Scan barcode
Reviews
Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes
renie's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
wrenxavier's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
samstillreading's review
4.0
Generally, I’m not a big fan of short stories. However, when it comes to Persephone books, I make an exception. (If you are unfamiliar with Persephone books, they print titles usually by women that have fallen by the wayside over time. They are distinguishable by their grey covers and era-appropriate printed end papers, or by the painted covers of the classics, such as this one). I like that Persephone books have been carefully chosen and reviews of the books printed by them generally get good reviews. Plus, they look so lovely on the shelves! To cut a long story short, I received several Persephone books for my birthday from my parents and I’m savouring my way through them.
I chose to read Number 8, Good Evening, Mrs. Craven because I could pick up and put down the short stories without missing too much – or so I thought. These lovely stories, originally published in The New Yorker over the years of World War II, are strangely addictive. I say strangely because they are about the minutiae of daily life with the shadow of war hanging over activities. There’s the gentleman hosting an awkward dinner party that hopes for a bombing raid and the shocking gossip that is told during a get-together to make bandages and socks for the soldiers. The stories also reveal the changes in Britain’s class structure over the war – a well-off older woman takes in a young family from London with embarrassing confrontations while a mistress is left lost when her lover goes to war. I read these stories (usually 10-12 pages long) in chunks – two, three or four stories at a time. Panter-Downes captures the moment perfectly and so succinctly that I loved reading about the rich characters and their predicaments.
The stories are sandwiched between two of Panter-Downes’ ‘Letters from London’ – a letter to tell American readers and expats what was going on in London at the moment, from rationing to bombing and then trying to live a normal life! These were just as fascinating to me, and I’d love to read more (but I can’t find a collection – hint, Persephone?)
A unique collection of life in English homes during the war; this is a gem of a collection. Highly recommended!
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
I chose to read Number 8, Good Evening, Mrs. Craven because I could pick up and put down the short stories without missing too much – or so I thought. These lovely stories, originally published in The New Yorker over the years of World War II, are strangely addictive. I say strangely because they are about the minutiae of daily life with the shadow of war hanging over activities. There’s the gentleman hosting an awkward dinner party that hopes for a bombing raid and the shocking gossip that is told during a get-together to make bandages and socks for the soldiers. The stories also reveal the changes in Britain’s class structure over the war – a well-off older woman takes in a young family from London with embarrassing confrontations while a mistress is left lost when her lover goes to war. I read these stories (usually 10-12 pages long) in chunks – two, three or four stories at a time. Panter-Downes captures the moment perfectly and so succinctly that I loved reading about the rich characters and their predicaments.
The stories are sandwiched between two of Panter-Downes’ ‘Letters from London’ – a letter to tell American readers and expats what was going on in London at the moment, from rationing to bombing and then trying to live a normal life! These were just as fascinating to me, and I’d love to read more (but I can’t find a collection – hint, Persephone?)
A unique collection of life in English homes during the war; this is a gem of a collection. Highly recommended!
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
han_cat's review
5.0
Sparkling stories so full of life and wit. Desperate to read some of her other New Yorker Letters from London, if only they would be republished ..
These stories really elluminate a different side to life on the home front during the War.
These stories really elluminate a different side to life on the home front during the War.
absolutive's review
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This is a wonderful collection of the stories Mollie Panter-Downes published between September 1939 and December 1944 in The New Yorker. It is book-ended by her journalism: London Notes, one from 3 September 1939 as the war begins, and one from 11 June 1944, describing London on and after D-Day. The stories are full of wartime England from the perspective of upper and upper-middle class women with all the usual suspects: gas masks, women in trousers (!), the town and country, the desire for but challenges of obtaining war work, rationing, housing refugees, housing and living with evacuees from London, billeting soldiers, men from the previous war hoping to do their duty but not being wanted, the increase in income tax, the challenges of keeping servants, the change of society, both with more freedom for women and with the decline of the upper class and increasing equality.
Mollie Panter-Downes brings to these stories, as she does to her post-war collection, Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes, empathy compressed into such a few pages, as few other writers do. When the class boundaries are most pronounced, friendship, understanding, and mutual affection emerge, if for a time. When Nativism wafts through a provincial drawing room over tea, it is snipped out, like stray yarn knit for a soldier. As the war continues into its later stages before D-Day, the stories get better and deeper, elegant and touching, haunting and simple at the same time. They are little masterpieces. A mistress calls the wife of her lover, worried about him at the front, and calmed to hear the children and clock and family gifts she has picked out, imagined for years--reassured by the woman she is betraying; a hungry school teacher "carried a wolf around with her under the neat waistband of her tweed skirt"; a woman thinks hopelessly that she will have a nice quiet evening, wistful for the camaraderie and kindness, sense of purpose and little intimacies with others, like seeing them in their pajamas and talking to them about books as they roll out their sleeping mats in the bomb shelter, she knew during the Blitz; a man with a boring job in a ministry wishes he could jump into the action and regrets that his former school friend dies in the war while he remains at home. These are perfect gems of concision, what people claim Chekhov accomplishes, and they are written with kindness and honesty, not cynicism.
Mollie Panter-Downes brings to these stories, as she does to her post-war collection, Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes, empathy compressed into such a few pages, as few other writers do. When the class boundaries are most pronounced, friendship, understanding, and mutual affection emerge, if for a time. When Nativism wafts through a provincial drawing room over tea, it is snipped out, like stray yarn knit for a soldier. As the war continues into its later stages before D-Day, the stories get better and deeper, elegant and touching, haunting and simple at the same time. They are little masterpieces. A mistress calls the wife of her lover, worried about him at the front, and calmed to hear the children and clock and family gifts she has picked out, imagined for years--reassured by the woman she is betraying; a hungry school teacher "carried a wolf around with her under the neat waistband of her tweed skirt"; a woman thinks hopelessly that she will have a nice quiet evening, wistful for the camaraderie and kindness, sense of purpose and little intimacies with others, like seeing them in their pajamas and talking to them about books as they roll out their sleeping mats in the bomb shelter, she knew during the Blitz; a man with a boring job in a ministry wishes he could jump into the action and regrets that his former school friend dies in the war while he remains at home. These are perfect gems of concision, what people claim Chekhov accomplishes, and they are written with kindness and honesty, not cynicism.
vg2's review
4.0
An astute collection of stories that are, in turn, melancholy, hopeful, sad and sometimes humorous - Mollie Panter-Downes has a gift for teasing out the depths of emotion and capturing it in a few short pages. Focusing primarily on the women left behind during the Second World War, and presented in chronological order, not only is each story wonderful in its own right, but the changing tone and reactions of characters reflects how the on-going conflict has impacted life. There are a couple of real highlights - the title story, which considers what happens to a mistress when her partner leaves for war and she is the unrecognised unknown, and ‘Year of Decision’, about a man who feels guilt about being left behind, yet slowly discovers that his guilt is entirely self-centred, are particular favourites, but all the stories are superb in their own right.
libs's review
3.0
Persephone Books are consistently SO GOOD but I sabotaged this one for myself by reading it in one evening babysitting. Panter-Downes has a certain ... style, I guess, that's fun for a few stories but feels very quickly repetitive and routine if you read 23 of them in one go.
kamaria's review
4.0
As with every collection of short stories, reviewing this is difficult. Considering the collection as a whole, it is really really good. The Wartime Stories started out funny and got progressively darker as the war continued. The stories are straightforward and succinct, but they don't leave you with that feeling of missing something. They portray the not-so-nice aspects of the Home Front, contrary to the endurance and happy face that is usual of many WWII stories. I really liked it. Of course, as in every collection, I liked some stories better than others, so I thought about making a diminutive summary of each one with a rating, that you can read here, at All the Pretty Books.
More...