A. L. Barker (1918–2002)

As a group of middle class women convene to discuss how to award a charitable bequest- new hassocks for the church or a handout to a struggling young mother (whose husband is incarcerated after a brutal attack) - the characters are brilliantly delineated. The social conscience of some...and the judgmental eye of others.
Trying to organise the committee is Rose Antrobus....in episodes of Rose's past- a teenage holiday with a French penfriend...time together at a Swiss finishing school...we show more learn something of events that shaped her attitudes.
Elegant, subtle, the kind of book you could read several times and ponder. show less

This will probably be my last review for The Mookse and The Gripes group's 1970 Booker shortlist project, because I don't expect to find an affordable copy of [b:The Conjunction|2066747|The Conjunction|Terence Wheeler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1373795744s/2066747.jpg|2071974]. I am finding it difficult to separate the five I have read - all of them were interesting, some very quirky but none of them really stood out.

A.L. Barker had quite a long career and some fairly distinguished show more admirers, so I am surprised I was not aware of her before, and this book is certainly memorable, if very odd and unsettling. I concur with much of what Dan said in his review here, which is better than anything I can write: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2272827175.

It is a character study in which none of the characters are very sympathetic - the main ones being Marise, a bored and pretty young housewife and a fantasist, her husband Jack, and their neighbour Ralph. Jack's job involves travelling, and he seems to see Marise as a trophy and has little interest in her. He persuades her that Ralph is the spitting image of John Brown, who was acquitted of the brutal murder of two sisters who lived together. Ralph's wife also lives in her sister's remote farmhouse near the Essex coast, which he visits at weekends.

Once it becomes clear to Ralph that Marise is interested in him because of this story, he plays along, allowing her to believe what she wants to in the hope that she will elope with him and allow him to leave his dreary job and the martinet he works for. The second half of the book gets quite dark, as Marise and Ralph push one another to greater extremes, but there are also plenty of funnier moments and as in all of the books on this shortlist, the writing is impressive.

I think this is a book that deserves a wider audience, but I can see why it didn't win the prize. show less

Seven short stories, written in the 40s, 50s and 60s but published in this volume in 2002.
The longest, 'Novelette', follows a disturbed and angry young man convalescing from wounds sustained in WW2, and billetted on a couple in the country. The wonderful descriptions transport the reader:
'The shadow of a cloud came crabwise, the colours were all damped down and every blade of grass flowed towards him from the east. He passed scraggy cabbages and rows of empty peasticks. Outside a shed was a show more regiment of flowerpots, some broken, some whole, a tumulus of stones and empty tins, around and between them all the rich weeds of summer mashed and blackened with frost.'
The outcome of the relationship between young William and the couple- draper Edward with his 'lardy smooth chin' and mild Luise- forms the basis of the story.
Also of note are 'The Iconoclasts' in which a scornful 10 year old goes to play in a windmill with a much despised 5 year old hanger-on....
The title story again features a young boy; he spends his spare time swimming underwater in the nearby river until one day...
Recommended reading. show less

If my arithmetic can be trusted, the author was 81 years old when she wrote this book. That deserves 3 stars at the get go. I'm no where near that age and my powers are maxed out with the construction of a simple review like this! A motley collection of characters gather in and around a quirky little hotel in Cornwall. All fail in their relationships with their "significant others", yet continue to seek significance with others who are even less likely to satisfy their restless spirits. show more Barker is one of those writers who seem to relish blighting the lives of their characters in comic-ironic ways. show less