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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
This book was humorous and poked fun at the world of academia a little bit. It felt different than Pym's other books since the main character was younger, cynical, and not involved with the church. I liked this one and am really coming to enjoy Pym's work.
funny
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I always enjoy Barbara Pym's work; this was a re-read for me and this time it felt a little bleak. Caro is married, not quite happily, to a professor at a provincial university in England. She has a small daughter, an au pair, and seems to be very much at a loose end much of the time. She seems to drift along and not find much meaning in anything. The understated social comedy is what keeps me coming back to Barbara Pym books; I was definitely not feeling it this time.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
I really enjoy books set in a university setting. I mean, the academic jealousy, the backbiting, the scramble for tenure and promotion--it makes my heart sing. This book is set in a university that was once a technical school--makes you long to go there doesn't it? A young lecturer's wife, Caro, who is bored and resentful of her husband's focus on his research, begins volunteering at an old folk's home--of the very highest sort, of course--and stumbles across a retired professor who has some unpublished manuscripts which would help her husband in his work. Yes, and there the fun begins. Her description of parties and dinners in the academic world took me straight back to my graduate school days. Well played, Ms. Pym.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
It pains me to say this was a disappointing read, especially because Pym’s Excellent Women which I read years ago was a 5-star reading experience for me.
An Academic Question, written in 1971, lacks Pym’s assured, easy observational writing style. It lacks her usual witticisms and subtle irony. The characters seem superficial and are surprisingly shallow. Caroline Grimstone, Caro as she is referred to in the book is the central protagonist - a shallow, unhappy, weak-charactered sort of woman, who refuses to deal with her unsatisfactory life through a potent combination of sheer laziness and stubbornness! She allows her husband Alan to manipulate and use her and even forgives him adultery on the flimsiest excuse!
The other characters too felt under-developed. There was potential but it remained unexplored and unfulfilled. Crispin Maynard, Kitty & Coco, Dolly, Iris Horniblow, all promised much and delivered little. Evan Cranton & his wife Menna seemed most realistic to me but they had minuscule parts. Caro & Alan were an entirely unsympathetic couple. I did not wish them well. Also, the ‘academic question’ in and of itself was boring and inconsequential and although it made for an interesting title, (I read that Pym herself didn’t name her manuscript after completion), it had very little to do with the subject matter.
Ultimately, it felt like Pym’s heart was not in this book. She seems at sea with her setting and her characters, unsure of their behaviour and motivations. It’s almost like she’s trying hard, too hard, to be contemporary while unable to accept that times have changed! It left an unsettling, confused feeling in my mind and left me wanting to go back and re-read Excellent Women to return to and enjoy vintage Pym at the height of her craft!
Forgettable. Avoidable.
An Academic Question, written in 1971, lacks Pym’s assured, easy observational writing style. It lacks her usual witticisms and subtle irony. The characters seem superficial and are surprisingly shallow. Caroline Grimstone, Caro as she is referred to in the book is the central protagonist - a shallow, unhappy, weak-charactered sort of woman, who refuses to deal with her unsatisfactory life through a potent combination of sheer laziness and stubbornness! She allows her husband Alan to manipulate and use her and even forgives him adultery on the flimsiest excuse!
The other characters too felt under-developed. There was potential but it remained unexplored and unfulfilled. Crispin Maynard, Kitty & Coco, Dolly, Iris Horniblow, all promised much and delivered little. Evan Cranton & his wife Menna seemed most realistic to me but they had minuscule parts. Caro & Alan were an entirely unsympathetic couple. I did not wish them well. Also, the ‘academic question’ in and of itself was boring and inconsequential and although it made for an interesting title, (I read that Pym herself didn’t name her manuscript after completion), it had very little to do with the subject matter.
Ultimately, it felt like Pym’s heart was not in this book. She seems at sea with her setting and her characters, unsure of their behaviour and motivations. It’s almost like she’s trying hard, too hard, to be contemporary while unable to accept that times have changed! It left an unsettling, confused feeling in my mind and left me wanting to go back and re-read Excellent Women to return to and enjoy vintage Pym at the height of her craft!
Forgettable. Avoidable.
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have heard nothing but adoration and praise for Barbara Pym, and every time I came across one of the novels, I would pick them up without any real hesitation. I want to preface this by saying that this hasn't soured my view of Pym or put me off reading any more of her work. I think I just chose the wrong book to start with.
Out of the three books I own of hers, An Academic Question seemed the most interesting to me. A bored, unhappy faculty wife begins reading to a blind, elderly anthropologist in a nursing home, and her husband uses this to steal his very secret papers--research that can advance his reputation as well as dispute the work of a fellow colleague who he is in competition with.
I was hooked by this blurb; I was desperate to read it and so, when the time came around to read a Pym novel, this was the one I picked up. Alarm bells started to tinkle once I read the introduction (Kate Saunders), which stated that Pym had written two versions of this book: in first person, which she abandoned mid-way for being 'too cosy', and in third, which seemed to lose its charm. An Academic Question was published post-humously, and is acknowledged as being not one of her finest works.
The novel was just very brisk to me. I didn't feel engaged with any of the characters, even though some showed some flair and eccentricity, offering moments of charm and humour. The theft of the papers happened approximately three to five chapters in, and nothing more was really said of it. There were no real emotions in the characters about what they had done, and the tension of returning the manuscript was meek with barely any pulse. The comedy wasn't really there for me, either, and this may be because this is my first Pym read.
I do want to return to this book after I've read some of her other works, because maybe I will appreciate it a lot more then but for now, I found this very underwhelming and I didn't particularly enjoy reading it.
Out of the three books I own of hers, An Academic Question seemed the most interesting to me. A bored, unhappy faculty wife begins reading to a blind, elderly anthropologist in a nursing home, and her husband uses this to steal his very secret papers--research that can advance his reputation as well as dispute the work of a fellow colleague who he is in competition with.
I was hooked by this blurb; I was desperate to read it and so, when the time came around to read a Pym novel, this was the one I picked up. Alarm bells started to tinkle once I read the introduction (Kate Saunders), which stated that Pym had written two versions of this book: in first person, which she abandoned mid-way for being 'too cosy', and in third, which seemed to lose its charm. An Academic Question was published post-humously, and is acknowledged as being not one of her finest works.
The novel was just very brisk to me. I didn't feel engaged with any of the characters, even though some showed some flair and eccentricity, offering moments of charm and humour. The theft of the papers happened approximately three to five chapters in, and nothing more was really said of it. There were no real emotions in the characters about what they had done, and the tension of returning the manuscript was meek with barely any pulse. The comedy wasn't really there for me, either, and this may be because this is my first Pym read.
I do want to return to this book after I've read some of her other works, because maybe I will appreciate it a lot more then but for now, I found this very underwhelming and I didn't particularly enjoy reading it.