Προσοχή, περιέχει SPOILERS.Η γυναίκα απλώς ΓΡΑΦΕΙ, ΚΕΝΤΑΕΙ, όπως θέλετε πείτε το. Είναι απίστευτο το πώς το βιβλίο της Πίλτσερ δεν καταντά άρλεκιν παρόλο που έχει ερωτικές αντιζηλίες κι ερωτικές σκηνές, ούτε Λένα Μαντά παρόλο που είναι γεμάτο γυναίκες. Είναι μοναδική, για μένα από τις καλύτερες γυναικείες γραφές που έχω διαβάσει. Παλιά είχα διαβάσει το Ψάχνοντας για κοχύλια και μου είχε μείνει μια θετικότατη εικόνα. Μακάρι να το ξαναβρώ και να το διαβάσω πάλι. Ως προς το Σεπτέμβρη παρακολουθούμε δυο φιλικές οικογένειες σε ένα χωριό της Σκοτίας που ετοιμάζονται για τον Σεπτεμβριάτικο χορό. Υπάρχει ένα τραγούδι που λέεει Απο το Μάη ως το Δεκέμβρη είναι πολλές οι μέρες αλλά λιγοστεύουν όταν φτάνει ο Σεπτέμβρης. Πανέμορφο και λυρικότατο. Θέλω να πάω κι εγώ στο χωριό αυτό της Σκωτίας, να μυρίσω τα λουλούδια, να γευτώ τις τοπικές νοστιμιές, να ζήσω τον μικρόκοσμο. Αρχιτεκτονική, νοοτροπία, ατσάλινοι και αδύναμοι χαρακτήρες, μελαγχολία φθινοπώρου και ελπίδα για νέες αποφάσεις, δεν ξέρω για τι να πρωτομιλήσω. Όλοι οι χαρακτήρες ζουν κι ανασαίνουν δίπλα σου, σκύβουν πάνω από τις σελίδες μαζί σου και σε συντροφεύουν στο ξεφύλλισμα. Από παντού ξεχύνεται ο Σεπτέμβρης και η μελαγχολία που τον συνοδεύει ενόψει του μακριού, ατέλειωτου χειμώνα, ειδικά στη Σκοτία, όπου τα σπίτια αλλά και γενικά τα χωριά είναι απομακρυσμένα και οι καιρικές συνθήκες δύσκολες. Οπότε το Σεπτέμβρη έχουμε ξεφάντωμα, πάρτυ και γνωριμίες. Θα σταθώ στην Παντόρα, μία από τις ηρωίδες του βιβλίου, την πιο τραγική. Ενώ παρακολουθούμε δύο οικογένειες, τις έχθρες, τα ερωτικά τρίγωνα και τα συναισθήματα χαράς και λύπης από την αρχή φωτίζεται ένα πρόσωπο, διακριτικά αλλά ουσιαστικά. Η Παντόρα. Που είχε ξελογιάσει έναν παντρεμένο κι εκείνος της είχε υποσχεθεί πράγματα αλλά αφοσιώθηκε στον γάμο του τελικά και την ξέχασε. Κι η Παντόρα παράτησε το χωριό της, τους δικούς της και τα όνειρά της για να φύγει με έναν πλούσιο Αμερικάνο. Μετά από 20 χρόνια την καλούν στο πάρτι του Σεπτέμβρη. Και δέχεται. Κι όλο το χωριό την περιμένει με φόβο, ανυπομονησία και περιέργεια. Κι όντως ξανασυναντιέται με όλους, ακόμη και με τον παλιό της έρωτα, που ξαναπαντρεύτηκε μετά το θάνατο της πρώτης συζύγου του. Κι όμως όπως αποδεικνύεται, η Πανδώρα δεν ήρθε για να χωρίσει, ούτε για να τιμωρήσει, ούτε για να εκδικηθεί. Έχοντας λίγο χρόνο ζωής λόγω καρκίνου, ήθελε να ξαναζήσει τον Σεπτέμβρη του χωριού της, να ζήσει τον δικό της τελευταίο Σεπτέμβρη. Γι' αυτό τα ξαναβρίσκει με τους ανθρώπους του παρελθόντος της, κλείνει τους λογαριασμούς της και αυτοκτονεί. Ένα καταπληκτικό γυναικείο βιβλίο, ένας ύμνος στη γυναικεία ψυχολογία, ένα βιβλίο που δείλιασα να τελειώσω για να μη με εγκαταλείψει νωρίς η μυρωδιά του φθινοπωρινού αποχαιρετισμού.
This was Pilcher’s first book after her very successful novel titled “The Shell Seekers” and reintroduces one of the characters from that story. It is set in Scotland where Mrs Verena Steynton of Corriehill is sending out invitations to a dance to celebrate her daughter’s twenty-first birthday. As preparations begin,we meet a number of characters from the small remote village of Strathcoy, many of whom have been friends and neighbours for years. Strathcoy is a small remote community, a close knit place with a pub, two churches, a school, a few shops and a an antique dealer. There is Violet Aird, the aged matriarch of a well established family who lived on an estate called Balnaid with her husband Geordie. When her husband died, Violet moved out to a small cottage so that her son Edmund, now married to Virginia his second wife, could take over the estate. Together Edmund and Virginia have a young son Henry, who Edmund is anxious to send to boarding school now that he is eight. Edmund feels his young wife Virginia is smothering his son while Virginia feels Henry is too young to leave home and is frightened her own life will collapse once he is gone and she is left alone. Edie is the nanny that has worked with the Aird family for years and has helped to bring up both Edmund and Henry. She is also a close friend of Violet’s and they share many past secrets. Edie’s cousin Lottie Carstairs has just been released from a mental health facility and everyone in the village is concerned about her behavior which not only annoys but scares them. Alexa is Edmund’s daughter from his first marriage with Caroline, a rich but cold woman who died suddenly when Alexa was six. Alexa now over twenty, has been living on Ovington Street in London and enjoying her successful career as a caterer.Archie and Isobel Blair of Croy are also longstanding residents of Strathcoy, who live in a large estate but are having difficulty managing the property because of the large sums required to support the grounds and fund the help required for its upkeep. Archie, on a disability pension from the military after losing a leg in Northern Ireland, is struggling to maintain his ancestral home for his two children, Lucilla and Hamish. Pandora his beautiful but spoiled sister, left Croy many years ago after eloping with a married man old enough to be her father, leaving no word of explanation and breaking her parents’ hearts. She has since divorced but has never returned home even for her parents’ funeral.As the weeks and months pass, we learn the various backgrounds and the stories of the invited guests and their partners who will all come together at the large celebration at Corriehill on September 16th. The drama builds up over the weeks as the celebrations begin with dinner at Archie and Isobel’s dining room table at Croy. All the guests seem restless, confused about an important decision they are in the midst of making or about to make, and each seems to be searching for some elusive happiness. There is an undercurrent of tension as all of them, of different ages and backgounds, meet together for drinks, groomed and dressed to the nines, ready to play out the final scenes in the story that Pilcher has led us to.The literary technique of following a number of characters as they come together to a particular event is not an unusual one. Pilcher is skilled though, at presenting us with people we can relate to with the common problems we all experience in life. And she is a master of description, painting for the reader so clearly the purples, russets, greens and browns of the moors, the gorges, glens, and the farmlands of her homeland so well you can almost feel you are there. Pilcher’s novel does not present any complex questions about life or the world around us but does provide a very entertaining story about a small group of family and friends at a certain point in their lives.An easy, pleasant read although at over 470 pages, this is not a short or quick story to be read in a single sitting. On the other hand, the reader is never bored. A good book to curl up with and settle before the fire on a cold or rainy day.
What do You think about September (2005)?
This is what I wrote on my blog in this September 3rd, 2013 post:"Sadly, the one book I'm reading for pleasure, Rosamunde Pilcher's, September, has stalled. I am over halfway through the book and the only plot I can discern is simply that there is going to be a party in September and people who haven't seen each other for a long time are going to be there. The only conflict there appears to be (and everyone who reads fiction should be aware of the five elements of fiction) is that someone who left home a long time ago and has turned down all previous invitations to come back for a visit is planning on going to the party. Isn't that thrilling? Oh, the intrigue.The lush descriptions of setting that Pilcher obviously adores (she seems to be an interior decorator of the mind) which charmed me so at the beginning of the novel are beginning to annoy me. Every time someone walks or even peeks into a new room, there are paragraphs to wade through before any seemingly valuable information is given that might move the story along. Perhaps I should have taken a clue from the many Goodreads reviews that talked about this book as, "cozy," and "inviting." Looking back, I see that these are wonderful adjectives for any good room in a house, but they do not necessarily a good story make! Those reviews lured me in though and I took the bait without really seeing what anyone thought of the story itself, I suppose. Perhaps it was my own hankering for the turning of seasons that's gotten me into trouble here. Have any of you readers read this book? Can anyone urge me on to its conclusion? Can I look forward to anything of substance happening in this richly described setting?? I hope someone will do just that or I may be having to shelve this one. My pleasure reading time is sorely limited now and I simply must have some semblance of a plot to make the investment!"Unfortunately, after one more chapter of the same, I decided to return this book to the library. I may check it out again if someone can convince me otherwise, but for the time being my rating remains at two stars for the reasons listed above.
—Nicole
Although these days Pilcher's work would be categorized as "women's fiction," there's no getting around the fact that she writes an excellent story. Her characters come alive in a seamless plot involving two Scottish families in the months leading up to a great party, and she creates a world that the reader inhabits without interruption. This particular book did not move me in the way The Shell Seekers did when I read it years ago (with tissue in hand at the end of the book), but it's a fine read nevertheless.
—gaudeo
My beautiful mother loved Rosamunde Pilcher's books, so when I was visiting my parents in 1991, I picked up her September to read for myself. It made an indelible mark on my life for its poignant examination of families, love, betrayal, forgiveness, and loss. It is written without morbidity but rather with deeper insights into relationships that know no bounds of time. She introduced me to the 1910 writing of Henry Scott Holland ("Death is nothing at all.") which I read the next year at my mother's memorial service and a decade later at my dad's. I have shared it with all those I love and given them September to guide their journey from grief to acceptance. It has never failed to shine light on eternal love, realizing those who are gone are "just around the corner."
—Sallye
