Our Spoons Came From Woolworths (1983) - Plot & Excerpts
My third read for All Virago/all August and so far I am really enjoying reading my lovely green VMC’s and having the chance to get to grips with authors I know less well, or as in the case of Barbara Comyns – not at all. Like the last book I read – Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane – this novel also seems to divide opinion a bit. I can see why. There is much misery and things do seem relentlessly grim for most of the novel. The blurb on the back cover of my VMC edition promises the reader – “a very happy ending.” I was surprised to see that in the blurb, before I began reading it, it did seem to be a very slight spoiler. However, with so much abject misery around, maybe the reader needs to know things will turn out ok at last. Strangely though, despite the grimness and misery – this isn’t really a depressing book, though there were some pretty dark moments I did actually enjoy it. The story is told by Sophia, as she relates the story of her marriage to a new friend. In this way the reader knows right away that Sophia will be ok at some stage, and is able to believe in the promise of a happy ending.Sophia tells her story in a very matter of fact manner; her voice is simple, naïve, at times almost childlike. She is an eccentric narrator, sometimes annoying, I found her rather endearing. At just twenty one she and artist Charles Fairclough decide to marry against Charles’s parent’s advice. Although they have some support from a child hating aunt of Charles.“She even liked my newts, and sometimes when we went to dinner there I took Great Warty in my pocket; he didn’t mind being carried about, and while I ate dinner I gave him a swim in the water jug. On this visit I had no newts in my pocket…but when Charles told her the plans for our secret marriage that had somehow gone astray, she was most sympathetic and helpful.”Neither of them has much money, but to begin with they are excited and positive about the future. Sophia has a job, but Charles just paints and sells virtually nothing. After their marriage they are terribly poor. Charles is only really interested in his painting, while Sophia tries her best to become a good wife, to cook and clean and keep their home nice, but she has little experience and is a bit out of her depth. Occasional visits from Charles’s terrifying mother offering advice don’t help much.“She cleared her throat once or twice, and said something about poor people should eat a lot of herrings, as they were most nutritious, also she had heard poor people eat heaps of sheeps' heads and she went on to ask if I ever cooked them. I said I would rather be dead than cook or eat a sheep's head; I'd seen them in butchers' shops with awful eyes and bits of wool sticking to their skulls. After that helpful hints for the poor were forgotten.”There is a good deal of humour in this sometimes dark little story, some real laugh out loud moments and Sophia’s naivety is often charming as well as a bit irritating. Her marriage to Charles goes from bad to worse after the birth of their son Sandro, Charles has little interest in the child, and Sophia has to give up work. They meet the art critic Peregrine Narrow at a party, and Sophia who sometimes works as an artist’s model goes to sit for him, they become friends and she is soon having an affair. Poor Sophia is soon to bitterly regret both her hasty marriage and her adultery. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths is the story of a hasty marriage between two people who are not any good for one another. It describes with horrible straightforwardness, the realities of poverty in bohemian London, hunger, unwanted pregnancies, illness and the feeling of being trapped in a dreadful situation from which there appears to be no escape. The ending when it comes is something of a relief for the reader, although there is no great surprise in it. There is certain predictableness in such an ending, but in this case I didn’t really mind. I wanted Sophia to be alright.
Sophia Fairclough is a hopelessly naïve young woman; pretty, foolish and all too trusting. Falling for and promptly marrying wannabe artist Charles, Sophia’s world plummets rapidly from carefree Bohemia into abject poverty, rarely managing to scrape the money together even to feed the baby – not that she could ever bear to admit it to her friends and neighbours. Relayed as a reflection from the past told to a friend, Sophia’s early twenties are full of quirky friendship, hardship and frightfully disappointing men. Reflecting periods in the author’s own life, particularly her fraught first marriage, Comyns’ portrayal of penny-pinching and narrowly-escaped destitution in Depression-era London is eerily lighthearted in tone. This girl needs to grow up, and fast.I’d heard such good rumblings about Comyns’ writing that it came as rather a shock to discover a style so different from what I’m used to; a deliberately unsophisticated style that I was a little weary of at first. Is this good writing? Sophia’s studied simplicity made me feel rather confused.It turns out that this is, in fact, very good writing; effortless and perfectly reflective of our narrator. Although a series of irresponsible, faintly ridiculous men and our heroine’s profound lack of sense and understanding of adult life can make for frustrating reading at times this is, in reality, a terribly subtle, foreboding book and an important portrayal of pre-war poverty in the capital. From the bohemian artist circles that add a little colour and pizzazz to proceedings, we plunge into the woes of unemployment, the misery of a cold, empty home and the inadequacies of the healthcare and welfare systems. Women, it seems, suffer most particularly in Comyns’ world, experiencing an outrageous lack of support, particularly when it comes to children and the raising of them. Children? Nah. A backstreet abortionist should do just fine…Despite this poignancy and misery however, Comyns ensures smiles with a quirkiness of her very own. Eccentric additions to the tale such as Sophia’s pet newt, a psychic medium and a sculptor who never manages to finish a piece of work all add up to a sense of whimsy that leaves us wondering what will come next. As we are made aware from the start, thankfully our girl comes good in the end; growing to be a not-quite-so naïve woman with prospects, a healthy child and a pronounced sense of hindsighthttp://relishreads.com/2015/04/04/our...
What do You think about Our Spoons Came From Woolworths (1983)?
I didn't expect to like this. The cover and synopsis are not exactly designed to draw you in. However once you start reading it you do become completely absorbed in her story. It's sad, it's poignant, it's cute, it's happy, all in equal measures. There are parts which I would like to think are pure fiction as surely people cannot be that cruel but I think perhaps there is more truth to some of it than I'd like to admit. It's not as stilted a read as you would imagine. It's weirdly like reading someone's diary.Overall it's really good!
—Julia
Short chapters and a light-hearted tone make this book an easy, if disturbing, read. Our heroine, Sophia, meets fellow art student Charles on a train journey and, despite being young and penniless, they soon get married. At first things go well for the couple despite the opposition of Charles' ghastly family who have delusions of grandeur and delusions about Charles' artistic abilities. Once Sophia falls pregnant, things start to unravel horribly and Sophia's resourcefulness is stretched to breaking point. For all its delicacy and charm, this novel contains a great deal of anger and sadness. Sophia is very engaging and positive, if naive, and the reader simply wills her to emerge triumphant from all her troubles. Charles and, later, Peregrine prove selfish, self-absorbed, ineffectual and totally unreliable when it matters most. Small kindnesses such as the milkman leaving milk for the baby in spite of unpaid bills only serve to highlight the grinding poverty. Ultimately everyone gets their just desserts - a satisfying finale.
—Lottie Clark
I absolutely loved this book, and have enjoyed everything by Comyns thus far. I'm just sorry that I've come to the end of the three pack of her books that I bought and I currently don't have anything else by her in the house to read.Having read little bits about her, it sounds as though this tale is in part inspired by her own life. She sounds like she was a fascinating person. This is the tale of Sophia, and possibly also the tale of why in many cases 20 is too young to be married and having kids. Set in the 1930s in London, Sophia has just gotten married to Charles, a painter without a penny to his name. His family hate her in many respects and think she is dragging him down by getting pregnant (some things don't change - whether it's getting pregnant too soon or not soon enough, it's always seen as the woman's evil plot). Charles on the other hand is a self-absorbed, lazy inconsiderate man-pig who has little to no interest in his wife or children. She is the only one who works, and they live their years together in utter poverty and desperation. This may make it sound like a worthy and grim novel that has a great many violins playing and is designed to make you feel bad about your own comfortable life, but it's really not like that. She has a wonderful way of story telling that isn't over embellished, and is very matter of fact and this is how it is/was. She isn't looking for sympathy and she doesn't particularly feel sorry for herself. She's just getting on with things. And there are wonderful characters created out of so few words. It is just a treasure to read.
—Ape
