poachedeggs's review
3.0
I enjoyed the first couple of chapters greatly - the writing seemed to be exactly the sort I find pleasurable. After a while though, the 'fine day' became rather wearying, and the stream-of-consciousness and sudden shifts between perspectives, hard to follow. It's a case where style has overwhelmed substance.
we_are_all_mad_here26's review
3.0
This was an absolutely lovely book that I just did not really enjoy reading.
Laura, her husband Stephen, and their daughter Victoria try to tolerate life without servants. It's post-WWII so plenty of other things are missing too: food is still strictly rationed, for instance. Laura's hair has turned gray and she's only 38. The book covers one day in Laura's life, popping in now and then into the brains of those she encounters.
Every sentence here is practically perfect, not only word-wise but also accomplishing-what-it-set-out-to-accomplish-wise. Take this one, about growing older:
"Young men looked at you as though you were a nice sofa, an article of furniture which they would never be desirous of acquiring. The signal flags were hauled down, the lights went out, all commerce between the sexes to cease forthwith."
And all those sentences taken together as a whole are still perfect. The ending, I do have to say, was entirely perfect. And yet...oh, well.
I loved the short stories in [b:Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes|1445861|Good Evening, Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes|Mollie Panter-Downes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475363701l/1445861._SX50_.jpg|1436551]. It's unheard of for me to prefer an author's short stories to a full-length novel, but, there you have it.
Laura, her husband Stephen, and their daughter Victoria try to tolerate life without servants. It's post-WWII so plenty of other things are missing too: food is still strictly rationed, for instance. Laura's hair has turned gray and she's only 38. The book covers one day in Laura's life, popping in now and then into the brains of those she encounters.
Every sentence here is practically perfect, not only word-wise but also accomplishing-what-it-set-out-to-accomplish-wise. Take this one, about growing older:
"Young men looked at you as though you were a nice sofa, an article of furniture which they would never be desirous of acquiring. The signal flags were hauled down, the lights went out, all commerce between the sexes to cease forthwith."
And all those sentences taken together as a whole are still perfect. The ending, I do have to say, was entirely perfect. And yet...oh, well.
I loved the short stories in [b:Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes|1445861|Good Evening, Mrs Craven The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes|Mollie Panter-Downes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475363701l/1445861._SX50_.jpg|1436551]. It's unheard of for me to prefer an author's short stories to a full-length novel, but, there you have it.
thenovelbook's review
2.0
A lot of people seem to like this book. But it wasn't really for me. It's a bit melancholy and contemplative as opposed to narrative, though I did like the tone closer to the end.
It more or less felt like a series of essays on postwar Britain, placed in the minds of fictional people. The author felt that journalism was her true forte, which I can understand, because this book is plotless. It is the thoughts and feelings of a British matron, with a bit from her husband and daughter, over the course of one day. And it's mostly just remembering and comparing things from before World War II and after. Similar territory to Angela Thirkell, but with not even a hint of a plot.
By the end of the book you can tell that the husband and wife, while disappointed in their new lifestyle, are probably going to make the best of it and try to enjoy the simpler pleasures more. So I liked that. And especially the part where the woman climbs the hill above the town, a thing she hasn't done for years, marvels at the land, and takes a nap that helps to reset her mind.
However, overall it was quite slow, a book you'd have to be in the right mood for.
It more or less felt like a series of essays on postwar Britain, placed in the minds of fictional people. The author felt that journalism was her true forte, which I can understand, because this book is plotless. It is the thoughts and feelings of a British matron, with a bit from her husband and daughter, over the course of one day. And it's mostly just remembering and comparing things from before World War II and after. Similar territory to Angela Thirkell, but with not even a hint of a plot.
By the end of the book you can tell that the husband and wife, while disappointed in their new lifestyle, are probably going to make the best of it and try to enjoy the simpler pleasures more. So I liked that. And especially the part where the woman climbs the hill above the town, a thing she hasn't done for years, marvels at the land, and takes a nap that helps to reset her mind.
However, overall it was quite slow, a book you'd have to be in the right mood for.
wendoxford's review
2.0
I chose this book because I enjoy the small scale novel in which nothing, essentially, happens. My favourites of the genre are Two Weeks in September by RC Sherriff, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, Mrs Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson and many more....
I had hoped that Panter-Downes might also feed my joy. Sadly not. It had all the ingredients, female perspective in a village in 1946, social history, inner world, observations on a changed post-war England - but I found it irritating/grating. Despite recognising this different world and acknowledging that it was representative of the time, my hackles kept rising at turns of phrase such as "dull, frivolous yatter which passes for female conversation" and so many more.
What may be framed as charming for others was just very tedious for me with the exception of vivid imagery.
I had hoped that Panter-Downes might also feed my joy. Sadly not. It had all the ingredients, female perspective in a village in 1946, social history, inner world, observations on a changed post-war England - but I found it irritating/grating. Despite recognising this different world and acknowledging that it was representative of the time, my hackles kept rising at turns of phrase such as "dull, frivolous yatter which passes for female conversation" and so many more.
What may be framed as charming for others was just very tedious for me with the exception of vivid imagery.
kchessrice's review
5.0
"For there were different ways of loving people, some easily like breathing, others with more pain, more delicious pressure in the chest."
It's a summer's day in the small town of Wealding in 1946. The war is over and everyone is returning to their normal lives, including Laura and Stephen Marshall, who are also navigating their relationship after several years apart. Their daughter Victoria, so used to having her mother all to herself, is learning how to share her with Stephen. One Fine Day is a snapshot of their lives from breakfast through to sunset.
The story is beautifully simple: Laura attempts to clean and tidy a house that seems determined to resist her efforts and makes a trip to the town to buy some groceries, stopping for tea with her elderly neighbour. Victoria goes to school and whilst in the playground with her friend spies her mother walking down the street and marvels that her mother has a life that exists when she's not with her. These are some glimpses into the ordinary things the characters in this novel do, however the writing is so beautiful that you are completely absorbed in the observations of life and people living in post-war England. I particularly enjoyed the way Panter-Downes wrote about the thoughts that Laura had in her head throughout the day; almost like a stream of consciousness in the meandering nature of them but always coherent. The passage about realising she has grown older and that young men now look at her "as though she were a nice sofa" was pin sharp and heart-breaking.
Ultimately, One Fine Day is about a marriage and choosing that person over and over again, despite their flaws. It's about love and relationships: between mothers and daughters; husbands and wives; fathers and daughters; employer and employee the "anonymous caps and aprons who lived out of sight and pulled the strings'."
An excellent choice for May's #QuietClassics2022 and I am determined to read more by Mollie Panter-Downes this year.
It's a summer's day in the small town of Wealding in 1946. The war is over and everyone is returning to their normal lives, including Laura and Stephen Marshall, who are also navigating their relationship after several years apart. Their daughter Victoria, so used to having her mother all to herself, is learning how to share her with Stephen. One Fine Day is a snapshot of their lives from breakfast through to sunset.
The story is beautifully simple: Laura attempts to clean and tidy a house that seems determined to resist her efforts and makes a trip to the town to buy some groceries, stopping for tea with her elderly neighbour. Victoria goes to school and whilst in the playground with her friend spies her mother walking down the street and marvels that her mother has a life that exists when she's not with her. These are some glimpses into the ordinary things the characters in this novel do, however the writing is so beautiful that you are completely absorbed in the observations of life and people living in post-war England. I particularly enjoyed the way Panter-Downes wrote about the thoughts that Laura had in her head throughout the day; almost like a stream of consciousness in the meandering nature of them but always coherent. The passage about realising she has grown older and that young men now look at her "as though she were a nice sofa" was pin sharp and heart-breaking.
Ultimately, One Fine Day is about a marriage and choosing that person over and over again, despite their flaws. It's about love and relationships: between mothers and daughters; husbands and wives; fathers and daughters; employer and employee the "anonymous caps and aprons who lived out of sight and pulled the strings'."
An excellent choice for May's #QuietClassics2022 and I am determined to read more by Mollie Panter-Downes this year.
emmadalrymple's review
3.0
3.5 stars. I love Mollie Panter-Downes’ short stories and Letters from London, and was surprised not to enjoy this more. This novel-length slice of immediate post-war life, taking place on a single summer’s day in 1946, contained ripples and glimmers of the clear-eyed but empathetic social commentary I so enjoy in her other work. It appears that Panter-Downes, like Karen Russell, may be a writer for whom short stories are the better vessel within which to capture their narrative fireflies. At least as far as I’m concerned.
Also, I remain baffled by the meaning of this quotation from the book:
"They were not happy, they could not settle, they had the distrait air of cats whose feet had not been buttered."
Also, I remain baffled by the meaning of this quotation from the book:
"They were not happy, they could not settle, they had the distrait air of cats whose feet had not been buttered."
juliaeditrix's review
5.0
Hard to read this book without the song, "One FIne Day," playing in my mind. But it's really the story of one fine day, that is, no rain, beautiful weather -- and the chance for all the members of this family to reassess the way life was before the war, during the war, and since the war. It's the middle class readjustment -- no more servants. The end of a class who is idle. The husband knowing he will take the 8:47 train to London for another 20 years, or til he drops dead. The mother knowing she will have to keep the house going with no help from eager servants. How the war has taken the bloom off her youth, and grayed her hair -- how she is "just a sofa" to young men now. How they will live and raise their daughter, with what expectations. I didn't LOVE this book when I was reading it, although MPD is lavish with metaphors that are just right, even more than right, in ever instance. But I can't stop thinking about it, which is the hallmark of an excellent read. I must have more.
wathohuc's review
3.0
The book is elegantly written, but for some reason - maybe just that it is a distracting time of the year for me - I just could not pay attention to the narrative and found getting through the book a struggle. But I also think my difficulty here was with the style of the book, too. It is really a very pensive, slow-moving, reflective story. There is no plot to speak of. Reminded me somewhat of Marilynn Robinson's "Gilead." I also found that there was a lot of insider introspection which required a kind of concentration that I just couldn't give to the book. Outside of the three main characters of the family itself, I couldn't really tell you who anybody else in the story was. Not my favorite book, but not a bad little book. [Picked by Michele.]