The second book of my Book Discussion group is "Excellent Women" by Barbara Pym. I'm starting to understand the selection of these books after going to my first discussion last Sunday. I was at least 20 years younger than everyone there. Though funny enough, many of the people in the discussion group felt exactly as I did about "Nathan Coulter" (see my review of that book below).
As for "Excellent Women," it has tinges of my gripes about "Nathan Coulter." This is a weird prim-and-proper English novel. It follows the life of a 30-something single woman named Mildred, who doesn't seem all that interested in getting married. She acts like she's 60, though, maybe even 70. If I had to make a Match.com profile for her, it would be "LIKES: Church, church jumble sales, tea, cooking books, everything boring. DISLIKES: Drama, men, science, liquor, everything interesting." This is no joke. Mildred loves church, loves solitude, and everything that infringes upon those loves is considered a bother...not that this isn't interesting, but rather an amusing undertone throughout the whole book. In fact, her commentary on her dislikes are hilarious. How she frets over every boring thing is hilarious. ("Oh no, the tea is not strong enough! How dreadful!") And whenever something comes up that contradicts her beliefs, well, please let the hilarity ensue! For example, her pastor, her married neighbor downstairs (Rocky), and Rocky's wife's business partner, Everard, are all interested in her. But #1 - She doesn't think pastors should marry. #2 - Rocky is married and apparently a playboy. He also seems to only like her because she possesses two qualities his wife lacks - Mildred can clean AND make tea. WOW!! And #3 - As perfect as Everard is for her (he even goes to church!), he's also an intellectual, which doesn't seem to thrill Mildred. My guess is that she hates science since it's interesting (and also tends to turn people atheist).
It's set in post-WWII England, but it might as well be 1850. The dialogue is just so sickeningly proper that sometimes I feel like writing a curse word somewhere to liven it up. Even on important subjects like DIVORCE, CHEATING, BREAK-UPS, and DEATH, Mildred takes a tone of, "Oh, of course one must miss one's husband when he leaves." Uh-huh. Way to state the obvious.
Despite the prim-and-proper plot, dialogue, and character (no stockings?! YOU REBEL!), the book is actually quite enjoyable. I won't rate it as the best book I've ever read, but I won't rate it as the worst either. Seeing as how I'm 20 pages from the end, I know the ending won't change my mind about this book. So, I'll tell you now. I'm giving it a 6/10 for easy reading, good character development, and a rather entertaining non-plot. Oh yes, non-plot...not nothingness like "Nathan Coulter," but more along the lines of nothing happens but everything happens. It's a very internal plot.
I'll let you know how the ending goes.
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