but not both. There are no other options. There are also only two options in terms of virtue or goodness: attending church every single day or being an atheist. Mildred attends church every day (sometimes several times a day, it seems – she goes to church the way some people now watch TV), has an unquestioning obedience to tradition and authority, and has a simpering, saccharine view of spirituality, while Helena, the anthropologist, is not religious at all, and is portrayed as a crass philistine with no compassion or virtue. Again, Pym expects us to believe that these two stereotypes are the only options when choosing how to live a moral life. I realize that comedy as a genre trades in stereotypes all the time – it's the universal aspects of human experience that make us laugh in recognition and delight – but the stereotypes in this book seemed very confining, un-funny, and almost politically aggressive, as though Pym were daring any of her readers to be so arrogant as to claim that they fit into neither category. It's possible that Pym was being more clever than I'm giving her credit for, and was calling attention to how the 1950s warped women's lives as a way of justifying and explaining the sexual revolution of the '60s and '70s. But her negative portrayal of Helena – who could have represented 'the smart, liberated woman of the future' in a positive way – indicates to me that Pym wasn't really thinking along those lines. Overall, not nearly the snarky, witty romp I was promised.
I picked up this book because it had an attractive cover and also because in the front Philip Larkin is quoted as saying "I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen'. Jilly Cooper says her books make her 'roar with laughter'. I think we can see where this going, can't we?It's a well written book with many astute observations and it's not terrible or anything, it just wasn't my cup of tea. (Incidentally there is a lot of tea-drinking in the book; I wonder if there is some kind of inverse relationship between tea-drinking to book enjoyment that holds true for my reading tastes? Certainly those infernal Victorians liked a cup or two before heading off to fight evil).I also felt conflicted because I wanted to like it, because 'excellent women' - and by this Pym seems to mean the largely invisible, unthanked and often unmarried women who get a lot of things done while no-one is paying attention - are so often neglected in literature (as well as life). So I feel I should support the genre. But Mildred's life just seemed to be unbearably claustrophobic to me, and Mildred trapped in a world of diminished and not terribly hopeful prospects. For example, a love interest develops (of sorts); he invites her to dinner and the thought of cooking for him (and seriously, who invites people round to dinner to cook FOR them??) just fills her with weariness. In a culture where marriage is the be-all-and-end-all for a woman, I had the feeling Mildred was going to settle for a dull and soul-killing relationship where her own energies were directed at achieving the aims of her partner, rather than pursuing anything dear to her own interests.I had assumed there would be a variety of eccentric characters to amuse but by and large they weren't eccentric enough, unless the very fact of being an anthropologist is supposed to be in itself amusing. (There are quite a few in the story). Everard Bone's mother had the makings of a fantastic eccentric, but appeared all too briefly. Nearly all the other characters seemed much more interesting than Mildred and, interestingly, nearly all of them were much more selfish. Does nice = dull? And selfish = interesting?? I'd like to think not...Not sure I'd pick up another Pym in a hurry, but don't let my opinions stop you from trying her out - I'd be interested to see what you thought...
What do You think about Excellent Women (2006)?
Je pense que, dans une autre vie, j'étais certainement une vieille fille anglaise. Je trouve beaucoup de réconfort dans les romans qui sont tranquilles & domestiques, qui s'attardent au quotidien & en décrivent les revirements subtils. Leur reconnaissent une importance, aussi.Mais si Excellent Women correspond bien à cette description, on se rend compte assez tôt que Barbara Pym ne cherche pas à réconforter la lectrice. Nous sommes au début des années cinquante, à Londres, & les excellentes femmes du titre sont de ces madames dont le travail est essentiel mais essentiellement non reconnu par les monsieurs qui les entourent. Le roman est narré par l'une d'entre elles, Mildred Lathbury, qui à environ trente ans voit déjà sa vie réglée pour elle : un travail à temps partiel dans un organisme de bienfaisance, un rôle assez proéminent dans sa paroisse, un inéluctable statut de vieille fille. Au début du livre, un jeune couple, composé d'une anthropologiste peu portée sur les tâches domestiques & d'un charmant officier de la marine anglaise, emménage dans l'appartement sous le sien. Si on était dans un roman conventionnel, la vie de Mildred en serait chamboulée, elle laisserait derrière elle son quotidien austère & guindé, elle découvrirait le grand amour & se mettrait à chanter sous la pluie -- mais parce que Pym n'est pas ce genre d'auteure, son héroïne vit plutôt des événements qui, tout en la faisant évoluer, la ramènent surtout à ce qu'elle ne peut pas s'empêcher d'être.Excellent Women est un livre drôle, dans son genre, mais d'un humour fataliste qui ne fait pas toujours du bien. Mildred est une narratrice délicieuse, très bien construite, qui allie juste assez de perspicacité & d'aveuglement pour qu'on ne doute jamais de son authenticité. Elle se connaît bien, est au mieux avec elle-même lorsqu'elle aide les autres, mais sait aussi qu'elle n'échappe pas au cliché de la vieille fille tout à fait correcte mais tristement drabe :'Now, Julian, we don't want a sermon,' said Winifred. 'You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish.'I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing. (p. 37)À travers Mildred, le roman aborde de front les limites, parfois assez déprimantes, avec lesquelles la majorité des gens doivent composer. La routine, sans étouffer la vie, ne lui impose pas moins un cadre duquel il n'est pas facile de sortir. Excellent Women est riche de ces moments où le quotidien semble petit, les options restreintes ; en même temps, Mildred n'en est pas moins capable de prendre des décisions qui préservent sa dignité & son indépendance. Le roman qui en résulte est charmant, & juste assez triste pour trotter dans la tête longtemps après la fin de la lecture.
—Amélie
Although this wasn't a dashing romantic tale like Jane Eyre or even Pride and Prejudice I thought it was great. It was slow in some areas, but I still found it rich and thrilling.Everyday life and excursions are related with humor and depth. Church gossip and those "delicate" marital concerns that can arise when laundry is aired publicly, were so hilarious to watch as an outsider along with the protagonist. I found it a bit feminist as well...in the sense that not all women need to be married to justify their womanhood. And this idea was rather drastic for 1950s London. Pym was ahead of her time, without needing to fill the pages inbetween with sex.I also learned some useful life lessons: how to "properly" clean one's kitchen, how to prepare a fine pot of tea, and that meddling (when for altruistic purposes) isn't always wrong."Men are not nearly so helpless and pathetic as we sometimes like to imagine them, and on the whole they run their lives better than we do ours.""Why is it that we can never stop trying to analyse the motives of people who have no personal interest in us, in the vain hope of finding that perhaps they may have just a little after all..."
—Eve
This is my first Barbara Pym book, but it definitely won't be my last! Her gentle humor suffuses the book, and the characters spring to life in just a phrase or two. What seems at first a light, subtle, tongue-in-cheek storyline is actually incredibly insightful and the story stays with you long after you finish reading. The characters could very well be my next door neighbors – each and every one. Amusing, charming, entertaining, endearing, interesting, soft-spoken, no gimmicks – all of which takes great writing! Loved it.
—Carol
