What a nice little essay. I have never read any Pym, but maybe I should. I am currently reading a few of Alice Munro’s short stories for the first time, and this reminded me in places of those, especially that nicely phrased reference to “the humanism of survival and small satisfactions.”
Ditto to the previous commentator’s remarks about this essay. The piece is a reminder of why I like to read book reviews. Almost always, my favorite ones have turned me on to something I didn’t know much about before reading the review.
I certainly had heard of Barbara Pym before, but I didn’t know quite so much about her. That lack in my education has now been removed. Am I correct in assuming that Anita Brookner & Margaret Drabble are fellow resident of the same neighborhood as Pym? Brookner’s name in particular popped into my head as I read the review.
Thank you for commenting! It's always a treat for me when a writer comes to me with an unexpected enthusiasm—it often makes a great piece because they've been turning over in their mind for a while just what it is that speaks to them. I'll ask Sarah about Brookner and Drabble! I haven't read them much my self but it's my sense from the outside that they were more participants in the British social literary scene than Pym, who was very much an outsider.
What a nice little essay. I have never read any Pym, but maybe I should. I am currently reading a few of Alice Munro’s short stories for the first time, and this reminded me in places of those, especially that nicely phrased reference to “the humanism of survival and small satisfactions.”
It's a hard virtue to speak up for!
Ditto to the previous commentator’s remarks about this essay. The piece is a reminder of why I like to read book reviews. Almost always, my favorite ones have turned me on to something I didn’t know much about before reading the review.
I certainly had heard of Barbara Pym before, but I didn’t know quite so much about her. That lack in my education has now been removed. Am I correct in assuming that Anita Brookner & Margaret Drabble are fellow resident of the same neighborhood as Pym? Brookner’s name in particular popped into my head as I read the review.
guess I’ll have to put Miss Pym on the tbr pile.
Thank you for commenting! It's always a treat for me when a writer comes to me with an unexpected enthusiasm—it often makes a great piece because they've been turning over in their mind for a while just what it is that speaks to them. I'll ask Sarah about Brookner and Drabble! I haven't read them much my self but it's my sense from the outside that they were more participants in the British social literary scene than Pym, who was very much an outsider.