"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." — Stephen King
For a British novel that was published in 1950, the plot is surprising, and perhaps subversive: two unmarried sisters decline marriage proposals and live happily ever after. What! Why did they do that? Were the men were … Read More
What should a moderately successful novelist, who didn’t engage readers during the social revolutions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, do to stage a come back? Explore trends? Update her plots? Become provocative? Barbara Pym declined these … Read More
In 1978, the BBC invited Barbara Pym to be a guest on its program where well-known writers discussed their work. Her views on the “distinctive voice” of a writer was of particular interest: in the 1960s, her publisher declined her seventh novel because he said her style was “old fashioned.” … Read More
Even though this biography of novelist Barbara Pym was picked as a “Best Book of the Year 2021” by the London Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph, I was initially reluctant to read it. I didn’t want to learn things that would make me think less of … Read More
When the London Review of Books called Barbara Pym “a brilliant comic writer,” they had scenes like this in mind. Here’s how Pym does it: First, emotion is expressed – not by someone beautiful and in love, but by Daphne, the lonely older sister of the vicar. She points … Read More
One of the things that I love about Barbara Pym’s novels is that her characters never set out to impress anyone. They acknowledge that their choices – for example, attending an academic conference as treatment for a broken heart – are eccentric. They’re vulnerable, interesting, and sometimes fooled by … Read More
In a 1978 BBC radio program, Barbara Pym said, “Perhaps I’ve been influenced by something I was once told about Proust – that he was said to go over all his characters and make them worse.” I laughed when I heard this because Pym does have a way of … Read More
The vicar’s wife continues, “…and expose John as an imposter. I wanted it to happen, and not only for Ianthe’s good.” Wow! What a confession! The vicar’s wife – who we thought should be friends with Ianthe – disapproved of her marriage to John. Why? She thought John was, … Read More
When I read about “the unexpected joy of repeat experiences” during difficult times, I immediately thought of the pleasure I have in rereading novels by Barbara Pym. Surely one of the ways we can cope with the stress of an international pandemic is to seek out the company of … Read More
Why do some novels draw me back year after year, while others – perhaps even more worthy – do not? Maybe, as the NPR commentator noted, returning to books read multiple times is like having a drink with an old friend: a mixture of welcome familiarity and suspicion that … Read More
Or so Rhoda – the aunt in Barbara Pym’s Less Than Angels — thought would happen when “clever” people came to visit the family. Instead, however, she found that the visitors’ sentences could be compared to “scrubbing-brushes, dish cloths, knives” which sometimes “fell to the ground with resounding thuds.” … Read More
Wilmet, the main character in Barbara Pym’s novel A Glass of Blessings, after spending a frustrating afternoon with do-gooder Mary, observes that wicked people were often much more fun to be with. I believe that if Wilmet were a real person, she and I would be friends: she is … Read More