📚 'Rather Dated' June: Barbara Comyns’ ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths’📚

[MotherofPearl]

📚 'Rather Dated' June: Barbara Comyns’ ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths’📚

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' book club. This month we are reading and discussing Barbara Comyns’ ‘Our Spoons Came from Woolworths’. Please do add your thoughts when you are ready.

About the threads:

We are reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day. We are reading one book a month. Spoilers are permitted!

We started the chat thanks to a thread where we kicked off with a discussion of Penelope Lively, The Road to Lichfield.

Currently we have these separate threads:

November: Anita Brookner, A Start in Life.
December: Margaret Drabble: A Summer Bird-Cage.
January: Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit.
March: Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
April: R.C. Sheriff, The Fortnight in September.
May: Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.
June: Margaret Kennedy, The Feast.
July: Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day.
August: Elizabeth Von Arnim, The Enchanted April.
September: Barbara Pym, An Academic Question.
October: Dorothy Whipple, High Wages.
November: Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September.
December: Monica Dickens, The Fancy.
January: E.M. Delafield, The Messalina of the Suburbs.
February: F.M. Mayor, The Rector’s Daughter.
March: Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop.
April: Noel Streatfield, Saplings.
May: Lynne Reid Banks, The L-Shaped Room.

Link to the main thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5029141-the-mumsnet-rather-dated-book-group-all-welcome-to-join?page=4&reply=135696159

The style of writing initially put me off this one, but the more I read the more I got pulled into the story, and then the slightly deadpan style grew on me.

The story itself was harrowing, though I was relieved that Sophia had a happy ending. Wasn't Charles absolutely vile? What a selfish, egotistical, deplorable person - and Peregrine was really no better. What a marvellous name though - Peregrine Narrow. I couldn't quite work out the class situation of the various characters. I assumed that both Charles and Sophia came from upper middle class families, but had chosen rather bohemian lives for themselves. Obviously Sophia had no money of her own, and Charles's family pretty much cut him off. Sophia frustrated me at times, though I could also see that, as with many of the women in our Rather Dated books, she didn't have a lot of choices.

There was quite a lot of eccentricity here, from Great Warty the newt, Foxy the pet fox, to the young woman who rode her horse into the kitchen at the farm. I enjoyed the descriptions of the animals' behaviour, especially Foxy.

Overall I enjoyed this and will be dipping into other Barbara Comyns' novels.

Place-marking for later.

Hello! I finished the reread. I thought this was good but occasionally difficult to read with some really harrowing moments culminating in the scene where she ended up in the doorway with her baby daughter. That was terrible.

Sophia and Charles were like two children playing a game. They got married on a whim, a 'secret wedding' which wasn't a secret at all but this impulsive act changed their lives for the worse. They weren't ready. They were too young, no support from their families and he was a complete tosser and a spoilt brat. She was immature too but adapted to circumstances more than he did...eventually.

Yes the death of baby Fanny was pretty awful.

I noticed some of Comyns' favoured words and phrases and wonder if they're specific to this novel, or recur across her work more generally. 'Frit' is one, and another is 'stiff with' as in 'the room was stiff with dark Victorian furniture'.

I haven't read this for ages, but LOVE Barbara Comyns and have read all her books. I've picked up so many of her phrases, I'm always saying "stiff with"

I noticed this too and I thought these colloquialisms leant authenticity to Sophia's voice. I liked this aspect of the book. It was told from her perspective only and it really drew me in. It read a bit like a long diary entry because it was personal.

Finished this now and I really enjoyed it. I liked the little oddities that were just dropped in casually with no further explanation - the medium with the vision of the Chinese man, the landlady with a room full of plaster feet, the taxi driver and tramp who come and sit in the hospital while she’s giving birth.

I felt very sorry for Sophia - clearly missing some parental guidance and getting into situations that she didn’t really understand and wasn’t equipped to cope with. Charles is an awful husband and father.

I’m glad there was a happy ending, except for poor little Fanny - what a sad episode.

I’ve never read any Comyns before and will definitely look out more - any recommendations?

Just finished it, and also really enjoyed it - I’m feeling guilty now that I've had a few Comyns books knocking around for years and never managed to get more than a couple of pages into them, so thanks to the RDBC for finally making me read one!

I found the naive, child-like style fascinating - I mentioned over on the 50 Books thread that I’d seen it compared to Daisy Ashford, who was 9 when she wrote 'The Young Visiters', and it really does strike a similar note in its feeling of a child writing about grown-up things she doesn’t properly understand, except here with added shocks in the form of pregnancy, abortion, adultery…but its very visual evocation of bizarre, often jarring details also made me think of Surrealist painting, which on reading more about it, also makes total sense given Comyns' background in art. In fact, her own life does sound even more fantastical and disconcerting than she describes in this book, incredibly enough. I’d quite like to read the biography of her now.

Terpsichore the Surrealist painting analogy is a good one - I didn’t know about Comyns’ art background but that makes sense.

Thanks Terpsichore. I had no idea either about it. That's interesting.

Just literally finished it this minute. I adored it. Will get my thoughts in order, and be back.

Oh dear name change fail. I am Stella. Will try to change back.

I have gathered my thoughts. I thought this was a wonderful read, and the naive voice, which must have been so difficult to achieve, was done perfectly. I agree wholeheartedly with the painting analogy. Sophia was a marvellous character and completely believable. She was like a child, and the first half of the book where she is struggling with poverty was hard. The abortion was also awful; a period detail I noticed was the reference to “illegal operation”, which I believe was the phrase employed at the time. I loved the use of ‘frit’ and the excellent descriptions of interiors and food and clothes. The happy ending was perfect. I know it’s a cliche: Sophia got married to a nice man with a lovely house, The End, but it was done so skilfully, with no faltering in the narrative voice of Sophia, that I loved it and was reading with a smile on my face. It’s the third Comyns I’ve read, and my favourite.

Also loved the idea of putting a goose down the chimney to sweep it!

'We looked out the window and there was an awful old brown mat trying to get in'.

This line made me laugh, the poodle at the window. It was the only funny moment in the book I think!

Sophia reminded me of Cinderella by the end of the book. I also liked the ending. Rollo was lovely and they deserved each other. I liked how the ending mirrored the beginning with Sophia relating her life story to her friend. It was very neat.

Edit:typo

I'm so glad you enjoyed it Stella. I agree that the naive voice must have been so difficult to write and sustain.

I really didn't like the writing style to start with but after a while I got into it and in the end realised how suited it was to the naive voice.

I thought the birth in the hospital was terrible to read (no wonder people like my gran choice to give birth at home) I've read books that are set in bohemian London at that time that tend to glamorise that lifestyle or make it seem like fun so this was a different read.

My copy had a very good introduction in which it takes about how alot of the story was autobiographical. Apparently when her daughter read it she said 'oh mum you killed me off'

Very excited to come across this book club. I work in a charity bookshop and have been lucky enough to acquire a few Persephone Classics including The Forthnight in September, The Distance Between Us and a very well worn copy of Doreen by Barbara Noble. I've loved all of them! Currently reading the Bookshop.is it too late to join the discussion on it?

Welcome to the club @Debrathom
Lucky you, great job :)