A review by sweddy65
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
5.0
I loved this book from start to finish. I drove my sweetie crazy the first night I picked it up because I had to read the funny perfect sentences out loud, and every sentence was a funny perfect sentence.
The story is told through the eyes of Rose Aubrey, a child. Rose embodies childhood as I remember childhood to be. You are in a secret world, together with a sibling or two. Grownups behave strangely, but often you like them anyway. You start to understand that your parents have faults, but you love them anyway. Your life is not in your control, but in Rose's case, it always turns out more or less OK.
The book is peopled with delightful characters, all filtered down to us through Rose.
Clare Aubrey's (the mother) soliloquy toward the end is an amazing piece of writing. However, I think my very favorite few sentences in the book came on page 185.
Some setting: The Aubreys are destitute because the father gambled away all their money. They are living in a family house with very little furniture, but they manage to hold everything together. The Aubreys are also very generous with what they do have. One of the other school-aged characters is Nancy. Nancy's family life spirals out of control (I won't tell you how in case you read the book), and the Aubreys bring Nancy and her Aunt Lily to come live with them until the next thing can be figured out. The Aubreys love Nancy and Aunt Lily, but the addition of these two also turns their world upside down.
With that as background, here is one of my favorite passages, edited a little for length:
"But Papa and Mamma were further tormented by Aunt Lily's garrulity. She talked all the time... In her world silence was suspect. With us it was taken for granted that a person who did not speak was thinking, or needed to rest, or, quite simply, had nothing to say at the moment; but to her such a person must either be sad (in which case he was described as 'moping') or nourishing some resentment. In both cases it was the duty of the well-intentioned to distract the affected person by a flow of cheerful conversation, and Aunt Lily was above all dutiful."
The story is told through the eyes of Rose Aubrey, a child. Rose embodies childhood as I remember childhood to be. You are in a secret world, together with a sibling or two. Grownups behave strangely, but often you like them anyway. You start to understand that your parents have faults, but you love them anyway. Your life is not in your control, but in Rose's case, it always turns out more or less OK.
The book is peopled with delightful characters, all filtered down to us through Rose.
Clare Aubrey's (the mother) soliloquy toward the end is an amazing piece of writing. However, I think my very favorite few sentences in the book came on page 185.
Some setting: The Aubreys are destitute because the father gambled away all their money. They are living in a family house with very little furniture, but they manage to hold everything together. The Aubreys are also very generous with what they do have. One of the other school-aged characters is Nancy. Nancy's family life spirals out of control (I won't tell you how in case you read the book), and the Aubreys bring Nancy and her Aunt Lily to come live with them until the next thing can be figured out. The Aubreys love Nancy and Aunt Lily, but the addition of these two also turns their world upside down.
With that as background, here is one of my favorite passages, edited a little for length:
"But Papa and Mamma were further tormented by Aunt Lily's garrulity. She talked all the time... In her world silence was suspect. With us it was taken for granted that a person who did not speak was thinking, or needed to rest, or, quite simply, had nothing to say at the moment; but to her such a person must either be sad (in which case he was described as 'moping') or nourishing some resentment. In both cases it was the duty of the well-intentioned to distract the affected person by a flow of cheerful conversation, and Aunt Lily was above all dutiful."