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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Very typically Pym, centered on a group of anthropologists. More of an ensemble than some of her other pieces, but rather wonderful and terrific characterizations.
funny
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Anthropologists keep cropping up in Pym's novels, and this is the main one about them. Tom Mallow, a grad student back from fieldwork in Africa, abruptly throws over his long-term live-in girlfriend for a 19-year-old student.
The social commentary is more subtle than you'd think given the premise of anthropologists engaging in affairs of the heart; and the characters are treated with sensitivity. Pym's precision for capturing the big moments of life in small, heartbreaking details is at full force here. Tom and Catherine's very cold, almost clinical break-up is heartbreakingly realistic for two highly cerebral, emotionally restrained people.
I enjoyed the background characters, especially the Mark and Digby, two of Tom and Dierdre's classmates who are the Rosencrantz and Gildenstern of this novel. There are, of course, also clergypeople and unmarried middle-aged women hovering around, because this is a Pym novel.
Stray Observations
One of my favorite scenes: an eccentric professor invites four of the grad students, candidates for a fellowship, to his country home for the weekend. The power imbalance of the professor trying to make them have a good time and use his position for the feeling of having friends, and the students always conscious that they're on sort of an extended interview for a professional opportunity, felt very The Office like as well as sadly true to life. At one point the professor grumbles, "It seems to me that young people aren't as lighthearted as they used to be, I wonder why that is?" and Mark says, "Two wars, motorcars, and newer and more frightful bombs being invented all the time." Oof, this is too real and extremely reminiscent of Millennials' interactions with Boomers.
Spoiler
While the women in his life pick up the pieces, Tom returns to Africa and is senselessly killed in political unrest. It's sort of unclear to me what this is trying to say, except that men are fickle idiots.The social commentary is more subtle than you'd think given the premise of anthropologists engaging in affairs of the heart; and the characters are treated with sensitivity. Pym's precision for capturing the big moments of life in small, heartbreaking details is at full force here. Tom and Catherine's very cold, almost clinical break-up is heartbreakingly realistic for two highly cerebral, emotionally restrained people.
I enjoyed the background characters, especially the Mark and Digby, two of Tom and Dierdre's classmates who are the Rosencrantz and Gildenstern of this novel. There are, of course, also clergypeople and unmarried middle-aged women hovering around, because this is a Pym novel.
Stray Observations
One of my favorite scenes: an eccentric professor invites four of the grad students, candidates for a fellowship, to his country home for the weekend. The power imbalance of the professor trying to make them have a good time and use his position for the feeling of having friends, and the students always conscious that they're on sort of an extended interview for a professional opportunity, felt very The Office like as well as sadly true to life. At one point the professor grumbles, "It seems to me that young people aren't as lighthearted as they used to be, I wonder why that is?" and Mark says, "Two wars, motorcars, and newer and more frightful bombs being invented all the time." Oof, this is too real and extremely reminiscent of Millennials' interactions with Boomers.
funny
reflective
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
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
I didn't like this as much as I liked Excellent Women, but it was still an ok read. I thought the characters were very well observed, but I didn't really warm to many of the characters.
funny
slow-paced
This 1955 novel is an incisive social satire that opens a window onto the insular world of London’s anthropologic community & its students.
Tongue firmly in check, Pym writes:
"Felix had explained so clearly what it was that anthropologists did (. . .) They went out to remote places and studied the customs and languages of the peoples living there. Then they came back and wrote books and articles about what they had observed (. . .) It was as simple as that. And it was a very good thing that these languages and customs should be known, firstly because they were interesting in themselves and in danger of being forgotten, and secondly because it was helpful to missionaries and government officials to know as much as possible about the people they sought to evangelize or govern."
In addition to the observations of those returned from Africa, Pym observes the townies observing their suburbanite brothers, women observing men, students observing graduates . . . all the world’s a foreign culture to someone.
Read this if: you want to try one of Pym’s gentle satires that doesn’t concern the Anglican (or any other) church.
4 stars
Tongue firmly in check, Pym writes:
"Felix had explained so clearly what it was that anthropologists did (. . .) They went out to remote places and studied the customs and languages of the peoples living there. Then they came back and wrote books and articles about what they had observed (. . .) It was as simple as that. And it was a very good thing that these languages and customs should be known, firstly because they were interesting in themselves and in danger of being forgotten, and secondly because it was helpful to missionaries and government officials to know as much as possible about the people they sought to evangelize or govern."
In addition to the observations of those returned from Africa, Pym observes the townies observing their suburbanite brothers, women observing men, students observing graduates . . . all the world’s a foreign culture to someone.
Read this if: you want to try one of Pym’s gentle satires that doesn’t concern the Anglican (or any other) church.
4 stars