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A review by karen_unabridged
Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair
4.0
A very lovely D.E. Stevenson-esque story. Had a bit of trouble keeping the cast of characters straight at first (and also, was so very tired that I kept falling asleep. No fault of the story, just my own current circumstances). But once I was into it I wanted to both savor it and rush through to find out what would happen next.
Very well drawn village inhabitants with a gentle but humorous edge. They have faults and failures but everyone works together when they must. Elizabeth Fair must have noticed and understood everyone around her to get the people this right.
Not as deep as Elizabeth Goudge, not as flippant as Stella Gibbon, and somehow kinder than Miss Read, means this adds up to a quite satisfying "middlebrow" read.
A few favorite lines:
"Mrs Custance was fond of saying that she was just an ordinary woman, and in saying it she contrived to suggest that this was much the best thing to be. She was constantly on the watch lest her nearest and dearest should do anything markedly unusual; for an ordinary woman, to be consistent, must have an ordinary family circle surrounding her." There's also a short bit about Mrs Custance believing herself to be the soul of discretion that I loved. (People who believe this about themselves so seldom are!)
"To enjoy pretending to be eccentric is, in itself, a sort of eccentricity."
"Sir James had the happy belief that the things which belonged to him were somehow better than the things which belonged to other people." (Everyone knows someone like this, right?)
Very well drawn village inhabitants with a gentle but humorous edge. They have faults and failures but everyone works together when they must. Elizabeth Fair must have noticed and understood everyone around her to get the people this right.
Not as deep as Elizabeth Goudge, not as flippant as Stella Gibbon, and somehow kinder than Miss Read, means this adds up to a quite satisfying "middlebrow" read.
A few favorite lines:
"Mrs Custance was fond of saying that she was just an ordinary woman, and in saying it she contrived to suggest that this was much the best thing to be. She was constantly on the watch lest her nearest and dearest should do anything markedly unusual; for an ordinary woman, to be consistent, must have an ordinary family circle surrounding her." There's also a short bit about Mrs Custance believing herself to be the soul of discretion that I loved. (People who believe this about themselves so seldom are!)
"To enjoy pretending to be eccentric is, in itself, a sort of eccentricity."
"Sir James had the happy belief that the things which belonged to him were somehow better than the things which belonged to other people." (Everyone knows someone like this, right?)