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sarasarasaraaaa's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mrh29992's review against another edition
4.0
This was my first book of Gibbons', and she is a writer I definitely want to explore more.
The Matchmaker is a fun, light story with a fun array of characters. - Alda, the quasi-protagonist and self proclaimed titular matchmaker, is interesting to read. Whilst she is definitely an intelligent, modern woman in many ways, she occasionally comes accross as quite an irritating busybody and know-it-all. But that does not alter how delightful she and her daughters are, and what a charming story Gibbons weaves around them.
I was actually most intrigued by the relationship of Jean Hardcastle and Philip Waite, as that gave me the impression of being an interesting, but not taxing, battle of the sexes. Waite, with his archaic views comes up against Alda and Jean and their much more modern ways. I am glad that things develop the way I do.
Gibbons is a delight in giving us real, fleshed out characters who are not wholly "good" or "bad", but are nuanced and feel charmingly real. And she evokes the rural year beautifully, weaving post-war issues into a neat pastoral romp.
The Matchmaker is a fun, light story with a fun array of characters. - Alda, the quasi-protagonist and self proclaimed titular matchmaker, is interesting to read. Whilst she is definitely an intelligent, modern woman in many ways, she occasionally comes accross as quite an irritating busybody and know-it-all. But that does not alter how delightful she and her daughters are, and what a charming story Gibbons weaves around them.
I was actually most intrigued by the relationship of Jean Hardcastle and Philip Waite, as that gave me the impression of being an interesting, but not taxing, battle of the sexes. Waite, with his archaic views comes up against Alda and Jean and their much more modern ways. I am glad that things develop the way I do.
Gibbons is a delight in giving us real, fleshed out characters who are not wholly "good" or "bad", but are nuanced and feel charmingly real. And she evokes the rural year beautifully, weaving post-war issues into a neat pastoral romp.
lbolesta's review against another edition
3.0
A bit draggy and not as much fun as Cold Comfort Farm.
annabelralph's review
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
lucyturnsthepage's review
4.0
*Actual rating 3.5*
It took me a while to get into this book and while it doesn’t compare to Cold Comfort Farm for me it was still a good read. I frequently found myself smiling along as I read and while the characters were less loveable than in Cold Comfort Farm the narrative style still made me want to find out what would happen to them.
It took me a while to get into this book and while it doesn’t compare to Cold Comfort Farm for me it was still a good read. I frequently found myself smiling along as I read and while the characters were less loveable than in Cold Comfort Farm the narrative style still made me want to find out what would happen to them.
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in February 2003.
Stella Gibbons is overwhelmingly best known as the author of the hilarious [b:Cold Comfort Farm|92780|Cold Comfort Farm |Stella Gibbons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288096s/92780.jpg|847348]; so much so that I was surprised to discover the existence of another novel. (It was in a furniture shop, one of a number of old second hand books used to make bookcase shelves look less bare; the shop assistant offered it to me when I picked it up and started looking through it.)
There are many stories about how people endured hardship during the Second World War; less well remembered (as less glamorous) is that life continued to be difficult for many people for some years following its end. In Britain, it was the first war accompanied by massive destruction at home for centuries (since the Civil War in England, or the Jacobean rising in Scotland). Many families were bombed out, and food rationing continued for years. The Matchmaker, published in 1949, is about one such family, driven from a middle class existence to a poor cottage in the country, and the people that they meet in the neighbourhood.
The father of the three girls is still in the army, on duty in occupied Germany, so the main focus is on their mother, Alda. She is the incorrigible matchmaker of the title, continually trying to pair people up. (This isn't apparent until the second half of the novel; up till then, Gibbons is describing how Alda and the girls settle in and establishing the characters of those around them, including the Italian prisoners of war working on the neighbouring farm.)
No one who reads this novel now, as forgotten as the aspect of post-War Britain it describes, is likely to be unfamiliar with Cold Comfort Farm. This makes it virtually impossible to read without constantly comparing the two. There are obvious links - both being about the English countryside, portraying it without the sentimentality that pastoral themes often evoke (Cold Comfort Farm is in part an attack on this tendency) - but at first there seem to be more differences. For a start, The Matchmaker doesn't seem to be funny. It is only towards the end, when Alda is shown up as being so bad at fixing people up that the novel begins to amuse, and even then the fun is tempered by the realisation of how much damage this sort of manipulation can do to people. It isn't a parody, but its publication date is close enough to the date at which it is set for it to require knowledge in the reader, just as a parody does; if it were a historical novel published now, The Matchmaker would contain a great deal more explanation. It is a competent and enjoyable novel, and yet it is easy to see that the spark of outrageous humour present in Cold Comfort Farm is missing; that is why one novel has been remembered while the other is forgotten.
Stella Gibbons is overwhelmingly best known as the author of the hilarious [b:Cold Comfort Farm|92780|Cold Comfort Farm |Stella Gibbons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288096s/92780.jpg|847348]; so much so that I was surprised to discover the existence of another novel. (It was in a furniture shop, one of a number of old second hand books used to make bookcase shelves look less bare; the shop assistant offered it to me when I picked it up and started looking through it.)
There are many stories about how people endured hardship during the Second World War; less well remembered (as less glamorous) is that life continued to be difficult for many people for some years following its end. In Britain, it was the first war accompanied by massive destruction at home for centuries (since the Civil War in England, or the Jacobean rising in Scotland). Many families were bombed out, and food rationing continued for years. The Matchmaker, published in 1949, is about one such family, driven from a middle class existence to a poor cottage in the country, and the people that they meet in the neighbourhood.
The father of the three girls is still in the army, on duty in occupied Germany, so the main focus is on their mother, Alda. She is the incorrigible matchmaker of the title, continually trying to pair people up. (This isn't apparent until the second half of the novel; up till then, Gibbons is describing how Alda and the girls settle in and establishing the characters of those around them, including the Italian prisoners of war working on the neighbouring farm.)
No one who reads this novel now, as forgotten as the aspect of post-War Britain it describes, is likely to be unfamiliar with Cold Comfort Farm. This makes it virtually impossible to read without constantly comparing the two. There are obvious links - both being about the English countryside, portraying it without the sentimentality that pastoral themes often evoke (Cold Comfort Farm is in part an attack on this tendency) - but at first there seem to be more differences. For a start, The Matchmaker doesn't seem to be funny. It is only towards the end, when Alda is shown up as being so bad at fixing people up that the novel begins to amuse, and even then the fun is tempered by the realisation of how much damage this sort of manipulation can do to people. It isn't a parody, but its publication date is close enough to the date at which it is set for it to require knowledge in the reader, just as a parody does; if it were a historical novel published now, The Matchmaker would contain a great deal more explanation. It is a competent and enjoyable novel, and yet it is easy to see that the spark of outrageous humour present in Cold Comfort Farm is missing; that is why one novel has been remembered while the other is forgotten.
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