Thursday, January 20, 2011

Making Conversation by Christine Longford

The beautiful endpapers
from Making Conversation
I'm slowly but surely making my way through the Persephone books list.  I recently received four new Persephones as belated Christmas gifts -- even though they arrived in January, I can still count them towards part of the TBR dare, since they're technically Christmas gifts. (I will make exceptions due to the slow arrival of the mail because of weather and holidays.)

Anyhoo.  I put this on my Christmas wish list back in December, and now I can't remember why.  The description in the Persphone catalog says it's a comic novel, in the vein of Cold Comfort Farm.  Well, I don't know if it's because I'm not British, or because I'm not educated enough, but I just did not get this novel.  It's about a young woman's education just after WWI, and about conversations in general (which you might have gathered from the title).  The book is full of Martha's conversations.  In fact, the whole book is mostly conversations, and not much action.

The novel begins in the 1910s, when Martha Freke is a young teen.  She's being raised by her single mother, since her father, a former military officer, has done a runner.  Her mother has been forced to take in lodgers (it is NOT a boarding house!) who are mostly students, so Martha gets an unconventional education from the interesting people who seem to drift through her life.  It certainly seems better than the school in which she's enrolled which sounds just horrible.  She's forever putting her foot in her mouth and there are lots of misunderstandings, one of which ends up getting her kicked out of school. Nevertheless, Martha is bright enough to get a scholarship to Oxford, where she has lots of other conversations, mostly with female students since they appear to be quite segregated from the men.

I suppose this is supposed to be satirical in some way, but I just didn't get it.  I know that Cold Comfort Farm was poking fun at the pastoral novels of the era, and I really enjoyed it, even though I didn't get all the references.  I also loved Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh (and if you've read Brideshead Revisited, this is nothing like it.  Brideshead has its great moments, but Decline and Fall is just a hoot).  Maybe the humor in this is too subtle for me, or too specific, or maybe I would have gotten much more out of it if I'd read classics or history at an elite British university (for the record, I majored in journalism and history at a well-respected university in the Midwest, so I'm not a complete moron).   I was hoping the introduction would give more insight, but it's mostly biographical information about the author.

Anyhow, I'm not saying this is a bad novel.  I just didn't really connect with Martha or her friends, most of whom I couldn't keep straight, and I didn't find her story particularly interesting or compelling.  It was an easy read, but I wasn't at all excited about it the way I have been with most Persephones.  I'm mostly just disappointed because I've really liked most of them so far. If anyone has read this novel and can help explain it to me, please do.

15 comments:

  1. I just bought this for myself as a belated Christmas present but haven't started reading it. I've flipped through it a bit and really enjoyed the passages I did land on though so I'm sorry to hear it was less successful with you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So this isn't the Persephone I should start with then, eh? :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. And maybe this isn't the one to try for my first Persephone book by a woman writer?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Claire -- I hope to read your thoughts, maybe they will illuminate me. I didn't dislike it so much as I just didn't understand it so much.

    Amanda -- well, we like different things, but I don't think it's a typical Persephone, if there is such a thing. I know you read Flush and that's a Persephone! And I know you have Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf (which I'm hoping to borrow someday -- then we can discuss).

    Jeanne -- I would say probably not. I've read 16, and so far my favorites were Miss Pettigrew, Miss Buncle's Book, and The Priory by Dorothy Whipple -- she's a huge favorite among Persephone devotees. I also loved Mariana by Monica Dickens.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have Making Conversation in my Persephone collection but is still unread. Yours isn't the first disappointed reaction to this book that I've read and so I'm not rushing to pick it up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry I can't help you ... I haven't read them. And I'm sure they would be out of my grasp too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fleur -- you might get more out of it than I did since you're on that side of the pond.

    Jenners -- I'll have to satisfy myself with your hilarious posts. Your blog about P&P was, like, the funniest thing EVER! OMG!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anbolyn -- it's especially disappointing because my husband paid for it! I've had a couple Persephones so far that I didn't love, but they were library books so I didn't mind so much. This will teach me to read all the reviews before I place my order.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've heard a lot of people say this isn't very good, so I haven't rushed to read it. You are not alone - apparently the humour is a bit too exclusive to appeal to a wide audience!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks, bookssnob, I feel much better -- I was feeling like I wasn't smart enough to get the jokes. I like to think I'm intelligent enough to appreciate subtle humor, but most if it just went over my head.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Darn. I don't suppose it's possible to enjoy EVERY Persephone? I very much enjoyed Someone at a Distance and can see why Dorothy Whipple is a favorite. I would love to see what Amanda and Jeanne find to discuss in SaaD!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Care -- I think I'm going to read Someone at a Distance for Persephone Reading Weekend in February. I'm trying to ration out all the Whipples!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have the idea of reading all the Persephone books too, but I haven't actually started yet. (Oops!) I hear so many good things about them, but I think the sheer number of them intimidates me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Carrie, which ones have you read so far? I started reading them last summer and was easily able to get through about 12 in 6 months. I'm hoping to get through at least 20 in 2011. (I normally read about 100 books in a year).

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.