A Cup of Tea

A gem of a book, that hooked me from the first page. The writing style is spare, but even so, the narrative is engaging, with finely drawn characters. A tale of well-to-do Rosemary, who on the spur of the moment, takes a homeless woman home with her for tea, and the chain of events that will ultimately lead to tragedy. I liked in particular how a seemingly innocuous purchase Rosemary makes in the very first scene turned out to be so important later. Highly recommended.

A cup of tea. A novel of 1917 is a short and somewhat bland novel by the American author Amy Ephron. Despite its shortness, the novel is packed with various complex plot elements, while none is really developed to its full potential. The novel seeks to explore various types of relationships between people, but again, the novel is too short to support such a broad thematic scope.

Young Rosemary Fell is betrothed to Philip Alsop. She spends her days in idleness, shopping and is seen spending a lot of money buying antiques at the opening of the story. On her way home she is accosted by a young woman who is shivering in the rain, asking for money to buy a cup of tea. Rather than give her the money, she invites the young woman, Eleanor Smith, show more to drive home with her in her car, and drink tea with her.She is quite pleased with her act of charity, despite the frowning of her chauffeur and house-keeper. A visiting friend is helpful by introducing Eleanor to employment in a hat shop.

With a single glance over her cup of tea, Eleanor manages to steal Philip's heart, and when Philip meets her again by chance in the hat shop he falls in love with Eleanor, and starts seeing her. Despite their sexual relationship, Philip does not break off the engagement with Rosemary, and Eleanor feels betrayed when he marries Rosemary, earlier than originally planned as Philip is sent to serve in the War. Philip is reported missing and assumed dead, but then miraculously returns home alive. Back in New York, he picks up his old life and ways, married to Rosemary he keeps seeing Eleanor which leads to the dramatic climax of the novel.

The novel explores themes as various as friendship, love, pre-marital love and betrayal of a fiancée, marital and extra-martital love with betrayal of both the spouse and the lover, (insincere) altruism and there is even a sideline of lesbian love. The backdrop of the First World War and unexpected somewhat unlikely twists in the plot, such as Eleanor shivering in a sweater in the rain (it is never explained how she got into that situation) and Philip reported dead and then re-appearing all just serve to create more variation in the extricacies of the relations between the women in the novel. It is not surprising that the characters are not very well developed in a short novel with such a complex plot. show less

There is not much to this novel, but if you enjoy books about the early 20th century (as I do), you might like this. Rich girl sees poor girl and offers to help her. Rich girl's boyfriend falls for poor girl. Rich girl gets rid of poor girl - fast, but boyfirend pursues poor girl, etc. Tragic ending. Easy to read in an hour or two.

Rosemary, secure in her role as an affluent young debutante, "picks up" destitute Eleanor on a whim and then, realizing that Eleanor has attracted the eye of her fiance, boots her to the curb. The story develops with some interesting turns and, while the author's style is spare to the point of sparseness, the book is engaging enough to keep the reader involved. One comment: Occasionally, an author will over-use a word or phrase to an extent that becomes almost unendurable. About halfway through this very short work, I thought that if anyone else "leaned in" to kiss someone, I would simply scream and pitch the book through the nearest window. Really. Find another phrase.

a quaint, quick and witty read, Cup of Tea is an excellent telling of the relationships in class, family, and sexuality at the dawn of World War I in New York. The composition of this book is perfect; like a classic pop album. The beginning vividly paints a picture, the middle swirls the paint and the end is a shock discovery hidden behind the canvas. Amy Ephron has a way with words and I feel honored to be given this book by her personally.

A story based on Katherine Mansfield's "A Cup of Tea". I loved it. The story was neat, well written, captivating and sad. I look forward to following this author,

Amy Ephron's A Cup of Tea is an interesting literary experiment that works best when read in concert with the original Katherine Mansfield short story (of the same name). Something in the tone seems anachronistic, but other than that, it's a quick and interesting read.