I knew I was going to like this book from the moment I read the blurbs. It’s a 40th anniversary edition, draped in commentary from people who are crazy for it, with comps to books like I CAPTURE THE CASTLE. It’s hard to explain what’s so great about it, as it’s a sort of an ordinary coming-of-age story; the joy of it is the language and the world.
It’s about a young woman who becomes friendly with her English professor’s bohemian family. Here is that professor’s dedication page on his latest book:
“I cannot in good conscience give the statutory thanks to my wife for helpful comments on the manuscript, patient reading of drafts or corrections to proofs, because Jane did none of these things. She seldom reads and when she does it is never a thing of mine. Going by the lavish thanks to wives which I find in the prefaces of other men’s books, I deem myself uniquely injudicious in having married a woman who refuses to double as a high-grade editorial assistant. Since custom requires me to think her for something, I thank her instead for the agreeable fact of her continuing presence which in twenty years I have never presumed to expect.”
This gives you the general vibe. There’s just so much fun in it. Describing a man’s chest, his hair emerging “like sofa stuffing from the neck of his open shirt;” or a lady’s pubic hair as making sex like being with “Archbishop Makarios” (immensely bearded head of the church of Cyprus). When the main character declares she will work hard to making a living off her knitting, the professor says: “My dear child, what has hard work got to do with it? Money was never made out of hard work. Nobody ever got rich through labouring. Money is made through the exploitation of the labour of others.”
It’s a deeply literary world, with the main character under stress “(reverting), as I do in moments of crisis, to re-reading EMMA, with cotton wool in my ears.” I loved this. I have a set of books I do this with (mostly THE PURSUIT OF LOVE) and I think this one will enter that rarefied rotation.