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booknookTitle: A Glass of Blessings
Author: Barbara Pym
Year: 1958
Our delightful first-person narrator is Wilmet Forsyth, a 1950s middle-class London housewife in her thirties. Pym takes the basic premise of boredom with one’s marriage amidst a backdrop of neighborhood gossip and makes it a compelling piece of character work as we’re exposed to each player and their dramas through Wilmet’s judgmental eyes.
I want to be clear: Wilmet is more enjoyable for her pettishness. Pym threads the needle between her narrator expressing biases and the narrative recognizing those biases—you’re never really expected to agree with Wilmet’s verdict on any of her acquaintances in order to proceed with the story. What I think helps, though, is that you probably will—while Wilmet is not a terribly accurate judge of character, she is a funny one and has sharp insights, and some critiques (of a minister’s spending or a man’s obsession with his car) will probably land. She’s like a friend who always brings good gossip, but who you know will gossip about you in turn. These are not unpleasant relationships, if you mind your expectations!
We meet Wilmet when she is looking for some occupation. Not employment, she happily scorns that, but she is bored and wants to fill her days with more than shopping. This leads her to become involved with her parish community (she attends a church called St. Luke’s, and the majority of the extended cast are here) and, at the same time, she connects with her best friend’s brother, Piers. Piers and the St. Luke’s crowd end up connecting in unexpected ways, especially as Wilmet introduces more people to the St. Luke’s network—she recommends a housekeeper for the rectory, which cements her ties to the three clergymen who serve the church.
The strength of this novel is in having so many interesting characters for Wilmet to observe. Objectively, Wilmet does very little. She goes places and talks to people, but the romances and deaths and controversies really belong to the wider cast. She manages a crush on Piers, but her giddiness shows largely in her telling of her own feelings, not in any dramatic actions to express that. Pym handles a dozen overlapping plotlines beautifully, and they all feel like authentic experiences for people in those roles during that era. If you enjoy careful observations of behavior and personality, or you like comedies of manners, this book is a great option.
Author: Barbara Pym
Year: 1958
Our delightful first-person narrator is Wilmet Forsyth, a 1950s middle-class London housewife in her thirties. Pym takes the basic premise of boredom with one’s marriage amidst a backdrop of neighborhood gossip and makes it a compelling piece of character work as we’re exposed to each player and their dramas through Wilmet’s judgmental eyes.
I want to be clear: Wilmet is more enjoyable for her pettishness. Pym threads the needle between her narrator expressing biases and the narrative recognizing those biases—you’re never really expected to agree with Wilmet’s verdict on any of her acquaintances in order to proceed with the story. What I think helps, though, is that you probably will—while Wilmet is not a terribly accurate judge of character, she is a funny one and has sharp insights, and some critiques (of a minister’s spending or a man’s obsession with his car) will probably land. She’s like a friend who always brings good gossip, but who you know will gossip about you in turn. These are not unpleasant relationships, if you mind your expectations!
We meet Wilmet when she is looking for some occupation. Not employment, she happily scorns that, but she is bored and wants to fill her days with more than shopping. This leads her to become involved with her parish community (she attends a church called St. Luke’s, and the majority of the extended cast are here) and, at the same time, she connects with her best friend’s brother, Piers. Piers and the St. Luke’s crowd end up connecting in unexpected ways, especially as Wilmet introduces more people to the St. Luke’s network—she recommends a housekeeper for the rectory, which cements her ties to the three clergymen who serve the church.
The strength of this novel is in having so many interesting characters for Wilmet to observe. Objectively, Wilmet does very little. She goes places and talks to people, but the romances and deaths and controversies really belong to the wider cast. She manages a crush on Piers, but her giddiness shows largely in her telling of her own feelings, not in any dramatic actions to express that. Pym handles a dozen overlapping plotlines beautifully, and they all feel like authentic experiences for people in those roles during that era. If you enjoy careful observations of behavior and personality, or you like comedies of manners, this book is a great option.