What I'm Reading

"Woman with a Book" by Vanessa Bell

"What are you reading?" I ask my friends all the time and they ask me. Everyone is in a book group and we're all talking about books. I am happy to say that during the last few months I have made some serious inroads on my ever-growing stack on my nightstand. And it feels so good! I recently finished four books that I wanted to share with you. They are an eclectic group -- each one is very good and different from the others.

Vanessa And Her Sister by Priya Parmar

At first glance, an historical novel about Bloomsbury sounded intriguing. Though I wondered what more could be said as there has been so much non-fiction material about Bloomsbury over the years -- biographies, memoirs, diaries and letters. But there was one voice that hadn't been heard from even though she was probably the most admired member of the group. That was the voice of the artist Vanessa Bell. She was reserved -- early on her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, pronounced that she, Virginia, was the writer and Vanessa was the painter. She didn't keep a diary, write a memoir or send many letters. But fortunately the other more verbose members of the group wrote about her. She plays a big part in many of their memoirs and letters. Consequently there was a great deal of source material available for a novelist to drawn upon to invent a diary for Vanessa Bell.

This is what Priya Primar has done in her new novel about Vanessa Bell and the early days of the Bloomsbury Group. It consists entirely of invented diary entries, letters and telegrams, a format that works very well. The book captures the essence of this beloved woman and for the first time gives us an idea of how she probably felt about several big issues: dealing with her brilliant and emotionally fragile sister, the writer Virginia Woolf; learning about the affair between her sister Virginia and her husband Clive Bell; and being an artist during the early days of the modern art movement that was exploding in Paris and London. She was in the middle of it all and somehow managed to stay centered. She also managed to live at Charleston Farmhouse with the love of her life, the artist Duncan Grant, for fifty years. It was there that they created art together, painting in their studio and glorious garden. They also decorated the entire house with their artwork.

I finished this book with tears in my eyes. Choosing to write about the early years (1905-1912) in the lives of these two sisters just before both their careers were about to be take off gives the book a poignancy for anyone who knows the outcomes. And focusing on the fraught relationship between Virginia and Vanessa tells the Bloomsbury story in a new way and gives it an unexpected freshness. Be sure to pay attention to the two letters that frame the book. I had to go back and reread them to understand their significance. Parmar includes an addendum that lets us know what happens to all of these people in later years. Don't miss this book, whether you are a fan of the Bloomsbury Group or not. I loved it.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I only recently learned about Elena Ferrante. I read an excellent article in the New York Times and knew I had to read one of her books. She is an Italian writer whose identity remains a mystery; she publishes under a pseudonym and fiercely guards her privacy. "My Brilliant Friend" is the first book in what is known as her "Naples series." It is about a young woman named Elena -- her childhood and adolescence in the rough neighborhoods of Naples. It is also about her intense and competitive friendship with her friend Lila.

This book took me a long time to get into because of the raw and violent nature of its story. But once I dropped my resistance I felt the power of the author's theme: a friendship between two women that seems unbreakable despite the most difficult odds. I became fascinated by their story of growing up in the working classes of Naples in the 1950's amidst poverty, danger, and violence. And the serious challenges of being a woman in that environment. The two women at the center of the book are polar opposites in many ways and it is the mysterious chemistry that holds them together as friends that is the essence of this novel. It is intense and at times disturbing, but you get the sense that this is an honest depiction of life as it was. This is definitely not cozy fiction, but one that will startle you with its brutal honesty and enlighten you about the rich and complex lives of the women in this culture. I am so glad I read it. 

Americanah  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  

An excellent book about the immigrant experience and race, "Americanah" tells the story of a Nigerian woman Ifemelu and her Nigerian boyfriend Obinze who seek to leave Nigeria for America. After meeting in high school and falling in love, they are both determined to get out of their country which is falling apart under military rule. Ifemelu makes it to America on a student visa, wins a fellowship at Princeton and eventually becomes the author of a successful blog about race. Many of her blog posts are included in this  novel and it is her sharp and witty voice that is the soul of the book. However, before she becomes successful, she undergoes the harrowing experience of searching for gainful employment in America. After many rejections, she reluctantly accepts a job of which she is so deeply ashamed that she must hide it from Obinze. It ultimately causes her to end their relationship.

In the meantime Obinze is unable to get to America post-September 11 and goes to London instead where he holds mostly menial jobs. He eventually returns to Nigeria, finds financial success, gets married and has children. But he is never really happy as is unaware of why Ifemelu has broken off their relationship. She comes back as well and settles into life in Nigeria. They both have trouble settling in as they are changed and one of the big themes of this book is the difficulty of fitting back into their culture after becoming an "Americanah." This immigrant saga is a love story as well as a meditation on race. It manages to be very funny as well as sharp in its social commentary. It is thought-provoking on so many issues and beautifully written. I highly recommend this one.  

And finally, if you are looking for something light and delicious, look no further than "Pomfret Towers" by Angela Thirkell. Reading her books is like drinking a glass of champagne. These comic novels are set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire, a landscape that Angela Thirkell borrowed from Anthony Trollope. They are about bright young things falling in love amidst ancestral country homes and English eccentrics. Along the way, there is enough comedy and social satire to make you laugh out loud. In the tradition of Jane Austen, each book ends with an engagement.

Most of the action in "Pomfret Towers" takes place during a country house weekend. The Earl of Pomfret has decided to open up his grand house to his neighbors for a house party. His guests of honor are two charming young people: the shy Alice Barton and her brother Guy. They are the children of Mr. Barton, a prosperous local architect and his wife Mrs. Barton, a writer of historical fiction. If you read Angela Thirkell enough, you will notice that there are often writers, editors and publishers in her books. And they are usually the source of comedy. It is as if she is poking fun at her own profession with these characters. In this book she also includes Mrs. Rivers, a writer of romance novels and her publisher Mr. Johns.

Mrs. Barton has decided that this weekend is the time for young Alice to learn to socialize. Alice is terrified of the experience, but makes the effort. It will be a turning point for her. The other guests at the house party are:  Julian Rivers, an arrogant young artist; Roddy and Sally Wicklow, an extremely likable and outdoorsy brother and sister; and Giles Foster, nephew and heir of the present Lord Pomfret. Everyone wonders which lucky girl will catch his eye. And although Alice is anxious about the weekend, by the end of it she breaks out of her shell, makes new friends, and falls in love. As in most of Angela Thirkell's books there are several endearing characters who help smooth misunderstandings and solve problems along the way. They will make you smile. "Pomfret Towers" is a total delight.

Spring Reading

  

When I think of Angela Thirkell, images of spring and summer come to mind... 

Maybe because weekends in the country, strawberries and champagne, cricket matches, summer fetes, walks in the garden, and tea on the lawn are featured in so many of her novels. These are books to chase away the winter doldrums. Just look at her titles: Summer Half, Wild Strawberries, August Folly. Now that spring has arrived, I decided to go on a little Angela Thirkell binge and try to make a dent in some of the books I brought home from England last fall. Virago Modern Classics has reprinted many of her titles and when I spotted them in a bookstore in the Cotswolds I snatched up as many as I could find. So far I've read Wild Strawberries (go here) and High Rising. Both of which I loved.  

Right now I am happily immersed in Pomfret Towers and laughing out loud at some of the funny passages about the Earl of Pomfret who rules the little town of Nutfield. Here is the opening of the book: 

"Nutfield is quite the most delightful town in that part of England...The town itself is on the estate of the seventh Earl of Pomfret, who refuses to allow chain store or cinemas, and exercises a personal and terrifying supervision over the exterior of shops and garages. The principal inhabitants of Nutfield are occasionally invited to dine at Pomfret Towers, but without their wives, as Lady Pomfret, who is an invalid, mostly lives abroad. These evenings are celebrated for their appalling tedium, but no one has been known to refuse an invitation. Respectable heads of family have been heard comparing notes about his lordship's dullness and rudeness, even boasting with some complacence when he has singled out one of them by some special neglect or deliberate want of courtesy. Anything that is one's own property tends to acquire lustre in one's own eyes...So did the inhabitants of Nutfield boast about Lord Pomfret's rudeness, looking down with condescending pity upon their less fortunate neighbors."


There are many comic characters and Mrs. Barton is one of my favorites. She is a writer of historical fiction who lives with her husband and children in the old dower house on the earl's estate. Her husband is a prosperous, local architect with a talent for handling old buildings with care and discretion. He has retained the beauty of their old house while making it a comfortable place to live:

"Mr. Barton had a hard struggle with Lord Pomfret before he could install central heating, his lordship having the firm conviction that only foreigners liked their houses heated...

When once the heating was installed, Mr. Barton had no fault to find with his house. The fine Jacobean building on the north, where the kitchen and servants were now housed, the large dignified south front which was added about 1760, were described in every guide book, though not all of them mentioned what was perhaps in its master's eyes its most peculiar beauty. This was a two-storey gardener's cottage...Of...this Mr. Barton was a passionate lover and faithful guardian, finding it of infinite comfort when his wife seemed farther away than usual.

Mrs. Barton was well known as the author of several learned historical novels about the more obscure bastards of Popes and Cardinals...Owing so much to living in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, she sometimes found it difficult to remember where she was. She was an excellent housekeeper, who never failed to care for her family and give them good food, and all servants adored  her, but though she never obtruded her work, or spoke of it as if it mattered, she only had to go into her sitting room and take up a paper or a book, to be at once engulfed in the ocean of the past, re-living with intensity the lives of people about whom little was known and whose very existence was dubious. When the tide ebbed, leaving her stranded upon the shores of everyday life, she would emerge in a dazed condition to preside at her own table, or take a fitful interest in her neighbors. Her own son and daughter she treated as amusing guests who happened to be making a prolonged stay, though her anxiety for Alice, a delicate girl, the younger by several years, pursued her even among her books and research." 

Somehow Thirkell manages to be a combination of Jane Austen, Nancy Mitford and Barbara Pym. 

If you are missing "Downton Abbey" and the time period between the two wars, Angela Thirkell's books are a good place to find it. She wrote 29 novels in all, nearly one a year from 1933 to 1961, all set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire. After two failed marriages, financial problems forced her to come up with a way to pay the bills. She became a writer, starting out as a journalist and going on to create the imaginary world of these comic novels which are now known as The Barsetshire Novels. Mostly they are about bright young women falling in love amidst ancestral country homes and English eccentrics. Funny and often poignant, they are the kind of books that will take you away from it all. When I learned that Thirkell was the goddaughter of J.M. Barrie -- she had a rich literary and artistic heritage -- I wasn't surprised that she became a writer of such sparkling, witty and pleasurable novels.     

Here is a description of her writing from the back of one of her books:

"A perfect balance of satirical observation and chocolate-box charm."

-- The Lady

Exactly what I'm in the mood for now that spring has arrived.

  Surrey, England -- June, 2010

And speaking of spring, wouldn't this be the perfect place to read Angela Thirkell's books?

What are you reading right now? Do your tastes change with the seasons?

Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell

If you are in the mood for a sparkling novel that will take you away from it all, then I have the perfect book for you. Think Downton Abbey, Nancy Mitford and Sabrina (remember the wonderful film with Audrey Hepburn) all rolled into one. It is both funny and poignant. When I was in London and realized I needed a book to read at night (I had shipped all my Hatchards' purchases home), I wandered into a neighborhood bookstore and discovered Wild Strawberries by the little-known British writer Angela Thirkell.

I had never heard of Thirkell and did a little research to discover who she was.  Born in 1890, she had a rich literary and artistic heritage. Her father was a professor of poetry at Oxford and her mother was the daughter of Edward Burne-Jones, the pre-Raphaelite painter. She was related to Rudyard Kipling and was the goddaughter of J.M. Barrie. After two failed marriages, financial problems forced her to find a way to pay the bills. She found the answer as a writer. She worked first as a journalist and then as the author of a series of comic novels that are known as The Baretshire Novels, set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. Her books were popular and sold well. Wild Strawberries and High Rising were two of the most successful. Originally published in the 1930's, they have both recently been reprinted by Virago Modern Classics.

The title Wild Strawberries refers to a promise made by the dashing David Leslie, one of the brothers in the large and eccentric Leslie family, to obtain wild strawberries for Mary Preston, the 23-year old distant niece of David's sister Agnes. Mary has come to stay for the summer with the Leslie family at their ancestral home Rushwater House. Naturally she falls in love with the warm and loving Leslie family, but also with the handsome and charming, though wildly unsuitable David. There is, of course, a much more suitable brother in this family for Mary, the older John who lost his wife after one year of marriage. He is a widower with no children. Smart, dependable and kind, he is a catch. And he  begins to fall in love with Mary. But she is blind to his attractiveness because of her infatuation with his brother David. Definite echoes of Sabrina here.

The Leslie family is one that stays with you. They also reappear in other books by Thirkell. The glue that holds them all together is the matriarch Lady Edith, maddeningly eccentric, but saved from being irritating by her generosity, kindness and loyalty. The family, servants, vicar, and neighbors all adore her. Even though she and her husband Henry are the only official residents at Rushwater, the entire family of grown children seem to always be there. One of the family rituals occurs each morning. Everyone is in and out of Lady Edith's bedroom, where she holds court. They all check in with her as they plan their days. This is the setting for many comic scenes.

Edith's husband Henry patiently endures his wife's eccentricities, though he is another classic English eccentric and will remind you of Uncle Matthew in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. I laughed out loud at some of his dialogue. Making up the rest of the family are the two Leslie brothers John and David, mentioned above, as well as their sister Lady Agnes and her two children. Agnes's husband is always away on business, but she never seems to mind since she appears to be completely satisfied by the company of her children and her mother.  There was an older brother, the heir to the estate, who died during the war. His sixteen-year-old son Martin looks exactly like his father, a poignant fact for the rest of the family. He lives at Rushwater where he is being raised by his grandparents. He and his uncle David are very close and act more like brothers than uncle and nephew. Young Martin is one of the most endearing characters I have met in a book in a long time.

Rounding out the cast of characters are the vicar, the nannies, and the servants with all their rivalries and dramas. This is where the comparison to Downton Abbey comes in. The book is a portrait of an old English family living in the time period between the two wars. There are cricket matches, train arrivals, formal dinners, glamorous parties, and drives around the countryside in sports cars. Other characters who get involved with the family are a fawning horticulturist who snares invitations to stay with all the old families in the area, an ambitious young woman who works at the BBC, and a French family who rents the vicarage for the summer, much to the horror of Mr. Leslie.   

Martin is a beloved member of the family and to celebrate his seventeenth birthday, Lady Edith decides to give a glamorous dinner dance. This is the social event of the summer and everyone in the village is invited. Much of the plot revolves around the preparation for this event and much of the drama comes to a climax there.

This book was a fun read, light and frothy, but with a serious and poignant side. The war has affected all of the characters. Martin, who lost his father, must learn to adapt. In his case, the big sprawling Leslie family holds the key to his recovery. This book is a delightful love story and very funny as well.  It will sweep you away to a lighter, brighter world. Reading it is as refreshing and diverting as champagne and strawberries on a summer day.