tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19106928.post1521029025806700631..comments2024-02-29T02:37:34.896-06:00Comments on Ivebeenreadinglately: Barbara PymLevi Stahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11094919454842047688noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19106928.post-73817862526382300732011-01-01T07:31:14.041-06:002011-01-01T07:31:14.041-06:00I've been reading Pym lately. Just finished, i...I've been reading Pym lately. Just finished, in quick succession, No Fond Return of Love, and A Glass of Blessings; am currently reading An Unsuitable Attachment and have ordered all the 50s books which I'm very much looking forward to reading.<br /><br />I think the Compton-Burnett and Iris Murdoch comparisons are spot on. In fact she kind of suggests to me of what sort of writer Murdoch would have been if, as Compton-Burnett wished, Murdoch had studied "domestic science" or trained to be a Norland nurse, instead of studying philosophy.Adamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19106928.post-60961045875315742062010-12-30T18:14:13.064-06:002010-12-30T18:14:13.064-06:00For another contrast to the Roosevelt book, I sugg...For another contrast to the Roosevelt book, I suggest <i>Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady</i> by Sylvia Jukes Morris, wife of Edmund Morris.Designing In Surprisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01500105762382620887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19106928.post-84983972670419113462010-12-29T23:44:30.904-06:002010-12-29T23:44:30.904-06:00You have prompted me to get Pym's novels off t...You have prompted me to get Pym's novels off the shelf (the phrase seems apt for a writer many of whose characters saw themselves, or were seen by others, as 'on the shelf'). I especially love Excellent Women, but my favourite Pym moment, I think, is when Marcia in Quartet in Autumn decides to accept an invitation to a lunch party purely because she wants to return someone else's milk bottle: '...it occurred to her that it would be a golden opportunity to return the alien milk bottle to Letty',(the phrase <br />'golden opportunity' in the context is a master stroke, I think).zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19106928.post-74009818739324500272010-12-29T12:50:52.421-06:002010-12-29T12:50:52.421-06:00I purchased all the Pyms in the world in hardcover...I purchased all the Pyms in the world in hardcover when she was first reissued and sated myself. After that, for many years I would see with a little irritation the oddly colored spines on my shelves, as untouched as a Pym heroine. While other writers clamor to be picked up again- these ladies sit happily inviolate. I can't really figure out who I was to be once so enthralled and I certainly don't yet feel that it is time to rediscover that inner spinster... but it is oddly validating that others find her just as breathtaking as I might once have.i'm awakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00968524770172926618noreply@blogger.com