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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
A subtle and strange book that refuses to be anything but itself. Mortimer's prose is pared-back, full of vivid imagery, and very compelling to read. The main character has had six children with a number of different husbands, and feels unable to exert any control over her life. She thinks that she's only good at having children, and can find nothing to moor herself to life. The story is desolate and darkly emotional.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Abortion
Minor: Racial slurs, Racism
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought about my rating of this for a while but I decided to go with this as I really didn't like it personally, even though I see some merits. The thing is, it's tough to pinpoint what I really dislike and I absolutely acknowledge this might be my own mood and faults. And I think if you've been in a similar situation you would appreciate it a lot more because you'd be able to fill in some of the gaps I found confusing.
The first thing is that the main character shows contempt to pretty much everyone else. At several points (particularly with a character named Philpot) she looks down on people poorer than her. She makes some really dodgy comments on race. She shows no fondness for her children at any point. It's not exactly a good start. She also whines about being rich - this is the most obvious thing for me to explain my dislike of the book. Nothing annoys me more than this. She complains about how having cleaners and nurses have made her feel alienated. Why couldn't she just dismiss the nurses, given she doesn't work and she's apparently not doing other housework? Who knows! Later she apparently has 1 nurse for her large amount of children and does some caring for them but she's annoyed about having to take care of children so I guess nothing pleases her. She reminiscences about a time when she was poor and apparently it was perfect. Incredible. Wow. I feel so sorry for you, having a massive income.
There are vague elements that seem like they're going to be surreal but just resolve into nothing. There's a tower being built in the countryside and things are going to be good after they move in? Sounds interesting. Oh, it just gets built and they live there for a summer and that's it. Wow. Her children are never given a number and most aren't described? Sounds vaguely spooky but several are named and described, she just ignores the vast majority, which makes her seem even more of an ass.
A big element of the book is her children, but as said above she doesn't seem to like them much. She only talks about one in any detail and just gives ages to a few others. Yet she talks about how she wants one, Children have defined her life. This probably sounds like it reflects a fundamental ambiguity of being a woman or something but it's written poorly. An event later is really horrible for her and is the one point in the book where I feel incredibly sorry for her yet I still don't understand. She regularly gets annoyed by her children, yet she hates parting with them or the possibility of them. She doesn't spend time with her children or care for them, yet they're presented as some sort of obstacle in her life. It's baffling.
The most important "poor writing" element is that she never really talks about her feelings. This is a first person narrative yet we rarely get to find out what she's really feeling. There's sort of some of it but mostly she describes events with maybe just "what exact emotion she's feeling at the moment". Yes, to a certain extent it's clear this is deliberate, that she's confused as to how she feels, but it's ridiculous for a whole book.
There's an attempt at treating the events that happen as inevitable but it really doesn't work at all. She clearly acts in ways that changed her life, entirely of her own accord. There's no reason to believe anything in this book is inevitable from the text (even though it is believable in a real life context). She's had children by several different men during long term relationships/marriages, leaving all but two by choice (one by death, one because she's still married). She's apparently still attractive and there's no reason to believe she couldn't leave again but she basically says "oh yeah I can't" at a couple points with no reason - I mean it's weird enough that every one of her partners was totally cool with her previous kids but they apparently were so anything is believable. She describes something bad that happened early on (Simpkin) and I can understand that she was encouraged to do something but it was again her choice, her decisions and what happened was a weird kiss that she stopped of her own accord and was respected in doing so. This is described later on as if it was really awful, the worst thing a man can do. Don't get me wrong - he is clearly a creepy, disgusting, lecherous man. But her reaction doesn't fit her own choice to phone this guy up and ask to meet him while having a vague idea what will happen. The problem again is the emotions are inconsistent and poorly described so even bad events are confusing to understand from her perspective. She talks about inevitability yet at no point does she seem coerced and on the contrary actually takes decisions completely against typical standards for women and succeeds while doing so. There's vague stuff about gender roles but it feels completely unconvincing. Even though I know how awful expectations and pressures on women can be, the book only really vaguely alludes to it. The lack of convincingness is the main problem here.
I could go on. There's just nothing convincing, no real development of character, no way you can really empathise. It just feels like an inconsistent mush, with the actual sad and awful events completely brought down by the set-up. The ending isn't anything special in any respect, although it again tries some vague surrealism and presumably it's symbolic. It does nothing for me really. Just a poor ending to a poor book.
The first thing is that the main character shows contempt to pretty much everyone else. At several points (particularly with a character named Philpot) she looks down on people poorer than her. She makes some really dodgy comments on race. She shows no fondness for her children at any point. It's not exactly a good start. She also whines about being rich - this is the most obvious thing for me to explain my dislike of the book. Nothing annoys me more than this. She complains about how having cleaners and nurses have made her feel alienated. Why couldn't she just dismiss the nurses, given she doesn't work and she's apparently not doing other housework? Who knows! Later she apparently has 1 nurse for her large amount of children and does some caring for them but she's annoyed about having to take care of children so I guess nothing pleases her. She reminiscences about a time when she was poor and apparently it was perfect. Incredible. Wow. I feel so sorry for you, having a massive income.
There are vague elements that seem like they're going to be surreal but just resolve into nothing. There's a tower being built in the countryside and things are going to be good after they move in? Sounds interesting. Oh, it just gets built and they live there for a summer and that's it. Wow. Her children are never given a number and most aren't described? Sounds vaguely spooky but several are named and described, she just ignores the vast majority, which makes her seem even more of an ass.
A big element of the book is her children, but as said above she doesn't seem to like them much. She only talks about one in any detail and just gives ages to a few others. Yet she talks about how she wants one,
Spoiler
apparently deliberately gets one against the wishes of her husband (somehow? did she mess up contraception or what? surely he'd have expected the possibility? i don't know).Spoiler
She is strongly encouraged to have her uterus removed and fetus aborted under false pretences. Yet she hasn't mentioned why she wants the baby - it seems like a bizarre spur of the moment thing. This is probably a metaphor for womanhood or something but it just doesn't work at allThe most important "poor writing" element is that she never really talks about her feelings. This is a first person narrative yet we rarely get to find out what she's really feeling. There's sort of some of it but mostly she describes events with maybe just "what exact emotion she's feeling at the moment". Yes, to a certain extent it's clear this is deliberate, that she's confused as to how she feels, but it's ridiculous for a whole book.
There's an attempt at treating the events that happen as inevitable but it really doesn't work at all. She clearly acts in ways that changed her life, entirely of her own accord. There's no reason to believe anything in this book is inevitable from the text (even though it is believable in a real life context). She's had children by several different men during long term relationships/marriages, leaving all but two by choice (one by death, one because she's still married). She's apparently still attractive and there's no reason to believe she couldn't leave again but she basically says "oh yeah I can't" at a couple points with no reason - I mean it's weird enough that every one of her partners was totally cool with her previous kids but they apparently were so anything is believable. She describes something bad that happened early on (Simpkin) and I can understand that she was encouraged to do something but it was again her choice, her decisions and what happened was a weird kiss that she stopped of her own accord and was respected in doing so. This is described later on as if it was really awful, the worst thing a man can do. Don't get me wrong - he is clearly a creepy, disgusting, lecherous man. But her reaction doesn't fit her own choice to phone this guy up and ask to meet him while having a vague idea what will happen. The problem again is the emotions are inconsistent and poorly described so even bad events are confusing to understand from her perspective. She talks about inevitability yet at no point does she seem coerced and on the contrary actually takes decisions completely against typical standards for women and succeeds while doing so. There's vague stuff about gender roles but it feels completely unconvincing. Even though I know how awful expectations and pressures on women can be, the book only really vaguely alludes to it. The lack of convincingness is the main problem here.
I could go on. There's just nothing convincing, no real development of character, no way you can really empathise. It just feels like an inconsistent mush, with the actual sad and awful events completely brought down by the set-up. The ending isn't anything special in any respect, although it again tries some vague surrealism and presumably it's symbolic. It does nothing for me really. Just a poor ending to a poor book.
The Pumpkin Eater is a cry for help, a panicked, desperate, badly wounded novel about a mid 20th century woman trapped in a poisonous marriage. Mortimer depicts this in fragmented, arresting stream of consciousness as Mrs. Armitage, our unnamed main character, grapples with the infidelity and cruel emotional abuse of her husband Jake. The Pumpkin Eater as a whole is a damning polemic against the social and economic power men had over women within marriages of Mortimer's time, attempting to illustrate this through Mrs. Armitage's helplessness in improving her situation and her mental breakdown as a result, while juxtaposing this suffering against the banality and hollow comfort of upper class life.
A major thrust of the novel, and its boldest choice, is the portrayal of children as vehicles of marital control rather than as integral family members themselves. Indeed for Mortimer here the entirety of the focus is on husband and wife, and the ways in which they attempt to use children to wrest control of their marriage back from one another. Mrs. Armitage has many children, and is criticized for not quietly aborting but instead keeping all of them, ending up with a great brood of children that Jake resents her for. She enjoys having and loves her children, up until the end of the novel when she realizes through a phone call that Jake and other husbands could weaponize children to preserve the status quo of a marriage, to ensure their wives' continued subservience without having to alter their behavior in any way.
The other through line of the novel, the great tower they build for themselves to theoretically relax in, is in actuality a prison, an edifice to her marriage itself, a glass case in which Mrs. Armitage is held, her children themselves sent as jailers ensuring she cannot escape and her life cannot change. Needless to say The Pumpkin Eater is a bitter, angry, deeply sad book, and justifiably so given its contents. The manic flow of the novel feels authentic to a fault, in that sometimes it gets lost within itself, feeling less like a meticulously composed stream of consciousness and more scattered and messy. The characters, especially men in this novel are all lonely, nasty, and disillusioned, no one believes in anything, no one feels they are capable of love, and this specific type of person would be the worst possible one to be unable to escape from, making for a compelling but often miserable, difficult read.
A major thrust of the novel, and its boldest choice, is the portrayal of children as vehicles of marital control rather than as integral family members themselves. Indeed for Mortimer here the entirety of the focus is on husband and wife, and the ways in which they attempt to use children to wrest control of their marriage back from one another. Mrs. Armitage has many children, and is criticized for not quietly aborting but instead keeping all of them, ending up with a great brood of children that Jake resents her for. She enjoys having and loves her children, up until the end of the novel when she realizes through a phone call that Jake and other husbands could weaponize children to preserve the status quo of a marriage, to ensure their wives' continued subservience without having to alter their behavior in any way.
The other through line of the novel, the great tower they build for themselves to theoretically relax in, is in actuality a prison, an edifice to her marriage itself, a glass case in which Mrs. Armitage is held, her children themselves sent as jailers ensuring she cannot escape and her life cannot change. Needless to say The Pumpkin Eater is a bitter, angry, deeply sad book, and justifiably so given its contents. The manic flow of the novel feels authentic to a fault, in that sometimes it gets lost within itself, feeling less like a meticulously composed stream of consciousness and more scattered and messy. The characters, especially men in this novel are all lonely, nasty, and disillusioned, no one believes in anything, no one feels they are capable of love, and this specific type of person would be the worst possible one to be unable to escape from, making for a compelling but often miserable, difficult read.
emotional
funny
slow-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:
Yes