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A story about a woman who has gone through four husbands and had many more children, and is struggling to find her identity. Some of it reminds me of the similar conflict in The Cocktail Party.
"So we were back at the beginning again. There was no end. You learn nothing by hurting others; you only learn by being hurt. Where I had been viable, ignorant, rash and loving I was now an accomplished bitch, creating an emptiness in which my own emptiness might survive. We should have been locked up whil ...more
"So we were back at the beginning again. There was no end. You learn nothing by hurting others; you only learn by being hurt. Where I had been viable, ignorant, rash and loving I was now an accomplished bitch, creating an emptiness in which my own emptiness might survive. We should have been locked up whil ...more
I found this book to be pretty amazing. Clearly very personal, but incredibly complicated as well. In fact, I haven't yet figured out this book--if ever a reader can "figure out" a book. The power comes from the honesty and brutality of this book. No holds barred for this woman who is really struggling to be a wife, mother, love, person. I'm wary as the next man of over-sentimental, over-dramatic, over-personal semi-autobiographical novels, but this one is funny and upsetting at the same time, w
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I was sick and in a bit of a fog when I read The Pumpkin Eater all in one sitting, but that doesn't seem inappropriate for this book. It reads something like Mavis Gallant's A Fairly Good Time--a woman in her 30s, pressed by her husband's comically sordid infidelity to lose her childlike naivete--but with babies. Lots of babies. A seething, unnamed, unnumbered mass of babies. The narrator gives birth in lieu of exploring her own disappointment with sex, marriage, and life in general--and with th
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From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Helen McCrory stars in Penelope Mortimer's dark, dreamlike study of a marriage, dramatised by Georgia Fitch. Mrs Armitage talks to a psychiatrist about her desire for more children. ...more
Helen McCrory stars in Penelope Mortimer's dark, dreamlike study of a marriage, dramatised by Georgia Fitch. Mrs Armitage talks to a psychiatrist about her desire for more children. ...more
Dark and funny. Anyone know if other books by her are this good?
Feb 17, 2011
New York Review Books
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Feb 25, 2020
Daisy
rated it
it was ok
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Sep 16, 2021
Christian Powers
rated it
it was amazing
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