seebrandyread's review
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Published in the 1930s, Cold Comfort Farm parodies a popular style of literature from that time, books about rural life and the dark, simple, melodramatic characters that inhabit the farms central to their novels. Though I haven't read many of the specific books or authors Gibbons is poking fun at other than D. H. Lawrence, I still felt the influence of older British literature in this same vein.
The MC, Flora Poste, is a young, unwed woman who has just been dealt a financial blow with the death of her parents. In order to establish a bit of independence and security, she decides to live with some relatives who offer the least constraint with the most potential for amusement. Once on Cold Comfort Farm, Flora sets out to right her family's backward ways and put all their lives in proper order.
I'm generally not a good audience for satire because, while I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure I enjoyed it for the right reasons. Flora is a self aware busybody who, like me, enjoys order and creating calm from chaos. It was oddly soothing to read about her schemes for giving everyone a happy ending and to see those schemes work out because every time it seems like disaster is imminent, luck or Flora's quick thinking prevails. Though I didn't necessarily want happiness for some of the characters, particularly a couple of horribly misogynistic men, I still took a kind of satisfaction in seeing them find their niche and hope that maybe in the future they'd change their ways.
Cold Comfort is a parody of early 20th century books, but I recognized elements of earlier work like Jane Austen, the Brontës, and even Mary Poppins, though that series came out a couple years later. Who is Flora but an unchecked, more mature Emma Woodhouse? Cold Comfort has its own mad woman in the attic, and Heathcliffs abound in the bitter, lecherous men who wander in and out.
Gibbons ultimately pokes fun at the gloom and melodrama of these novels by imagining there being just one well-adjusted person with common sense involved to conquer everyone else's nonsense. Of course, this negates much of human nature and its tendency toward stubborn messiness. Still, it's nice to read about a world where problems are easily fixed for a change.
The MC, Flora Poste, is a young, unwed woman who has just been dealt a financial blow with the death of her parents. In order to establish a bit of independence and security, she decides to live with some relatives who offer the least constraint with the most potential for amusement. Once on Cold Comfort Farm, Flora sets out to right her family's backward ways and put all their lives in proper order.
I'm generally not a good audience for satire because, while I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure I enjoyed it for the right reasons. Flora is a self aware busybody who, like me, enjoys order and creating calm from chaos. It was oddly soothing to read about her schemes for giving everyone a happy ending and to see those schemes work out because every time it seems like disaster is imminent, luck or Flora's quick thinking prevails. Though I didn't necessarily want happiness for some of the characters, particularly a couple of horribly misogynistic men, I still took a kind of satisfaction in seeing them find their niche and hope that maybe in the future they'd change their ways.
Cold Comfort is a parody of early 20th century books, but I recognized elements of earlier work like Jane Austen, the Brontës, and even Mary Poppins, though that series came out a couple years later. Who is Flora but an unchecked, more mature Emma Woodhouse? Cold Comfort has its own mad woman in the attic, and Heathcliffs abound in the bitter, lecherous men who wander in and out.
Gibbons ultimately pokes fun at the gloom and melodrama of these novels by imagining there being just one well-adjusted person with common sense involved to conquer everyone else's nonsense. Of course, this negates much of human nature and its tendency toward stubborn messiness. Still, it's nice to read about a world where problems are easily fixed for a change.
pinknantucket's review
2.0
Well. Don't read it unless you've read Cold Comfort Farm first, otherwise it will probably make absolutely no sense at all. It's set about 15 years after CCF, with our heroine Flora returning to the farm (at the invitation of Mr Mybug who, along with members of the Managerial Revolutionary Party, has organised a conference of cutting-edge and largely odious poets, scientists and performance artists ) as she senses All Is Not Well. And, as in the first, she proceeds to fix things.
There are many funny things in it, but it all happens too quickly, without enough space or sense in between, to really be able to enjoy it. It's meant to be ridiculous, but it's TOO ridiculous, so it just ends up kind of perplexing. And there's nothing nasty in the woodshed, even. Not unpleasant - especially for a fan of the original - but not required reading by any means.
My copy: I stumbled across it amongst my shelves. It is a very plain hardback published in 1949. (It may have once had a gaudy dustjacket, I suppose). At first I thought I must have snaffled it from my grandparents' books, but the name written on the flyleaf is of no relation to me, plus "2.00" is written next door in pencil. So I'm guessing a second hand bookshop find, then promptly forgotten.
There are many funny things in it, but it all happens too quickly, without enough space or sense in between, to really be able to enjoy it. It's meant to be ridiculous, but it's TOO ridiculous, so it just ends up kind of perplexing. And there's nothing nasty in the woodshed, even. Not unpleasant - especially for a fan of the original - but not required reading by any means.
My copy: I stumbled across it amongst my shelves. It is a very plain hardback published in 1949. (It may have once had a gaudy dustjacket, I suppose). At first I thought I must have snaffled it from my grandparents' books, but the name written on the flyleaf is of no relation to me, plus "2.00" is written next door in pencil. So I'm guessing a second hand bookshop find, then promptly forgotten.
eri_123's review
4.0
Hilarious for the satire on conferences and artists and intellectuals - some things haven't changed in the 60 or so years since it was published! A touch of the old Starkadder madness and Flora fixing things - although not as much of the brilliant fixing as in the original book.
cameliarose's review
3.0
It took me a little longer than expected to get into the story and its humour. It makes fun of the literatures associated with the gothic, rural countryside of England. The humour is gentle and lighthearted. I did not notice the futuristic writing until almost the very end when an air-taxi was called. Interesting indeed.
angelayoung's review
1.0
I don't intend to write much about books I haven't liked because it's churlish. Every book takes an aeon to plan and to write and to make all the decisions that must be made for it: the effort that goes into the writing of a book should be praised to the skies and if a reader doesn't like the subject matter or style then she should quietly move on and find the next book whose subject matter and style she does like. After all this isn't a professional review forum and I'd rather use it to write about the books I've loved and spread the word about why I've loved them. But I'm writing about this one (which I did not love) because I didn't get it and I'm hoping that perhaps someone can tell me why I didn't? I read it in a book group some time ago - I even suggested it because I'd never read it (not, I realise, a good reason for suggesting a book to a book group) and most - I think all in the group except me - thought it hilarious. But I didn't laugh once. I didn't even smile. What's wrong with me?