The Tumultuous Year Of Constance Harding: A Novel (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
“I am still alive. That is about the most positive thing I can say about my current situation. Even this state of affairs may not endure: an obstreperous airport security official confiscated my water-purification tablets. Once, in happier times, I visited the Rodin museum in Paris. There I observed the famous sculture The Gates of Hell, which featured writhing, contorted, debased and demented human forms. That is what Ibiza reminds me of.”Constance Harding is a little perplexed by the current state of her life. Her husband is a little absent, which may have something to do with the presence of a lithe Lithuanian housekeeper; her daughter seems to be spending a lot of her gap year not in France, not helping an ecological survey, and her son seems mysteriously averse to settling down with a lovely domestic girl. When her son Rupert sets her up with a blog to document her daily happenings, she finds an outlet for her thoughts for the year.This fluffy little domestic drama is just the thing for a lazy weekend morning. Constance is vacuous, self-obsessed and unbelievably snobbish – and highly amusing. She seems to run into a large number of obstacles, entirely of her own making, and her son’s self-imposed exile to Milton Keynes seems very wise. There were any number of clever little twists and pieces of writing; Constance’s mystification with blogs, Facebook, mobile phones – technology in general – is very funny. Mark and Tanya moving in, and Tanya’s subsequent entrepreneurial flourishing, was a poignant interlude in the superficiality of Constance’s life.I raced through January to May without any difficulty… it was only when Sophie’s adventures went from the absurd to the ridiculous and the village antics reached their strange peak that I tired of Constance’s self-indulgent tone. I’ve only given this 6/10 because I feel it’s too light and fluffy to get more, but it is an entertaining work. If this sounds like fun to you, you might like to check out Constance’s latest adventures – a blog on the Penguin website, with parenting advice for the Duchess of Cambridge… It was cute. I liked the British girl who is just clueless and slightly dim-witted take on a year in the life of a housewife. I thought it was a Wodehouse meets Adrian Mole meets Fawlty Towers all mashed up. Meet Constance Harding, upperclass wife to lawyer Jeffrey who is only known to the reader through her descriptions of him. He seems slightly boring and mechanical and typical. They have 2 children, Sophie and Rupert and they are either going through the general angst of early adulthood (taking off with middle aged Russian thugs or coming out of the closet respectively)Constant starts a blog and chats about her life for a year. The reader is privy to what she knows, which isn't much, and through her stumbles and slightly snobby perceptions of life we can laugh along with her and at her and if you have nothing better to read perhaps become immersed in her thoughts about life and her children and her constant efforts at matchmaking. She has a few friends and has a heart despite her preoccupations with the luxuries of life and people's manners etc.It was sort of predictable but something kept me reading despite having like ten other books going at the same time. I think because I enjoyed Jeeves and Adrian Moles adventures and likened them to be more original I was a little annoyed at this, but not even to DNF it. If you like brit humour this is for you!
What do You think about The Tumultuous Year Of Constance Harding: A Novel (2013)?
Really wanted to like but did not. I just couldn't like the main character enough to soldier on.
—Pau1203
Amusing at times, but ultimately forgettable. Was a quick, easy read for a day of travel.
—Amit
A laugh a minute. Just ask my coworkers and the people where I had my car inspected.
—ricaday
Really funny, but not any kind of serious literature. Still, very fun to read.
—Marie
