marrrk's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
we_are_all_mad_here26's review against another edition
4.0
London 1929, and a woman who adopts a four-year-old child primarily for the amusing anecdotes his existence might provide. When she decides that surely he can be left at home alone until 3am - after all, he's sleeping so peacefully! - I really thought, no. I cannot tolerate this woman for another 200+ pages.
Of course I was wrong; Margery Sharp's writing is wonderful and her characters sharply realistic. Nothing sentimental here at all and yet somehow, all the appropriate sentiments come though.
Side note: no matter what you might be writing, it can almost always be improved by the inclusion of a post office and a vicar.
Of course I was wrong; Margery Sharp's writing is wonderful and her characters sharply realistic. Nothing sentimental here at all and yet somehow, all the appropriate sentiments come though.
Side note: no matter what you might be writing, it can almost always be improved by the inclusion of a post office and a vicar.
quietjenn's review against another edition
4.0
I like Margery Sharp so much that I'm making myself ration the books out at a respectable interval. They witty and smart and emotional without being cloying or melodramatic and twee. In this one, a bored society girl adopts a young boy on a whim and must then retreat to the country to begrudgingly (kind of) raise him. Of course, she finds that it's really where she belongs but there's absolutely none of the sentimentality in it, as you'd get with so many other writers.
libdibs's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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? Yes
5.0
Randomly adopting kids when you don't like them: đź‘Ž. Growing, loving and learning together in the countryside: đź‘Ť.
austen_to_zafon's review against another edition
2.0
I like Margery Sharp’s writing. She’s observant, witty, and sets a scene well. Her surname fits her well. I’ve read several of her books for adults and enjoyed them all. This one was problematic for me though.
First, way too much of the book was about setting up what a shallow, vain, disdainful, and unemotional Bright Young Thing the main character is. I disliked everything about her and found it difficult to get through that part, which seemed to go on forever.
As a cure for boredom, and to show off, she adopts the 4-year old son of a relative’s recently-dead paid companion. She moves to the country and there, she learns a few things, but not as much as one would hope. She even briefly grieves when a friend dies, wonder of wonders.
I guess the first part of the book was needed to make a contrast with the *slightly* less unemotional, detached, and unsympathetic person she becomes by the end of the book. In the final scene, we’re supposed to applaud the fact that she feels a momentary pang of emotion about sending her now 8-year-old off to a boarding school.
After some reading, it turns out that Sharp disdained “mother love” and felt that the more detached and business like a mother was, the better. I guess this accounts for the fact that her main character doesn’t expect or allow for any grief from the child over his mother’s death. She treats him more like a dog than a child. She never buys him any toys, and feels that the toys that were left by his mother in a trunk were too trashy and sentimental to pass on to the child.
The child is incredibly unrealistic. He never misses his mother, never even seems to notice she’s gone. There is no fall-out whatsoever from the loss and then being taken in by a stranger who clearly has no emotional bandwidth or sympathy. No bed wetting, no crying, no withdrawal. He’s a cardboard prop to advance the story and on which the main character can practice becoming human.
I’d give it one star, but the added a star for Sharp’s characteristic good writing. I kept reading because of that and because I thought she might finally develop her shallow characters, but it was not to be.
First, way too much of the book was about setting up what a shallow, vain, disdainful, and unemotional Bright Young Thing the main character is. I disliked everything about her and found it difficult to get through that part, which seemed to go on forever.
As a cure for boredom, and to show off, she adopts the 4-year old son of a relative’s recently-dead paid companion. She moves to the country and there, she learns a few things, but not as much as one would hope. She even briefly grieves when a friend dies, wonder of wonders.
I guess the first part of the book was needed to make a contrast with the *slightly* less unemotional, detached, and unsympathetic person she becomes by the end of the book. In the final scene, we’re supposed to applaud the fact that she feels a momentary pang of emotion about sending her now 8-year-old off to a boarding school.
After some reading, it turns out that Sharp disdained “mother love” and felt that the more detached and business like a mother was, the better. I guess this accounts for the fact that her main character doesn’t expect or allow for any grief from the child over his mother’s death. She treats him more like a dog than a child. She never buys him any toys, and feels that the toys that were left by his mother in a trunk were too trashy and sentimental to pass on to the child.
The child is incredibly unrealistic. He never misses his mother, never even seems to notice she’s gone. There is no fall-out whatsoever from the loss and then being taken in by a stranger who clearly has no emotional bandwidth or sympathy. No bed wetting, no crying, no withdrawal. He’s a cardboard prop to advance the story and on which the main character can practice becoming human.
I’d give it one star, but the added a star for Sharp’s characteristic good writing. I kept reading because of that and because I thought she might finally develop her shallow characters, but it was not to be.
extemporalli's review against another edition
3.0
This was enjoyable, but I couldn't fully get into the book because for so much of it Lesley was really disagreeable, which made it tough reading. Added to which, the little boy she adopts seems to require little from her, which was part of Sharp's philosophy that the disengaged parent is probably a better and less exhausting parent than the overly engaged one, but which made for a very distant and unemotional novel. Added to which, Lesley's best friend from the city (who pops up throughout the novel as a motif for what Lesley left behind when she moved to the country) was unpleasant and insincere throughout without getting a fitting comeuppance, so what was the point really?
lynn_pugh's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
4.0
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