Excellent Women is one of many “female extreme adventure tales” reviewed by Maureen Corrigan in Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. The adventures of its heroine, Mildred Lathbury, may not seem extreme by our modern standards, but her life as a 30-something single woman in a small London parish entails plenty of self-sacrifice and self-abnegation in service to others. Hers is a life of constant small sacrifices, of shouldering the burdens of others, of taking comfort in tiny, mundane pleasures, and facing it all with good humor.
The aftermath of World War II hovers like a malign spirit over this otherwise very funny book, in large ways and small. Eggs are scarce, meat is a rare treat, dresses are shabby and second-hand, and worst of all, eligible men are in short supply while “excellent women” are in surplus. Nothing more exciting than a broken engagement and a marital reconciliation happen in the book, and yet it is full of the best of the human spirit.
What a fine description of a wonderful book! Not sure what the weather is like in Charlottesville, but it’s cold and wet here in New Jersey. And that brings to mind a line critics often use to describe Pym’s novels — “good books for bad days.” I’d say they’re good books for any days but perhaps especially for those when it’s bleak enough outside that you don’t to read anything that will compound meteorological misery …
Jan Harayda
One-Minute Book Reviews
http://www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com