Monday, April 4, 2011

The Village by Marghanita Laski

So, now I'm up to my 28th Persephone book, and this one is a real winner.  This publisher's catalog keeps getting better and better.  Almost every time I read one of their titles, I think to myself how glad I am I've discovered them.  (And how happy I am that I have more than 60 left to read!).

Like many Persephone titles, this is domestic fiction, and deals with the rapidly changing society in British.  Originally published in 1952, The Village begins in 1945, on the very last night of the war.  Two middle-aged ladies, Mrs. Trevor and Mrs. Wilson, are spending their last night together on overnight duty at the Red Cross station in their village, a suburb not far from London. The war has made them co-workers and equals, but before the war, Mrs. Wilson, a working-class woman, had worked as a domestic for Mrs. Trevor, one of the gentry.  The next day, things will return as they were, with Mrs. Trevor will be the social superior of Mrs. Wilson.

Or will she?  Times are changing in postwar Britain, and quickly.  Mrs. Trevor is barely getting by in genteel poverty, as her husband, a wounded veteran of WWI, can barely make a go of his business.  Her oldest daughter Margaret, aged 17, is described as sweet but a bit dull and not particularly pretty, and she doesn't have much future in sight.  The younger daughter Sheila is terribly bright, and it's the family's hope that she'll someday become a school headmistress or mathematics teacher or something equally suitable.  The family is barely scraping by on a few pounds a week, and Mrs. Trevor is miserable.

The endpapers from the Persephone edition of The Village

Mrs. Wilson's family, on the other hand, is doing very well.  Like many working-class families, everyone in the family is hard at work and making money -- much to the chagrin of the gentry.  Her son Roy has recently returned from the war and is doing very well as a printer.  It seems terribly unfair to the upper-class people that these laborers are doing better than they are, and that more and more often, class and breeding seem to be less important than hard work, and they can't get over their snobbery.  Relationships in the village become very complicated due to friendships, jobs, and love affairs that begin to cross class boundaries.   Some people seem very willing to accept change and some are fighting it tooth and nail.

This book seems at first to be classic domestic fiction, but it's really about class differences in Britain and how everything changed in the last century.  Having grown up in an extremely middle-class neighborhood in suburban Detroit, I was much more aware of ethnic and religious differences than class.  Nobody I knew was old money -- all those people lived in different neighborhoods miles away.  Now, I'm living in a Texas neighborhood where million-dollar houses are just a few streets away from tiny bungalows, and my daughters' school mates could be the children of professors or oil executives or domestics.

Marghanita Laski
(who reminds me a bit of Anne Hathaway)
One of the characters in the book is an American woman married to an English upperclass man, and she can't understand why the class differences in England are so important and why it's so impossible for people to overcome them like Americans do.  It's pretty obvious she feels superior about it until her husband points out the racism in America and how unlikely it would be for someone in her family to befriend a Negro (so weird to write that, but I am quoting the book which was written in 1952).  He points out that Americans are just as class conscious, but it's just repositioned as racism.  It made me think about my family and friends and the way I was raised in a very segregated suburb.

This is the third book I've read by Marghanita Laski, who is one of Persephone's most beloved authors.  Another thing that struck me was how very different all three of the books have been -- the first, The Victorian Chaise-Longue, was a bit like a ghost story; the second, Little Boy Lost, was an intensely emotional book about a man's search for his missing son in postwar France.  I liked them all but I think was my favorite of her books so far because it resonated the most.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting read, thanks for sharing
    martine

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  2. I hope I end up liking her writing!

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  3. Martine -- it's one of my favorite reads so far this year.

    Amanda -- she's very good, and all three of her books have been so different. This one would probably be a bit too domestic-fiction for your taste but I think you'd really like Little Boy Lost. It put me through the emotional wringer but it is great. I own a copy if you want to borrow it.

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  4. Thanks so much for the review - I was looking at the Persephone catalog this morning at this very book, but it didn't have as much info. It definitely sounds very different than Little Boy Lost. I'm pencilling it onto the list. :)

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  5. It does sound like all of Laski's books are very different. I loved Little Boy Lost and The Victorian Chaise-Longue so I definitely want to try this one too. I'm impressed that you've read 28 Persephones!

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  6. Great review! I agree wholeheartedly -- I've read the same trio of Laski's books and they're all different, and this is my favourite, and yes she is reminiscent of Anne Hathaway.

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  7. I'm going to have to get my hands on this catalog because I love this kind of book. Good insights into class/prejudice American vs. British style--interesting thoughts.

    Yes, I can see Anne Hathaway in the photo :)

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  8. I really must read here soon! Thanks for a great review :-)

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  9. Susan -- it's one of my favorite Persephones so far. I thought Little Boy Lost was great but it was a tough read because it was so emotional for me.

    Helen -- I have about eight more checked out from the library, I got a little crazy making ILL requests, never imagining they'd be able to get all of them -- and at the same time!

    Bookmarksandteacups -- I found this one a bit similar to Dorothy Whipple's books, which I have loved so far. I suppose because it's domestic fiction.

    JaneGS -- there are so many great books in the catalog. Some of them are not what I normally read but I'm usually pleasantly surprised. Of course I like some more than others but there have been far more hits than misses.

    Cristina -- Laski's really great. And have you read any of the Whipples yet?

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  10. Great review, Karen. Little Boy Lost is on top of my pile of Persephones... can't wait to discover Laski for myself!

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  11. I've been feeling a bit intimated by Laski, ghost stories and heartrending stories about missing children not really being my thing, but this book sounds really great.

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  12. I nearly bought a Laski book on Saturday but decided against it, bad decision I think!

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  13. I really hope I can find this one too! So excited to read more Persephones. I've read 5 now.

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  14. The Village doesn't seem to get as much attention as Marghanita Laski's other books but it's my favourite now that I've read all of her work that Persephone has reissued. I find it astonishing that such a fine author was out of print for so long.

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  15. Fantastic review, Karen. This is the last Persephone Laski I have left to read and I can't wait to start it. I too love how completely different all of Laski's novels are - each is superbly written but a wonderful surprise - I never know what to expect!

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  16. I liked this one and it is wonderful how different all of the Laski novels are - this one felt a lot more like some of her other ones. Like Jane, I think that this is my favourite of her Persephone ones.

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  17. I have an old edition of this book that is hovering near the top of my TBR pile. I think your review may push me over the edge.

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  18. Hello!

    I have come over from Collage of Life! I too am a voracious reader and am always looking for suggestions of books to read. So happy to have found you!

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