Elizabeth Jenkins (1905–2010)

This was a phenomenal read, brilliant in the way it establishes its characters and then sat back and pressed play so that the characters may continue to meander along their courses to bounce and collide off of each other.

It's the book version of the line "Still waters run deep". We are taken along to tea time picnics, nursery visits, antique shops, house visits, day to day occurrences. The tension almost silently clicked over at every one of these events, and the discomfort and internal show more yelling crept up on me so gradually that it really felt true to life.

My own ignorance of the plot made me really immerse myself in the protagonist's own uncertainties. A truly insightful dissection of what drives us and our actions. show less

Ohhhh my, this book may be the most devastating portrait of the unraveling of a marriage that I've ever read. Written in 1954, it's a slow burning look at the ways a man can belittle and abandon his wife without her even being aware of it, or at least not at first. Evelyn Gresham is a handsome 52 year old lawyer who has everything he wants, including his doting wife Imogen and his 11 year old son. Their neighbor, near their large country estate, Blanche is everything Imogen isn't: show more unattractive and in her 50s, but athletic and interested in fishing, hunting, racing and other masculine things.

What I liked best was Jenkins way of slowly revealing the way this marriage was falling apart, and how Imogen seemed to operate with blinders on, continuing to cater to Evelyn's every wish and failing to realize what the reader can plainly see. The writing is both humorous and tragic in the way the plot is slowly developed. But this author can take down a character like nothing I've ever seen. Blanche's stepsister, Marcia for instance:

"Marcia Plender was short, plump and middle-aged. She was also excessively feminine, but so far from throwing her stepsister in the shade on this account whatever she might've done when both were girls, she now acted as a foil to her, though one would have been as far from suspecting it as the other. Marcia took great care of her person and appearance though she had allowed herself to get fat. As her constitution required her to rest in bed till half-past twelve and drink two double gins before lunch, it was difficult for her to avoid increasing weight....The assured, formidable appearance, combined with a sugary air, fluttering eyelids and die-away voice, made the beholder turn to Blanche with relief and even a sort of admiration. Blanche's abruptness and half-strangulated accents were not charming, but they were a great deal better than Marcia's efforts at charming" (Page75)

The minor characters are just as fully developed as the three protagonists and the ending knocked my socks off, but in a way, that made me think, "Oh, of course, all signs pointed to this. I should've known."

Just an absolutely brilliant book. show less

After a very slow start, when I picked this up again a couple of days ago I became riveted by the story, painful as it is, of a not-so-bad marriage unraveling when a more determined and lively woman comes along and steps into what she perceives as a 'void' waiting to be filled. I think the novel does start slowly and carefully but once it gets underway (about 1/3 in) events pick up and, given the character of each person involved, which the careful beginning has made very clear, the end is show more inevitable. And complex. At the time it was written, late forties, divorce was just beginning to be something that could be survived socially. In its own way the novel is subversive, as much of women's fiction is - the question Imogen must face is whether she will 'settle' for being the wife who won't give up her husband and consents to share him, or whether she will leave him. The dance of active/passive that couples play is perfectly laid out here - in this case the man sets up the situation so that in all regards the women are making 'the moves' - that he is passively orchestrating everything he carefully blanks out of his consciousness - I've certainly seen that before but I've never encountered it written up so well. As an aside - Imogen's relationship with her son Gavin is beautifully done, he is his father's son completely, and does not 'get' or even respect her and the Leeper family is priceless and the son Tim, with his devotion and appreciation of Imogen, a wonderful balancing piece of the story. I've read several of Jenkins biographies and can't recommend them more highly, and now, I'm happy to say I can recommend her novel as well. ****1/2 show less

This is a Virago edition. Love those. It's a slow starter, and I thought it might be a DNF for me because I was just not getting into the story - it really needs 50 or so pages and then it picks up. It's the unwinding of a marriage, and it is just so well done. I wanted to lecture the main character, Imogene, and explain that we teach people how to treat us. Don't put up with this. Speak up. Be brave. When push comes to shove, always shove! But alas, Imogene and I do not have the same show more temperaments or personalities. In frustration, I actually did something I never do - I turned to the final pages and read the ending before continuing. The ending saved it for me. Anyway, it's brilliant in how it shows us the marriage from different vantage points. This one is not about the plot; it's more of a character study, so you will need patience, but it is worthy. show less