*3.5 stars."What a pity we can't make a cup of Ovaltine, was her last conscious thought. Life's problems are often eased by hot milky drinks" (23)."Probably because of her connection with haberdashery she had a passion for small gadgets and 'daintiness', as she put it, which was encouraged by the advertisements on commercial television with their emphasis on this aspect of life. She did not care for men, with their roughness and lack of daintiness, though the clergy were excepted, unless they smoked pipes" (33). “Yet, although she was laughing, there was a small ache in her heart as she remembered him. Perhaps it is sadder to have loved somebody ‘unworthy’, and the end of it is the death of such a very little thing, like a child’s coffin, she thought confusedly” (54).“She had given them only the shabbiest of her mother’s clothes, the best having gone to the Distressed Gentlewomen” (59). *I like that phrase: “Distressed Gentlewomen.”“What is the use of noticing such details? Dulcie asked herself. It isn’t as if I were a novelist or a private detective. Presumably such a faculty might be said to add to one’s enjoyment of life, but so often what one observed was neither amusing nor interesting, but just upsetting" (60). “An anonymous call of a scurrilous nature? Were calls of this kind made by people who had an odd ten minutes to fill in before arriving somewhere?” (60-61)."No doubt, like all men connected with the Church--his own brother Neville included--the organist would be at ease with ladies. He could see the phrase--At Ease with Ladies--as the title of a novel or even a biography" (83)."What should he write? Something non-committal--the sort of thing one wrote to a woman who was undertaking the arduous task of making an index to a book" (84).“...or would it seem stupid and affected in the dark suburban hall, with the macintoshes and old shoes huddled together in the peculiarly unaesthetic hat stand?” (84-85).“Life was at its tricks again, but this was sharper cruelty than Miss Lord’s discomfiture over the baked beans” (88). *I love this sentence.“ ‘Shall we start at the beginning and go stolidly round?’ Viola asked” (89).“...turning away from Viola, who was gazing at one of the pictures with the dutiful, slightly glazed expression of a woman who has been shown what to look for by a distractingly handsome man” (91)."Bereavement was in some ways the most comfortable kind of misery, for there would always be somebody to urge; the unhappiness of love was usually more lonely because so often concealed from others" (101)."It was sad, she thought, how women longed to be needed and useful and how seldom most them really were" (103)."…she tried to picture him, young and eager, perhaps riding a scooter" (104).“What does it mean, being ‘only human after all’? she asked herself. It was generally said of a person who had committed some indiscretion or even sin” (106).“At Christmas, Dulcie thought, People seemed to lose their status as individuals in their own right and became, as it were, diminished in stature, mere unit sin families, when for the rest of the year they were bold and original and often the kind of people it is impossible to imagine having such ordinary everyday things as parents. Christmas put people in their places, sent them back to the nursery or cradle, almost” (109)."So it was all right to know about Neville and quite unnecessary to reveal that she had made a special journey to the public library to look him up in Crockford" (128)."Dulcie, while appearing to listen, was going over in her mind the various ways in which a clergyman son might be 'rather troublesome' "(129)."…one or two as yet unidentified young men who wore bowler hats and looked rather alike, so that Laurel thought there might be any number of them or only one" (131)."Marian's little pointed toes and stiletto heels, so precariously supporting the fluffy orange bundle of her body…" (133-134)."Dark oil paintings, sinister because the subjects were not easily discernible, adorned the walls" (134)." 'People always know where they are with me,' she would say rather smugly; it never occurred to here that people might not always want to know such things" (136)."What might not have happened had she not chosen to arrive at that moment! And in a library, too, surrounded by great literature!" (138)."Dulcie felt, averting her eyes as one of the servers began to remove his cassock and put on a very secular-looking leather jacket. One should not perhaps ever witness the change from the sacred to the profane, and how very profane it seemed when she noticed that another server was wearing jeans" (147)."The window was full of daffodils and irises, with a few early tulips and presumably late chrysanthemums" (165)."In a sense, Dulcie felt as if she had created her and that she had not come up to expectations, like a character in a book who had failed to come alive, and how many people in life, if one transferred them to fiction just as they were, would fail to do that!" (167-168)."There might be special vintages recommended for drinking in the bedrooms of unlicensed hotels" (173)."She would not be content with the quiet life he liked to lead, and she might mock at the way he liked to sit wearing his kilt in the evenings" (204-205)." 'It was one of the first things my wife got rid of. She can't bear stone animals of any kind'" (207)." 'She's a lecturer at the London School of Economics,' the young man went on, hardly explaining her abhorrence of stone animals, Aylwin thought" (207)."He ordered a Guinness, feeling that he had need of the qualities it was said to give" (208)."Here every building was repellent; there was nothing upon which the eye could dwell with pleasure" (211-212)."And then there was that china donkey, Dulcie remembered. Could she really have any kind of bond with somebody who had thought it sweet?" (220)." 'Yes, after breakfast is an awkward time in a hotel,' Dulcie said. 'One has no right to exist between the hours of half past nine and twelve. So much work is going on that it makes one feel guilty'" (221).
Format: Real Live BookNarrated By: NAOriginal Publication Year: 1961Genre(s): Fiction Series: NAAwards: NoneRecommended subtitle: Techniques for stalking a very handsome man. I was a bit wrong-footed by No Fond Return of Love. About a year ago, I read and loved Pym’s Excellent Women. I went on and on about it and recommended it to everyone I know. I started this book excited and expecting something similar and I got it. Sort of. In many ways it is very similar right down to the vague romantic ending, but it had a very different atmosphere due in part to a cast of thoroughly bemusing characters. Dulcie Mainwaring is a thirty-something professional indexer who has just been dumped by her fiancé. In an attempt to shake off the bad feelings she decides to attend a professional conference and there encounters Viola Dace, a rather cynical and lackluster middle-aged woman, and Aylwin Forbes, an editor and very handsome middle-aged man. There is something between Viola and Aylwin; in fact Aylwin’s wife has just left him because she caught him kissing Viola. But Aylwin doesn’t seem interested in Viola and by the end of the conference Dulcie’s curiosity about him has been thoroughly piqued. Dulcie and Viola become rather perfunctory friends, not really seeming to like each other much, and Viola even moves in with Dulcie for a time. Dulcie also begins to stalk Aylwin, there’s really no other way to put it; she tracks down his Mother-in-Laws house and makes a point to walk by, she figures out who his vicar brother is and goes to the church gleaning information about him from the housekeeper. The book culminates in she and Viola booking a holiday at the hotel Aylwin’s Mother owns. In the meantime Aylwin thinks he’s in love with Dulcie’s 19 year old niece. To be frank none of these characters were terribly likeable. Dulcie the main protagonist comes closest of course but even her behavior is a little hard to explain. She has just been rejected and seems destined for a life of utterly boring spinsterhood; her life is rather empty and she also has a disposition for research. Her interest in and instinct to investigate Aylwin can be somewhat understood, but then… she falls in love with him. Throughout the book Aylwin continues to become more and more ridiculous – vain, fickle, emotionally immature and even somewhat cold. He treats Dulcie with indifference. Dulcie developing feelings for him seems utterly bizarre.However, I was saved from being completely discontented with the book by what I imagine are Pym’s signature strengths. She seems to have a perfect understanding and way of portraying all the foibles of being an imperfect human being. There are so many times in her books as she describes some inane human reaction or interaction that I find myself thinks “YES, that is EXACTLY how it is…how it feels.” The main characters in both of the books that I have read by her are so utterly conventional but not at all uninteresting. They have hidden depths of quirky humor and self-awareness. They are unique and individual without really trying which is I guess why I can forgive Dulcie her bizarre affection for Aylwin. Finally, Pym’s books are full of an understated humor that warms the cockles of my heart. It is hard to provide an example of it because it’s so integrated in the story but here’s one attempt:Dulcie and Viola having a conversation about Aylwin and his estranged wife Marjorie:“That’s where Marjorie Forbes has failed - not being able to share Aylwin’s interests.”“Well she hardly could if the interests were other women,” said Dulcie, suddenly frivolous. “Those are the kinds of interests wives really can’t be expected to share….”Indeed, Dulcie, Indeed. Final Verdict: I am still enamored of Barbara Pym’s writing and that made this book enjoyable despite some less than sympathetic characters.
What do You think about No Fond Return Of Love (2002)?
Bittersweet and tender, the plot of “No Fond Return Of Love” beckons its reader through a broken heart into a plot comprising a residential conference in Derbyshire, an Anglo-Catholic Lent, a missing clergyman, the most uncongenial English seaside B&B establishments imaginable, and back for final statements in London. It’s a plotline of unusual combination, which remarkably, works. The ‘learned conference’ which brilliantly begins the first two chapters of this book sets the initial note of Pym(re)gret within the book. It doesn’t take long (page 3, to be exact) before the reader discovers that this gathering is far from being a sparkling Oxbridge exercise of academic cut & thrust for the prize of determining and polishing reputations and determining pecking order within the peer group. No. This is instead a gathering of worthy cleaners: of those who scrabble to identify and claim their ordered places through the housekeeping work of preparing learned manuscripts for the published glorification of authoritative academics. As worker bees their reward is merely to bathe in the cooler, reflected sunshine that represents a less lauded association with the reputational glory conferred by published academic research.The tragedy of coming second, of confidence portrayed in watercolour rather than in oils, is subtly painted within those first two chapters … before changing medium to bounce and play loose as might a reel of decaying 1960s peach Sylko cotton thread dropped from the making of a debutante’s dress. Through the maze of social uncertainty and angst which forms the meat of the remainder of this book, the plot finally winds-up with a second stamp of that trademarked enigmatic bittersweet Pym(re)gret; this time left hanging on the inside of window in Ladbroke Grove in (the less fashionable) North Kensington. A strangely addictive book indeed!
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My mother had been urging me to read Barbara Pym for years and I had resisted. Perhaps I'd picked one up too early and thought its gentle humour dull. How wrong I was.Comparisons to Jane Austen abound with Barbara Pym and it is hard not to see why. Her humour and observations are very quietly but pointedly made. The characters are beautifully observed and judged.The story is about love and is again similar to Austen in that it depicts women who have limited social choices. The protagonist is in her early thirties and is consigned to the social dustbin - her only hope of amusement is doing "good works" for the church. However, she is a curious woman who is looking for more from her constrained social circle. She takes risks to further her infatuation with Ailwyn Forbes, a minor academic she meets at a conference on the art of indexing. Along the way, she befriends Viola Dace (real name Violet) who is unworthy of the kindness shown to her.This is a gentle, charming book which makes points about its cast of varied characters in a subtle way. The only complaint I had was its plot relied on coincidence a little too heavily but then I suppose life is like that.I can't recommend this highly enough and I will be seeking out more of Ms Pym's work soon. Though probably not all at once so as to prolong the pleasure.
—Hannah Finch
This is a quiet English novel about a single woman working a quiet job. Her fiancé broke off their engagement and she now lives alone in her deceased parents' house. By all descriptions in the story, she is dowdy and boring, but she slowly insinuates herself into other people's lives and in doing so, creates a new more interesting life for herself. I almost gave up halfway through as it is not a page turner, but the ending was worth the reading. While I usually like more action in my reading, there is a place for quieter stories and I will give Barbara Pym another try. Thanks to Thomas of The Readers for the recommendation.
—Kate
