notasilkycat's review against another edition
4.0
Not my favorite by Elizabeth Taylor but definitely interesting one. I dare say she never disappoints.
jessica_h's review against another edition
3.0
Already want to reread this. Likely to be a 4 star on a second read. Just wasn’t in the right headspace it seems!
quietjenn's review against another edition
3.0
3 1/2. I liked this much better at the end, then when I was actually reading it. I found it to be very slow, but I also think maybe it's me and the current headspace I'm in and not the book.
kylie_the_second's review
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
austen_to_zafon's review against another edition
3.0
I've been reading a lot of British domestic fiction written during and about the 1930s and 40s lately and it's interesting to see how different people handle wartime relationships in Britain. I sort of liked this book, but I didn't love it. I found the characters difficult to like and the ambience unremittingly negative.
All the characters, from the unhappy wife to the seething live-in cousin to the aging restauranteur see their environment as oppressive. Even the young child in the family sees everything in dreary, deathly terms; netball posts are gallows, people watching games roar savagely, and his neighborhood looks dead "like the photograph in a newspaper of a road where murder has been committed...who has not walked in the madness of oppression down such roads?" Grown-up thoughts for someone who seems about 7.
On the other hand, I like books in which dysfunctional relationships are examined; what is said and, more revealing, what is left unsaid. I was compelled by the high-quality writing to keep reading about these people who can't see the bright side of anything. I could have done without the subplot about the socialist group, but I liked the story of the husband and wife, trapped in a relationship neither enjoys and lacking the skills or the desire to love one another.
All the characters, from the unhappy wife to the seething live-in cousin to the aging restauranteur see their environment as oppressive. Even the young child in the family sees everything in dreary, deathly terms; netball posts are gallows, people watching games roar savagely, and his neighborhood looks dead "like the photograph in a newspaper of a road where murder has been committed...who has not walked in the madness of oppression down such roads?" Grown-up thoughts for someone who seems about 7.
On the other hand, I like books in which dysfunctional relationships are examined; what is said and, more revealing, what is left unsaid. I was compelled by the high-quality writing to keep reading about these people who can't see the bright side of anything. I could have done without the subplot about the socialist group, but I liked the story of the husband and wife, trapped in a relationship neither enjoys and lacking the skills or the desire to love one another.
siguirimama's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first book I've read by E. Taylor and wow. I thought it was going to be some kind of funny wry marriage comedy like "Barefoot in the Park" or the like, but it turns out to be a deft and precise study of a melancholy and restless woman named Julia, who has an extremely precocious son (I read adult books early, but not "Jane Eyre" at age seven!). They live with Roddy, her husband and the father of Oliver, and Roddy's cousin, Eleanor, in the home of Mrs. Lippincote, a widow who has been pushed out to a hotel so they can rent her home, all of this during the second world war. There are other strong portraits of characters here, too, in particular Eleanor, the poisonous cousin who despises Julia, and a band of communists, a besotted commander, and a derelict restaurant owner. Chapter thirteen brings the particular delight and sadness of a child experiencing the pleasure of a lazy afternoon.
I want to read more of this novelist's work.
I want to read more of this novelist's work.
abby_writes's review
5.0
This is such an enjoyable story of a frustrated officer's wife inhabiting a civilian's house during World War II, and this book is a comedy of manners but lacking any 'coziness' of an English village novel — Taylor's writing is acerbic and droll, but her characterization is soulful (Julia's unconventionality vs her husband's conformity particularly) and she knows how to make children interesting and contributing characters.
absolutive's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a funny novel filled with a series of masterful set pieces about a woman's life during the Second World War. She is an RAF wife and a mother, and she also acquires responsibilities for her husband's superior officer and his adult cousin. Through humour, irony and vivid juxtapositions, we see the unwanted life thrust upon a woman in wartime Britain. Our heroine "realised that now, having no life of her own, all she could hope for would be a bit of Roddy's, what he might have left over and could spare." And yet, this book is filled with strong, independent women: Julia, our protagonist, who builds relationships with an ailing waiter fleeing the Blitz, various members of her husband's regiment and a local girl; Eleanor, a teacher, who befriends her colleagues and joins a Communist cell; a domestic worker who manages the home once a week and her timetable and clients, daily; Felicity, the Wing Commander's daughter, who climbs and fishes and can recognise the make, model and velocity of an aircraft as it flies overhead. There's also some nice discussion of the Brontes' work.
florapants84's review against another edition
4.0
"'Lucky for us Emily [Bronte] was not a man,' said Julia, 'or she might have drank herself to death at the Black Bull. It was better to write Wuthering Heights, but she really had no choice. Men are not forced to turn their desolation to advantage as women are. It's easier for them to despise their passion, quell their restlessness in other ways. The Bronte girls just couldn't slip down to the pub. So they had to take to writing.'"
After reading The End on the last page of this little gem, I'm tempted to turn right back to the beginning and reread it...making sure to note this detail and that one. I think it's safe to say that Elizabeth Taylor is now a favorite author of mine. All of her wit, sarcasm, and humor are just so well written into her books. I can just see her sitting in a corner at a lively party jotting down sly observations about the guests, and wishing more than ever to be at home curled up by the fire with a book.
Julia, the protagonist of At Mrs Lippincote's, is an intelligent, outgoing woman who can't live up to her RAF husband's idea of a quiet, mild-tempered woman. She's extremely well-read, can see all his flaws and still love him, but refuses to idolize him. She's not particularly handy with an iron, doesn't mind serving tinned sardines and two-day old egg sandwiches to her husband after a hard day's work, and has never really got the upper hand on dirty dishes. It doesn't help that her husband's single cousin Eleanor lives with them, and seems all too eager to take on Julia's role.
I have yet to read a book where the mother and son relationship is explored so quietly and brilliantly. Julia's seven year-old son, Oliver, is a delight to read about. Julia's instilled a love of reading in him, and together they explore her favorite childhood authors like Robert Lewis Stevens, the Bronte sisters, and Johann David Wyss.
Written in 1945, I loved the detail she gave to the rental house the Davenant's live in. It's a time capsule of a bygone era. Of course there are copious amounts of tea, bread and butter fingers, gingerbread and literary references. My favorite is the following conversation over a lackadaisical dinner Julia's prepared for her husband's boss:
"These baked apples are very good,' said the Wing Commander.
'I had the recipe from Villette. I like to get my recipes from good literature,' Julia explained.
'It takes a woman novelist to describe a dish of food.'
'If we invert that, what a prodigious novelist Mrs Beeton would have been,' said Roddy.
'Oh, I agree,' said Julia, 'but it isn't often true. Remember how it is always mutton in Jane Austen. I can't recall them eating anything else. Oh, gruel, of course...'
'One of the best meals I ever ate in my imagination was the Boeuf en daube in To the Lighthouse,' said Julia. 'I see it now and smell it–the great earthenware dish and its' (she closed her eyes and breathed slowly) 'its confusion of savory brown and yellow meats, and its bayleaves and its wine.'"