Review: Gently Written With Subtle Humor
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2014
This coming-of-age novel takes us through five or six years of the life of Jane, whose "school-leaving" in the 1950s is considerably different, and with much less fan-fare than a high school graduation as North American's know it. Jane decorously leaves her decorous British private school with little idea of what she will do with her life.She has little self confidence, and what she has is dragged down by her "frenemey" Posy, who has delusions of grandeur and never lets Jane forget which one of them comes from the "right" side of town, and whose family has the proper connections.Timidly,Jane moves into a rundown London rooming house where she get embroiled with with a wastrel who uses her because she doesn't care enough about herself to believe others owe her respect. After all, she's just learned her parents have lied to her since her birth. She isn't even who she thought she was, so how can she establish in her own mind who she can become? Her first two jobs are disasters, The only man besides her father to make her feel worthwhile is David, who, unfortunately is engaged to Posy--enthusiastically it would appear.But a promise made is a promise to be kept. Jane and David both agree. Well, most of the time, except for a couple of slip-ups. Jane tries hard to forgive her parents and eventually succeeds, just as she tries hard to forget David, who by now has not only a spoiled, demanding and inattentive wife in Posy, but a little daughter whom he adores. Forgetting David is more difficult, though, because Jane appears to be Posy's only friend and she keep involving Jane in her life.As time passes, with a much better job and more amenable working conditions, Jane can explore her natural bent as a writer. To her delighted surprise, she earns some success in that field. Her third boss would dearly love to have her as his own, but Jane's still stuck on David. Then, when Posy finds greener pastures and divorces David, Jane is left with a dilemma. Accept David who lacked the courage to leave his wife and follow his dream of life with her, or move on, leaving the past behind her and using her hard-won experience to forge ahead with a life of her own?As Ms. Gregory weaves this delightful tale of a time not very far in the past, but completely different from life today, she captivates the reader with glimpses into the mind and heart of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood. She has a wonderful way with words. Her descriptive prose makes me laugh and/or shudder as her words paint clear pictures in my mind. For instance: "He looked at her as if she were a frozen pudding that hadn't thawed quite to his taste." Another that made me laugh out loud is "...mother considered tea able to solve any problem less serious than the colliding of planets."  About Jane's landlady, a harridan if I've ever met one, was "either smoking a new brand of cigarettes of cremating her dinner." And then there was the man (a boss) who looked at Jane's friend Posy over Jane's shoulder  and "his tongue came out to moisten his fleshy lips." Ugh! That described the man to perfection.I look forward to more in Ms. Gregory's series in the Life, Love, and Lies books, of which this is the first one.