Sly, salty, savvy.
A British doyenne of elegantly savage modern comedies of manners returns to form with a cautionary tale of childcare.
Weldon (Mantrapped, 2004, etc.), with some 24 novels and numerous nonfiction works and short-story collections to her name, has a justified reputation as one of the most acerbic judges of human and gender frailty. In this latest mixture of family saga and morality fable, Hattie and Martyn, a couple of 30-something unmarried London yuppies, bear the brunt of her scrutiny, representatives of the comfy, left-leaning middle classes who claim to live by their principles but only, it turns out, when it suits their needs. After the birth of their first child puts financial pressure on the household, they decide to employ a married, Polish au pair, Agnieszka, whose arrival restores marvelous order to the domestic chaos: Hattie can go back to work; the couple’s sex life can resume; and all manner of other compensations follow, which help the pair swallow their repugnance at employing what is in effect a servant. But Agnieszka is not quite what she seems—neither Polish, nor married. The story is narrated by Hattie’s grandmother, Frances, who interleaves the Agnieszka episodes with anecdotes from the larger family. References to the mitochondrial line recur, as Weldon, taking the long view, expands her theme of genealogical descent via the female side. Too many characters are invoked here, but Weldon’s domestic observations and aphorisms are nevertheless to be relished, as is the surprising conclusion.
Sly, salty, savvy.Pub Date: June 9, 2006
ISBN: 0-87113-942-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006
A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity, by the author of Dickens. Dali and Others (Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 138), whose critical brilliance is well adapted to this type of satire. This tells of the revolt on a farm, against humans, when the pigs take over the intellectual superiority, training the horses, cows, sheep, etc., into acknowledging their greatness. The first hints come with the reading out of a pig who instigated the building of a windmill, so that the electric power would be theirs, the idea taken over by Napoleon who becomes topman with no maybes about it. Napoleon trains the young puppies to be his guards, dickers with humans, gradually instigates a reign of terror, and breaks the final commandment against any animal walking on two legs. The old faithful followers find themselves no better off for food and work than they were when man ruled them, learn their final disgrace when they see Napoleon and Squealer carousing with their enemies... A basic statement of the evils of dictatorship in that it not only corrupts the leaders, but deadens the intelligence and awareness of those led so that tyranny is inevitable. Mr. Orwell's animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1946
ISBN: 0452277507
Page Count: 114
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1946
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
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