The Closed Door and Other Stories
Dorothy Whipple

I know I tend to use superlatives when talking about Dorothy Whipple and that doing so too frequently or too effusively can have the opposite of the intended effect. I mention this because I am slightly troubled that all of my past praise of Whipple’s novels makes it all the harder to try and convey to you just how brilliant her short fiction is. In fact, although I truly loved The Priory and High Wages, I never thought them brilliant. They are well written, compelling, and highly enjoyable, but they also have some elements that make the plots a little to neat and tidy. But when it comes to the short story, Whipple’s plotting deficienices, sometimes evident in longer formats, disappear.

I tend not to like short stories because they often leave me scratching my head wondering what exactly happened. They either tend to feel too much like fragments–a slice of life picked out of time–or they just leave too many loose ends and unanswered questions, and I feel like I am not clever enough to understand what I am supposed to feel. But Whipple writes the kind of stories that are quick to draw one in and they have perfect little plot arcs that can be full of twists, but resolve in a way that lets literal-minded me feel satisfied that I “got it”. Of course I realize that this preference for plot resolution is probably something that sets me (and Whipple) apart from the more high minded literati.

My challenges writing plot summaries rises to crisis levels when trying to describe short stories. And these are the kind of stories that one really wants to talk about. But the spoiler alerts alone would take up half the word count so I am going to stick to generalities. Despite it being a joy to read, this collection is not a cozy romp through 1930s and 40s England. These stories deal with abuse neglect, deception, adultery and other types of unpleasantness. Never too desolate (this isn’t Precious after all), but some pack a real emotional wallop. Two of the stories are in a dead heat for my favorite: “The Handbag” for its O. Henry-like plot and “Youth” for its exhilarating resolution that made me want to clap and cry and just plain rejoice that Anne did the right thing. Most of the stories offer at least a glimmer of hope if not outright happiness for the protagonists, but a few of them are just plain tragic. The story “Wednesday” is particularly so.

Many thanks to Verity and Claire who sent this book to me as a prize for Persephone Reading Week. Because they are short stories, I probably would not have gotten around to them until I reard everything else by Whipple. And that would be a mistake.

 
Channeling Simon of Stuck-In-A-Book, Karen at Cornflower Books posted an image that reminded her of the book she is currently reading (The fantastic novel Stoner by John Williams). She challenged the rest of us to come up with an image that reflected what we are reading. Since my current read is a Persephone collection of Dorothy Whipple short stories the first thing that came to my mind was that the image had to be of a youngish female from the 1930s or 1940s. I certainly had a general idea of what the subject of the image might look like, but more importantly I felt she had to convey a sense of quiet potential. Like many of those Whipple heroines who struggle to reconcile their own hopes and ambitions with their assigned place in society.  I think this portrait of Shelia McManus by Richard Emil Miller fits the bill. What do you think?

  
I have written about his before in passing and on comments in and around the blogosphere. But in my recent list mania, it seemed like this would be a good topic for a post and a new tab up top.

Anticipating the end of the century back in 1998, the Modern Library promulgated a list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century. Like any such list, this one engendered much discussion in the media. The list after all is very white and very male. Two responses to the furor were kind of interesting. The more thoughtful was a rival list created by students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course that is much more diverse in its makeup. Much, much, much less thoughtful was the online voting that the Modern Library allowed to create a reader’s list. Being 1998, Internet usage was not what it is today and the reader’s list was quickly jammed with Scientologist nuts, Ayn Rand disciples and Star Trek geeks. None of which qualify for literary accolades. For a laugh you can look at it alongside the official list here.

Despite its shortcomings I used the Modern Library list to guide my reading for several years. These certainly weren’t the only books I read, but the list came in handy many times when I wasn’t sure where to turn next. Of course I don’t have that problem these days but I still look at it from time to time for ideas.

I used to have a goal of reading the whole list but I have realized that life is too short to spend too much time on books that just aren’t going to be enjoyable for me. I highly, highly doubt I will will ever read any, and certainly not all, of the James Joyce and William Faulkner on the list. I feel like I have already spent enough time in those two prisons.

The thing I found with some of these classics is that they aren’t as daunting or unreadable as that moniker might imply. On the other hand, some of them were exactly as daunting and unreadable as that moniker implies. Some of the books I had read before the list came out and others were totally new to me. It was this list that first introduced me to some of my favorites like Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark.

To see the list and which ones I have read click here or on the tab at the top of the page.
  

  
The Modern “Rake’s Progress”
Words by Rebecca West
Paintings by David Low

I am giving a preview of this book rather than waiting to do a review because I haven’t read it yet, but I am dying to share it with you all. I found this one a few weeks ago at a second hand bookshop not too far from our new house. It was one of those finds that I almost didn’t find. First I didn’t see it until I was on my second pass through this particular section and second because it is of a size that I normally wouldn’t pay too much attention to it. Being a larger format I never would have picked it up if the name Rebecca West hadn’t jumped out at me.

But I did look at it and I sure am glad that I did. Published in 1934 by Hutchinson and Co. the story follows George as he wakes up one morning to find himself unexpectedly a millionaire and a peer. Each chapter starts with a double page color plate and chronicles a step in his rise and fall. The Rake Gives a Cocktail Party, The Rake Invests in the Movies, The Rake’s Marriage, The Rake’s Divorce…you get the idea.

From here on out I will let the book speak for itself.

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of
Mollie Panter-Downes

Writing a review that doesn’t bore the pants off of one’s readers sometimes feels as insurmountably arduous and impossible as writing the book itself. I got over my recent reading slump but I think I may have traded it for a reviewing slump. So let’s just see if I can do Mrs. Craven justice.

Mollie Panter-Downes was a correspondent for The New Yorker, writing over 852 pieces between 1938 and 1987. Some of that output included these 21 short stories about life in England during World War II. Panter-Downes manages to write social history in the guise of fiction but does so in a way that one never feels like one is learning a lesson. The factual details Panter-Downes includes about wartime life certainly do provide the framework for each of these stories but they are ultimately there in service of exploring more universal truths. And although the stories retain an upper-middle class gentility, Panter Downes doesn’t shy away from exploring the baser side of human nature and behavior. These are not tales of heroic actions and selfless dedication to the war effort.

The eponymous story is one of the most poignant in the collection. It focuses on the emotional state of a mistress who begins to realize the tenuous nature of her personal life while her married lover is deployed in the war zone. In “It’s the Reaction” Miss Birch is a government worker whose inability to connect with her comrades at work and at home leaves her isolated and lonely. Out of the several stories that deal with displaced persons “Combined Operations” brings a bit of humor to the collection as one couple tries to deal with the once dear friends who have been staying with them for four years after being bombed out of their London flat.

Present throughout many of the stories is a sense, sometimes implied and sometimes explicit, that things won’t be the same after the war. That the social revolution begun in World War I has gone both wider and deeper as all manner of folks try to deal with altered circumstances. In “Cut Down the Trees” Dossie, an old servant is having a hard time dealing with Mrs. Walsingham’s decision not to dress for dinner and even worse, her decision to take meals in the warmer, cozier kitchen rather than the dining room. When Mrs. Walsingham’s son comes home on leave he recognizes how traumatized Dossie is by the changed circumstances.

The old woman’s eyes seemed to implore him to play their game for a little while longer, to pretend that things were just as they used to be, that their world, which had come to an end, could still be saved.

I liked this volume quite a bit. Although some of the subject matter is similar, I think it is better than the rather shallow House-Bound by Winifred Peck or the more humorous Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennis.
  

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Helen Simonson

Although I had been tempted to buy and read this book for some time, It was Frances from Nonsuch Book that pushed me over the edge. When I was in my reading funk recently and looking for suggestoins to get me out, Frances suggested Major Pettigrew. So I went out to the independent bookstore in my new neighborhood, the excellent Politics and Prose, and bought a copy. I don’t often buy brand new books and even then not hardcover, but in this case I am glad I made an exception. Not only did it get me out of my reading funk but it was such a wonderful read it was an antidote to all that ailed me.

There have been so many other good reviews out there that I hesitate to try and re-cap any of it here. Let’s just say I found it charming, fun, and unputdownable. This definitly qualifies for a good summer read. Something to pick up when you need a pick up. [Insert additional lavish econmium here.]

Others who say it well:
Random Jottings
Cornflower Books
Letters from a Hill Farm
Rochester Reader

By no means a perfect book, but perfect enough to be wonderful. And a first novel at that. And for those of you a fan of E.F. Benson’s Mapp & Lucia books, as I read this book I kept thinking of Major Benjy. Especially as he was portrayed by Denis Lill in the television serialization of those wonderful books.

   
Now that I have begun to get settled into my new library I culled about three grocery bags of books from the rest of the herd. I took them to a secondhand shop and ended up getting $80 of store credit. Well, that plus $20 got me this stack of books. For me this is a pretty short stack for $100, but two of them were quite costly because of their rare nature. One was a no-brainer: a first edition of my FAVORITE Willa Cather novel, The Professor’s House. And the other is a large format, Rebecca West story illustrated with really amazing color plates. I will have more on the Rebecca West volume in the days to come.

I have been wanting to add a blog roll for some time now but just couldn’t figure out how I wanted to do it. For better or worse I am married to my current blog template and didn’t want to upset the general order of things. I loved having my “Books Read” lists down the left side so that anyone reading a post might catch glimpses of other books that might pique their interest. But who am I kidding it was probably just more to do with my reading vanity. (“Ooh, look at me, look at all the books I’ve read. Aren’t I impressive?”) But alas, the book rolls have had to move to their own pages. Just check out the “tabs” just under the header. I am still in the process of formatting these but they are there for your perusal.

Another issue I have with blog rolls is that they can become unwieldy and often end up full of blogs that have been abandoned by their creators. I think I have solved that one by formatting the roll so that each time someone posts something their link automatically gets bumped up to the top of the list.

Then of course there is the issue of forgetting to include one of your blog friends. (By the way I have taken referring to you all as “my blog friend Frances, or my blog friend Claire” etc. to my husband.) If you know I am a fan of yours, or you are a commenter on My Porch, or you just think I am missing out on something special, please email me and let me know I am missing your blog.

Finally, there is the issue of how it will all look. I love the ability to include thumbnail pictures in the links, but it appears that Blogger doesn’t pick these up for all blog formats. So if you are wondering why your link doesn’t have a thumbnail you can blame it on Blogger.

What are your thoughts on blog rolls? I know I have been booted off of a few. I think it is because I didn’t have a blog roll on My Porch and a few bloggers seemed to be really interested in page traffic. Well so am I, but if I cut you off of my blog roll, it won’t be because you don’t send traffic my way. It will be because I think you are lame. LOL. Sorry, I couldn’t resist saying that.
 

I don’t know if it is the heatwave or what but I am entirely uninterested in reading right now. I have slipped into that mode where sudoku and minesweeper are more interesting to me and sitting and staring into space on the Metro doesn’t seem like a waste of time.

I have about five things going right now and none of them are holding my interest.

The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James (about 30 pages in)

Frost in May by Antonia White (about 75 pages in)

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (about 5 pages in)

Good Evening Mrs. Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes (about 100 pages in)

It might be that I just haven’t found the right book for the moment. I think my problem is that I may need  something contemporary. Everything on my plate right now is a little on the antiquated side.

So, what should I read?

Here are the parameters:

1. Published in the last five years (that is recent for me).
2. Action takes place in the present.
3. Nothing that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief (no magic powers or time travel).
4. Something kind of light, maybe even fun, but not necessarily funny.

(No, that picture isn’t me.)

 

Last September I remember seeing lots of blog posts about Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW). At that time I had only recently started to focus my blog more on the world of books. Finding so many other great book blogs through BBAW pushed me over the edge to essentially turn My Porch into a book blog.

This year for BBAW I want to register (err…nominate) my blog to participate in BBAW So, here are my five posts for my registration/nomination. Although I blog about other bookish bits, I have decided that these five reviews show both my reviewing abilities as well as my overall point of view and sense of humor (I hope).

Best Eclectic Book Blog

1.  As We Are Now by May Sarton

2.  Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham

3.  Pied Piper by Nevil Shute

4.  The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

5.  Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

Best Written Book Blog

1.  As We Are Now by May Sarton

2.  Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham

3.  Pied Piper by Nevil Shute

4.  The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

5.  Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym